Your heart races before a meeting you’ve had a hundred times. Your nervous system is responding to perceived threat even when logic tells you there’s no real danger present. You’ve avoided a neighbourhood street for months because of how it makes your chest tighten – a response that indicates your body has learned to associate that particular location with emotional distress.
You lie awake running through conversations that haven’t happened yet, preparing for disasters that probably won’t come (anticipatory anxiety). You’re not sure what’s wrong exactly, only that your nervous system seems stuck somewhere between alert and overwhelmed. This is a state we refer to as chronic hypervigilance.
If any of that resonates, you’re not alone in this experience. Anxiety is the most common mental health condition in Canada, and for many people, it goes unnamed for years — managed, pushed down, worked around — until it isn’t manageable anymore and begins to significantly interfere with daily functioning.
At The Centre for Dynamic Mental Health (CDMH), we provide specialized, evidence-based psychotherapy for anxiety in Edmonton, Alberta, serving communities including St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, Westmount, Oliver and Glenora, both in-person and online. Whether you’re dealing with a specific phobia, constant worry (also called generalized anxiety), panic attacks, or something that started as stress and has quietly taken over your life, this comprehensive guide is designed specifically for you and your unique experience.
Key Takeaways
- Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness among Canadians, affecting roughly 10.2% of adults in any given year, and 20.2% of people aged 15 to 24, according to Statistics Canada. If you’re struggling with anxiety, you’re part of a large community of individuals experiencing similar challenges.
- Anxiety has a strong physical dimension that cannot be overlooked in treatment. Symptoms like chronic muscle tension, gastrointestinal issues, non-cardiac chest pain, headaches, and fatigue are frequently driven by anxiety and they respond exceptionally well to targeted psychotherapy when approached through the right therapeutic modalities.
- Anxiety takes many forms and presentations, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Specific Phobias, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Each has a distinct profile and symptom presentation, and effective treatment starts with understanding which one or which combination is at work in your particular situation.
- Evidence-based therapies including Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) all have strong research support for anxiety and can be tailored to your specific presentation and individual needs.
- We offer individual and group psychotherapy for anxiety at CDMH, in-person in Edmonton and online across Alberta and other select provinces in Canada. Reach out today to take the first step toward understanding and addressing your anxiety.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a natural, adaptive response to threat that serves an important evolutionary function. When we consciously perceive danger, real or anticipated, the nervous system responds with what we call the fight-or-flight response: heart rate climbs, breathing quickens, muscles tighten, attention narrows. For a moment of genuine risk, this physiological response is exactly what you want your body to do.
The problem arises when that system becomes dysregulated — meaning it’s no longer responding appropriately to actual threats. When anxiety fires in the absence of real danger, unconsciously arises to avoid/cover feelings, fires more intensely than the situation warrants, or refuses to switch off once the threat has passed, it stops being adaptive and starts becoming a condition that disrupts daily functioning in significant ways.
The American Psychological Association defines anxiety disorders as conditions characterized by excessive fear, worry, or avoidance that interfere with a person’s quality of life. The anxiety response has become problematic enough to impact your ability to function in important areas of your life.
They are among the most prevalent mental health concerns in Canada: the 12-month prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder doubled from 2.6% to 5.2% between 2012 and 2022, according to Statistics Canada’s Mental Health and Access to Care Survey — with rates among young women aged 15 to 24 nearly tripling over the same period.
One in four Canadians will meet the clinical criteria for an anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetime. Yet anxiety remains widely under-treated, partly because it wears many disguises and often goes unrecognized as a treatable condition. For many individuals, certain triggers or environmental factors can make anxiety worse, and timely and specialized treatment is essential.
Anxiety therapy primarily consists of psychotherapy designed to help individuals understand, manage, and reduce excessive worry, fear, and related physical symptoms. On a deeper level, it can also examine and address the underlying drivers to anxiety symptoms, such as mixed or complex feelings that are difficult to manage.
