When worry will not switch off, when your body is always on alert and fear starts making your decisions for you, life becomes exhausting. Living abroad can make it heavier still. Anxiety is treatable, and with the right support, in your own language, you can find your sense of calm and control again.
Anxiety is a natural and useful emotion. It is the alarm system that prepares us to face whatever we perceive as a threat. The problem is not feeling anxiety. It is when that alarm starts going off for no reason, stays on permanently and begins to limit how we live.
When anxiety stops protecting you and starts holding you back, when it interferes with your sleep, your work, your relationships or your wish to leave the house, it deserves attention. The good news is that anxiety is one of the areas where psychological treatment is most effective and most studied.
Excessive, hard-to-control worry about many areas of daily life, on most days.
Intense fear of being judged or evaluated, leading you to avoid social or exposing situations.
Sudden waves of intense fear, with strong physical symptoms and a feeling of losing control.
Prolonged tension and overload that drain your energy and your ability to rest.
Specific, disproportionate fears that shape your choices and behaviour.
Excessive attention to the body and recurring fear that something serious is wrong.
"Anxiety does not disappear when we avoid it. We learn to live with it when we stop running from it."
Many people take a long time to seek help because they think anxiety is just worry. But anxiety is felt in the body, in your thoughts and in your behaviour. Recognising these signs helps you understand what is happening, and that there is a way out.
Racing heart, muscle tension, shortness of breath, dizziness, sweating, digestive issues, insomnia.
Constant worry, catastrophic thinking, difficulty concentrating, a mind that will not stop.
Avoiding situations, putting things off, seeking reassurance, irritability, withdrawal.
In treating anxiety I mainly use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, one of the most evidence-based approaches in this area. The goal is not to remove all anxiety, it is to help it stop running your life, giving you practical tools to understand and manage it. Sessions are in fluent English, so you can express what you feel without translating it first.
See how your anxiety works, what triggers it and what keeps it active.
Learn concrete strategies to regulate your body, your thoughts and the situations you avoid.
Return to what anxiety took from you, with more confidence and more sense of control.
Treating anxiety benefits from a structured, evidence-based approach. Throughout my career I have dedicated advanced training precisely to this area, and I work in fluent English with the international community in Lisbon.
"Anxiety makes us believe danger is everywhere. In therapy, we give fear back its real size."
You do not need to wait for a crisis to seek support. If anxiety interferes with your daily life, your sleep, your work or your relationships, or simply takes away your quality of life, that is reason enough. Seeking help early usually makes the process simpler.
Therapy does not involve medication, and in many cases it is effective on its own in treating anxiety. Any decision about medication always rests with a doctor. When it makes sense, therapy and medical care complement each other, but that is assessed case by case.
Everyone moves at their own pace and there is no single timeline. Even so, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is a results-oriented approach, and many people start noticing a difference after a few weeks of consistent work.
Both options are available. In-person sessions take place in Lisbon, on Avenida do Brasil. Online sessions are held by video call, with the same quality of support, wherever you are.
Yes. I offer therapy in fluent English to the international community living in Lisbon and across Portugal. Being able to talk about what you feel in your own language makes a real difference.
Book your session, at your own pace, and start living with more calm. In person in Lisbon or online, by video call.
Book a Session50-minute session · in person or online · confidential