Combining Mindfulness and CBT With an Online Anxiety Therapist: Why the Blend Works
Online therapy can meet you (and your pet!) where you are in life.
If you live with anxiety, you probably already know how tough it can be to quiet your mind, especially when worries seem to multiply the more you try to control them, like a terrible inner game of Whack-A-Mole (with no arcade prizes!). Perhaps you’ve tried deep breathing, journaling, or reading about how to “think positive,” but the anxiety still feels stuck in your body. You want calm, but your body and mind struggle to get there.
For many people seeking anxiety therapy in Maryland, combining mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in online sessions, or in-person therapy in College Park, can help with making meaningful progress towards that goal of calm. The blend of these two approaches can help you understand your anxious patterns while learning to soften your relationship with them, rather than fighting them every step of the way.
Understanding how anxiety shows up in everyday life
Anxiety is a whole-life experience. It’s more than something just happening in the brain. It can show up as racing thoughts, restlessness, tension in the body, a distressed digestive system, or a gnawing sense that something bad is always about to happen. You might notice it most at night when things get quiet, or in the morning before your day even begins.
When anxiety takes hold, it can make even simple choices feel hard. You might find yourself avoiding things that once felt easy, or overthinking what others think of you or things that already happened or pretty much anything else . Over time, anxiety can leave you feeling drained, isolated, and even disconnected from yourself.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Anxiety is an incredibly common experience. Many people who reach out for online therapy in Maryland share that anxiety has slowly crept into their relationships, sleep, and work life. And they are ready to start reclaiming those areas of life from the challenges of anxiety.
What CBT and Mindfulness each offer in anxiety therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Understanding and Restructuring Thought Patterns
CBT helps you recognize the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and how they all weave together. You know how it goes. You feel a weird twinge in your body that freaks you and you start worrying about what it is. The more you think about it, the stronger it feels. You go down an internet rabbit hole to try and figure it out, and the sensation intensifies, which just freaks you out more. And so on. That’s the negative side of how closely thoughts, feelings and behaviors are linked together and impact each other. The positive side of those close connections is that if you can pull of one for those threads (thoughts, feelings or behaviors) and make a positive change, it can ripple out into improvements in all those areas. CBT pulls on the thought and behaviors threads. It’s an evidence-based approach that teaches you to identify unhelpful thinking patterns, like catastrophizing or all-or-nothing thinking, and replace them with more balanced and realistic thoughts and then engage in more helpful behaviors.
In online anxiety therapy, CBT can help you begin to see how your anxious thinking loops reinforce each other. Once you can recognize those patterns, you can start making different choices instead of reacting on autopilot.
Mindfulness: Learning To Stay Present With What Is
Finding some mindful moments throughout the day can reduce anxiety and reactivity.
Mindfulness-based therapy invites you to slow down and gently observe what’s happening inside you, without judgment. It’s about awareness rather than control.
In therapy, mindfulness techniques might include grounding exercises, guided breathing, or body scans that help you notice where anxiety lives in your body. Over time, this awareness can bring a sense of calm that doesn’t depend on your thoughts being “fixed.”
combining the two to create lasting change
Together, mindfulness and CBT help you address both what you think and how you relate to those thoughts. This blog post about mindfulness skills for anxiety talks more about how these tools can help us identify and name our emotions, and why that’s helpful for reducing anxiety. Mindfulness keeps the process compassionate and embodied, while CBT provides practical tools to implement. As an anxiety therapist in Maryland, I find that using these approaches together creates a powerful and supportive path for change.
how online therapy in maryland makes anxiety treatment accessible
Online therapy gives you the opportunity to begin anxiety treatment from the comfort of your own space. For many clients in Maryland, it’s a flexible and convenient way to prioritize mental health without the added stress of commuting or rearranging a packed schedule. It also makes specialized anxiety treatment possible even if you aren’t near my College Park therapy office.
benefits of online therapy for busy clients
Whether you’re a student, a working professional, or balancing family life, therapy sessions that fit into your day can make all the difference. Many people find that online therapy allows them to show up more consistently, which often leads to faster progress. If you haven’t tried online therapy before, you might have some questions or concerns about privacy, how effective it is, and how it all works. These FAQs about online therapy might help.