The Psychosomatic Side of Anxiety
Anxiety doesn’t just happen in the mind. It lives in the body. What this means is that anxiety often manifests through physical symptoms that are real and can be quite debilitating. Practices such as exercise and mindfulness are useful stress management techniques that can reduce anxiety symptoms and improve mood, though they work best when combined with targeted psychotherapy.
When our feelings are unresolved, whether because of coping patterns learned in early life (maladaptive coping strategies), difficulty identifying emotions, or avoidance strategies that keep difficult feelings at a safe distance (defences or unconscious anxiety), the body can become symptomatic.
Clinicians refer to these as psychosomatic or functionally mediated symptoms: physical experiences that are real and often debilitating, but that originate in emotional and psychological processes rather than structural pathology.
Common presentations, or psychosomatic symptoms of anxiety, that we see in our practice include:
- Chronic muscle tension and pain: Particularly in the shoulders, neck, jaw, and back — that doesn’t resolve with physiotherapy or massage, indicating that the underlying cause is emotional rather than purely physical
- Non-cardiac chest pain: Racing heart rate, tight, heavy, or pressure-like sensations in the chest that has been medically cleared but persists, often intensifying during periods of emotional stress
- Gastrointestinal issues: IBS-like symptoms, chronic nausea, urgency, wobbly bowels, and gut cramping/pain that worsens with stress and emotional upset
- Tension headaches and migraines: This tracks closely with either muscular tension-related anxiety or anxiety that impacts the smooth muscle/vascular bodily systems – both of which can be activated in response to emotional arousal and conflicting needs and often subside when underlying emotional issues are addressed
- Chronic fatigue: Exhaustion that isn’t explained by sleep quantity or medical workup, frequently related to the energy depletion that comes from chronic emotional repression or avoidance
- Shortness of breath or the sensation of not being able to get a full breath: What we call air hunger, which is often anxiety-related rather than respiratory
For many people, these symptoms drive years of medical investigations, referrals, medication trials, and temporary reassurances without ever addressing the underlying emotional or psychological source of their distress.
At CDMH, our approach is specifically designed to address this intersection of the emotional and the physical. Our primary modality, Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), was developed in part to treat medically unexplained physical conditions — and research increasingly supports its effectiveness for the full spectrum of functional somatic disorders, from chronic pain to gastrointestinal problems to persistent fatigue.
If you’ve been told your physical symptoms are “stress-related” but haven’t found lasting relief, it may not be that the treatment wasn’t targeting the core issue.
The Many Forms of Anxiety: Understanding Your Presentation
Anxiety isn’t one thing. There are multiple distinct but related conditions, each requiring a tailored therapeutic approach. The DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) recognizes a family of distinct but related conditions, each with its own symptom profile, triggers, and treatment considerations. Here’s what each one looks like in practice, and why the distinction matters for your treatment planning.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about a wide range of everyday concerns — work, health, finances, relationships, the future — that is difficult to control and present more days than not for at least six months. The worry has become chronic and pervasive rather than situational.
People with GAD often describe themselves as “chronic worriers” who have always been anxious, suggesting that this pattern may have developed early in life as a coping mechanism. This ongoing worry can feel constant and hard to shut off, what we call cognitive hypervigilance. The worry can feel purposeful, as if worrying keeps bad things from happening (a cognitive pattern called magical thinking), but it rarely produces solutions and tends to generate more distress than relief.
Physical symptoms are prominent in GAD: muscle tension, restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating or trouble concentrating, and disrupted sleep are hallmarks of this condition. For many people in Edmonton’s professional or student communities, GAD blends into the background of a busy life until the accumulation becomes impossible to ignore. It can also affect people alongside other anxiety disorders or mental health conditions (what we call comorbidity).
Social Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder involves an intense and ongoing fear of social situations where one fears judgement, scrutiny, or embarrassment. The fear is out of proportion to the actual threat and leads to significant avoidance of social gatherings, professional settings, speaking in meetings, eating in front of others, or simply engaging in small talk.
It’s important to distinguish social anxiety from introversion or shyness – these are very different experiences. People with social anxiety often want connection and engagement but find it accompanied by anticipatory dread (anxiety before the event), self-consciousness during the interaction, and post-event processing (reviewing and analyzing what happened) that makes social participation exhausting and sometimes impossible.
Panic Disorder
Panic Disorder is defined by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks — sudden surges of intense fear accompanied by physical symptoms like a racing heart, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating, numbness, heart palpitations, and a sense of unreality (derealization) or loss of control.
A single panic attack is frightening enough. Panic Disorder develops when the person begins persistently worrying about having more attacks (anticipatory anxiety about panic), lives with severe anxiety between episodes, and changes their behaviour to avoid situations where attacks might occur. The avoidance itself often worsens the condition because it reinforces the message that the original situation was dangerous, creating what we call an avoidance cycle.
The physical intensity of a panic attack frequently leads people to emergency departments with what feels like a cardiac event. Being medically cleared, while relieving in the moment, doesn’t address what’s actually driving the attacks from an emotional and psychological perspective.
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia involves marked fear or anxiety about situations in which escape might be difficult or help unavailable in the event of a panic attack or other incapacitating symptom. The fear becomes focused on being trapped or unable to get help. Common avoided situations include public transit, crowded spaces, open areas, enclosed spaces, and being outside the home alone.
Agoraphobia frequently develops as a complication of Panic Disorder, but can also occur independently as a primary condition. In its more severe presentations, agoraphobia can confine people to their homes, making it one of the most functionally limiting anxiety conditions.
For someone living in a large, spread-out city like Edmonton, agoraphobia can significantly restrict access to work, social life, and basic routines, compounding isolation over time and creating additional challenges around transportation and independence.
Specific Phobias
A Specific Phobia involves an intense, irrational fear triggered by a specific object or situation—such as animals, heights, blood, needles, flying, or medical procedures—that provokes immediate anxiety and leads to significant avoidance. The fear response is triggered by one particular stimulus and is much more intense than the situation warrants.
Specific phobias are among the most common anxiety disorders and often begin in childhood as a learned fear response. While they may seem manageable when the phobic object is avoidable, they frequently interfere with healthcare access, travel, professional functioning, and relationships in ways that accumulate significantly over time.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD is characterized by unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges (called obsessions) that trigger significant distress, and by repetitive behaviours or mental acts (called compulsions) performed to neutralize or suppress that distress. There’s a cycle between disturbing thoughts and behaviours designed to reduce the anxiety those thoughts create.
Common obsessional themes include contamination (fear of germs or illness), harm (worry about hurting oneself or others), symmetry (need for things to be “just right”), unwanted sexual or aggressive thoughts, and religious or moral concerns (called scrupulosity). Compulsions provide temporary relief but ultimately reinforce the cycle, strengthening the obsessions over time.
Anxiety in Teens and Young Adults
Anxiety in young people looks different and is often missed by parents, teachers, and even healthcare providers. It can also affect children, not just teens and young adults, disrupting sleep, school attendance, and day-to-day functioning in ways that significantly impact development.
A teenager in Glenora who refuses to attend a school presentation isn’t necessarily being difficult or defiant. A MacEwan University student in Oliver who stops attending lectures isn’t simply unmotivated or lazy. These behaviours may be avoidance, a hallmark of anxiety, rather than defiance or apathy – which means the underlying issue needs to be addressed rather than the behaviour punished.