Find effective anxiety treatment and support, wherever you are.
why location still matters when choosing an online therapist
Even though sessions are virtual, location is still a factor when you are looking to find a therapist in Maryland. Therapists are licensed by state and you’ll want to make sure that your therapist is licensed in the place where you will be during your online sessions. This is especially important for folks in an area with closely overlapping state lines (like the Maryland, DC, Virginia area) since someone might work in one state and live in another, and could possibly want to do online therapy in either location. Your therapist needs to be licensed in the state that they are in, and the state you are in, at the time of the session. As a therapist licensed in Maryland, I can see folks when they are in Maryland at the time of their session. If you want to be able to have virtual sessions from multiple states, you’d have to make sure that your therapist is licensed in all those places. Having a therapist in your area also means you’ll have access to the continuity of care you deserve from a therapist who understands your community and resources that are available.
what it looks like to blend CBT and mindfulness in online sessions
Each session may look a little different depending on your needs that week. I like to check in and see if a client is coming in with some pressing concerns and follow up on anything relevant from the previous session.
A Typical Session Flow
Often times, we start figuring out how to use these skills by looking backwards and seeing how we could apply them to real life events that have occurred and spiked some anxiety. We might unpack and explore a recent moment of anxiety, noticing both the thoughts that came up and the sensations in your body. Then, we can use CBT tools to challenge unhelpful beliefs and mindfulness techniques to ground you in the present.
Learn and Practice Real-Life Skills to Manage Anxiety Between Sessions
All skills take time and practice to improve and it’s important to bring these tools out of the therapy room and into day-to-day life. Even busy clients can practice short mindfulness moments throughout their day, taking a few slow breaths before responding to an email or noticing tension in their shoulders or jaw before it builds up. CBT tools for identifying and reframing unhelpful thought patterns can be practiced as stressful situations occur throughout the week.
Tools and Practices You Can Start Using Today
You can begin with small steps: take one mindful breath before you start your day, journal a few anxious thoughts to spot patterns, or name your feelings out loud. These gentle shifts can build momentum toward feeling like you have some space to pause and use the tools and skills you are working on improving.
Helping you feel more calm, clear and in Control
When mindfulness and CBT come together, the goal isn’t to eliminate anxiety completely (spoiler alert: we can’t do that and it’s not a good idea in the first place). But all this can help you change your relationship with it. Instead of being caught in the cycle of fear and reaction, you learn to observe, breathe, and respond with awareness and clear thinking.
Clients often share that, over time, these tools help them feel more grounded and less reactive. The physical symptoms of anxiety start to lessen, and moments of calm become more accessible. Healing doesn’t mean perfection; it means understanding that you can meet yourself with patience, even when anxiety shows up and feel more confident that you can find a way forward.
Is Mindfulness based CBT right for you?
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Starting Anxiety Therapy
Do you notice your mind racing even when nothing is “wrong”?
Do you want tools that help you calm your body and quiet your thoughts?
Are you open to exploring both practical skills and self-compassion?
If you answered yes, this approach may be a meaningful fit.
How to Know If You’re Ready to Begin Online Therapy
You don’t need to have everything figured out before starting. Many clients begin therapy unsure of what they need, and that’s absolutely fine. Therapy sessions can create a space to explore at your own pace while building coping tools that meet you where you are. A willingness to show up, be open and be consistent are the biggest factors in readiness for being ready to get the most out of therapy.
Getting started with anxiety therapy in maryland
Ready to see if CBT and mindfulness can help you find the calm and clarity you are looking for? I offer specialized anxiety therapy appointments in-person, located in College Park, MD. Online anxiety therapy appointments are available anywhere in Maryland. Click here to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation and take the first step toward a clearer, more peaceful mind.
Other services I offer include hypnotherapy, mindfulness-based therapy, life coaching, and support for LGBTQIA+ clients. Additional information is available on my home page.
About the author, an anxiety therapist:
Beth Charbonneau, LCSW-C, is a Maryland therapist, specializing in anxiety therapy and treatment. With over 20 years of experience, she brings a holistic approach to calming both the mind and the body, and helping her clients feel empowered to find more joy in their lives. Learn more about her counseling practice here.