Irritability and Masking Symptoms
- Irritability or anger rather than visible worry or fear (masking symptoms)
School Avoidance
- School avoidance or significant academic decline without an obvious learning difficulty
Somatic Complaints
- Somatic complaints — stomach aches, headaches, fatigue — particularly before socially or academically demanding situations (psychosomatic manifestations of anxiety)
Withdrawal and Perfectionism
- Withdrawal from activities, friendships, or routines they previously enjoyed (social and activity avoidance)
- Perfectionism and procrastination as related features of anxiety about failure or judgement
In some younger children, selective mutism can be an anxiety-related presentation, where they speak normally in some settings but go silent or use other sounds when social situations feel overwhelming.
Statistics Canada data confirms that young people aged 15 to 24 carry the highest anxiety burden of any age group, with 20.2% experiencing an anxiety disorder in any given year. For young women, the rates are significantly higher.
Early, effective intervention matters because anxiety responds well to treatment when addressed early, and because the avoidance patterns it creates, left unchallenged, can become deeply entrenched and more difficult to modify later on.
How Anxiety Affects Daily Life in Edmonton
Anxiety doesn’t stay neatly contained to the moments when symptoms flare. It reorganizes daily life around avoidance patterns and can interfere with everyday life in subtle but significant ways.
A professional working near Downtown Edmonton may avoid networking events not because they’re not interested in career advancement, but because the anticipatory dread starts days in advance and leaves them emotionally exhausted before they’ve even arrived.
A parent in Westmount may be so preoccupied with health-related worry (health anxiety) that they can’t be fully present with their children.
A student commuting from St. Albert may have found the bus route they used to take has become impossible, not for any clear reason but because anxiety has claimed it as a trigger.
A truck driver in Sherwood Park may have stopped driving on the Yellowhead because a panic attack once happened there (what we call situational conditioning).
An aging senior in Spruce Grove may not have disclosed their anxiety to their family physician because they’re not sure it “counts” as a real problem, because they’ve been relying on unhealthy coping, like substance abuse, or because they’ve been managing it for so long that they can’t imagine there being another way to live.
Anxiety shapes what you do and don’t do. Over time, the accommodations you make for it — the routes you avoid, the conversations you sidestep, the opportunities you decline — narrow your world in ways that can be quite limiting. People may still feel anxious even when they know intellectually that a situation is objectively safe, because anxiety operates from the emotional brain rather than the logical brain.
Anxiety Treatment in Edmonton: What Actually Helps
Anxiety disorders are highly treatable, and there are effective treatments that help many people achieve significant and lasting relief. At The Centre for Dynamic Mental Health (CDMH), we use a range of evidence-based modalities matched to your specific presentation, history, and goals as part of a personalized treatment plan. The appropriate interventions depend on the type of anxiety and any co-occurring concerns that may be present.
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)
ISTDP is one of our primary treatment approaches that sets CDMH apart from generalist therapy settings. Developed by psychiatrist Dr. Habib Davanloo and extensively refined by scientist-practitioners such as Dr. Allan Abbass and colleagues, ISTDP is a psychodynamic treatment model that is emotionally focused that works by helping people identify and process emotions that have been unconsciously warded off, often because they felt too threatening or too painful to fully experience.
In the context of anxiety, ISTDP is particularly valuable because it addresses the root cause of anxious symptoms: the emotional conflicts and coping patterns that underlie the nervous system’s dysregulation, including the psychosomatic presentations so many people bring to our clinic. Rather than just managing symptoms, we’re working to understand and resolve what’s driving them in the first place.
Research on ISTDP for anxiety disorders has found significant decreases in symptoms and interpersonal problems, with gains maintained at four-year follow-up. Studies specifically examining ISTDP for functional somatic conditions — chronic pain, gastrointestinal disorders, medically unexplained neurological symptoms — have found it to be effective across a broad spectrum of presentations.
You can expect ISTDP sessions to involve active emotional exploration: examining how you experience and respond to emotions in the room, identifying what gets in the way of feeling things fully, and building new ways of relating to yourself and others that are more consistent with your authentic self.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is one of the most extensively researched psychological treatments for anxiety. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a widely recognized and effective treatment for anxiety disorders, focusing on changing negative thought patterns and behaviors. It helps people manage anxiety by identifying the thought patterns that fuel anxious responses (called cognitive distortions), building coping strategies and coping skills, evaluating their accuracy, and gradually changing the behaviours, particularly avoidance, that keep anxiety entrenched.
For panic disorder and specific phobias, CBT includes exposure therapy — carefully graded exposure to feared situations, conducted collaboratively and at a pace you can manage. For social anxiety, it involves both cognitive restructuring and behavioural practice in social situations. For GAD, it includes worry management strategies and skills for tolerating uncertainty (distress tolerance).
CBT is often a component of our treatment approach at CDMH, integrated within or alongside other modalities depending on what your presentation calls for.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR was originally developed for trauma but is increasingly used for anxiety disorders, particularly when anxious symptoms are anchored in specific memories, early experiences, or a traumatic event. The bilateral stimulation component of EMDR, typically guided eye movements or tapping, helps the brain reprocess material that has remained “stuck,” allowing the associated anxiety to lose its intensity.
EMDR can help individuals whose anxiety is linked to specific events such as a frightening medical experience, significant danger, loss, or early relational difficulties by accessing and reprocessing the underlying material. This approach can reach aspects that traditional talk therapies may not fully address. It may be especially relevant when anxiety overlaps with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or related trauma symptoms.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
DBT offers a comprehensive skills-based framework for managing intense emotional experiences, reducing impulsive or self-destructive responses, and building interpersonal effectiveness. While originally developed for borderline personality disorder, DBT’s core modules — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — are directly applicable to addressing symptoms of anxiety.
Anxiety Therapy at The Centre for Dynamic Mental Health
At CDMH, we specialize in intensive, psychodynamically oriented, skills-based, and trauma-informed care for anxiety and its related presentations. Our team brings not just training and credentials, but genuine expertise in the more complex clinical presentations that generalist settings often struggle to address effectively.
We see individuals and families struggling with emotional dysregulation, medically unexplained physical symptoms, relational difficulties, and the full spectrum of anxiety conditions outlined above. Our approach is intensive and thorough, designed to produce real, lasting change, not just symptom management.
We offer:
- Individual psychotherapy for adults and teens (12+), in-person in Edmonton and online across Alberta
- Group psychotherapy (18+) for structured, peer-supported skill-building in a supportive environment
- Psychological assessments for diagnostic clarity and treatment planning
- Free 15-minute phone consultations with clinicians before booking your first appointment to ensure we’re a good fit
Our clinic is located at The Klondike Centre, 11062 156 St NW, Suite 209A, in West Edmonton, accessible from across the city and the surrounding region, including Meadowlark, Jasper Place, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, and Spruce Grove.
Meet Our Team
Dr. Diana Armstrong, Ph.D., R.Psych. — Founder and Director of CDMH, Dr. Armstrong is a Registered Psychologist and mental health professional with specialized training in ISTDP, EMDR, and the treatment of complex emotional, relational, and psychosomatic conditions. Named one of Edify Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2025, she brings a rare combination of clinical depth and genuine warmth to her work with individuals navigating anxiety and related concerns.
Dr. Wendy Hawkins, Ph.D., R.Psych. — Dr. Hawkins is a Registered Psychologist offering individual psychotherapy for adults, with expertise across the anxiety disorders and related emotional health concerns, and extensive experience supporting people with anxiety disorders and other mental health conditions, available in-person in Edmonton and online.
Ms. Elaine Chan, M.OT., OT. reg (AB), RCT (ACTA) — Ms. Chan brings occupational therapy and counselling expertise to her work with adults, teenagers (12+), and families, offering a practical and holistic lens on anxiety and its impact on everyday functioning and daily life activities.
Dr. Milann Mitchell, Psy.D., Registered Provisional Psychologist — Dr. Mitchell offers individual psychotherapy for adults and older teens (16+), with a thoughtful, evidence-based approach to anxiety, depression, and emotional health concerns.
To learn more about our full team and their individual specialties, visit our CDMH Team page.
Take the First Step — We’re Here When You’re Ready
Anxiety doesn’t have to run your life. The avoidance patterns, the racing thoughts, the tension in your body, the gradually narrowing world — these things can change with the right therapeutic support and intervention.
At The Centre for Dynamic Mental Health, we offer more than symptom management. We offer specialized, intensive psychotherapy designed to get to the root of what’s driving your anxiety and to help you build a life that’s larger and more fulfilling than the one anxiety has allowed.
If you’re in Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove, Westmount, Oliver, Glenora, or anywhere else in Alberta, we’re here, in person and online, ready to support you in your journey toward healing.
Don’t wait for a crisis to ask for help. Reach out to us today and take the first step toward finally feeling better. A complimentary 15-minute phone consultation is available to help you get started on your path to recovery.
Frequently Asked Questions About Anxiety Therapy in Edmonton
What’s the difference between anxiety and an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety itself is a normal human experience, and occasional anxiety about health, money, or work is different from an anxiety disorder. Some anxiety is adaptive and expected (e.g., it can help to motivate us to keep ourselves safe, such as looking both ways before you cross a busy street). An anxiety disorder is diagnosed when anxiety is persistent, excessive, difficult to control, and causes significant distress or interferes with daily functioning in important areas of life; diagnosis also considers symptoms, severity, duration, and relevant risk factors when anxiety is interfering with functioning. Anxiety disorders exist on a spectrum from everyday worry to more disruptive conditions. If anxiety is affecting your work, relationships, sleep, physical health, or ability to do things you want to do, that’s worth exploring with a professional, regardless of whether it meets a formal diagnostic threshold, because untreated anxiety can lead to serious complications, such as depression, substance misuse, and suicidal thoughts.
How long does anxiety therapy take?
It depends on the nature and severity of your anxiety, the therapeutic approach used, and your personal history and presentation. ISTDP is designed to be intensive and efficient, sometimes achieving meaningful results in fewer sessions than traditional psychotherapy, also called talk therapy. CBT-based approaches typically run 12 to 20 sessions for specific anxiety disorders. More complex presentations or those with underlying trauma may require longer-term work, regardless of modality. We tailor the pace and approach to your individual needs. For some people, group therapy can also be helpful depending on their goals and specific therapeutic needs.
Is therapy effective for physical symptoms of anxiety?
Yes, often very effective. Medically unexplained physical symptoms of anxiety, such as chronic pain, gastrointestinal problems, non-cardiac chest pain, and fatigue, often respond well to the right kind of psychotherapy. ISTDP in particular has a robust evidence base for these presentations because it addresses the emotional underpinnings of physical symptoms.
Can teens access anxiety therapy at CDMH?
Yes, absolutely. We offer individual therapy for teenagers aged 12 and older through Ms. Elaine Chan, and for older teens (16+) through Dr. Milann Mitchell. In younger people, anxiety disorders can also include separation anxiety disorder, which may involve excessive anxiety around separation from caregivers or loved ones and can disrupt school, sleep, or daily routines. Family therapy is also available when involving family members in the therapeutic process is clinically appropriate and beneficial.
Do I need a referral to book an appointment?
No, you don’t need a referral. You can contact us directly to book an appointment, or speak with one of our staff if you are unsure where to start. You can also request a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation with one of our clinicians before you commit to ensure we’re a good therapeutic fit. Reviewing your symptoms and personal history helps determine the most appropriate next step for your individual situation.
Is virtual therapy available?
Yes, we offer online psychotherapy across Alberta, as well as in-person sessions at our Edmonton clinic. Telehealth options can both improve access to care. Some of our clinicians also provide virtual services in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
