Health Anxiety and Health Uncertainty Therapy
Therapy for health anxiety and health uncertainty
Health anxiety can be frightening and exhausting. It often involves becoming increasingly focused on your body and what it might be telling you.
I work with adults who feel caught between wanting to take their health seriously and feeling consumed by fear, uncertainty and repeated checking. For some, these worries develop without an underlying medical condition. For others, they arise alongside a chronic illness or difficult medical experiences that have made it understandably harder to feel safe in their own body.
If you find yourself:
Frequently checking symptoms or changes in your body
Searching online for reassurance, only to feel more anxious afterwards
Seeking reassurance from loved ones or healthcare professionals, but finding the relief doesn't last
Worrying that something important has been overlooked or missed
Finding it difficult to live with uncertainty about your health
Living with a chronic illness or medical experiences that have made it difficult to trust your body
Noticing that concerns about your health are taking up increasing time, energy and attention
How therapy may help
Health anxiety can take over far more than your attention to physical symptoms. It often grows around uncertainty, fear and the need to feel safe in a body that has become difficult to trust.
Using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), together with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), we can look closely at the patterns that keep the anxiety active. Checking symptoms, searching online, asking for reassurance or avoiding certain situations may bring short-term relief, yet the fear often returns and the cycle becomes harder to step out of.
Therapy can help you notice these patterns earlier, tolerate uncertainty with less urgency and respond to difficult thoughts and sensations without being pulled into repeated checking or reassurance-seeking. We can also work on self-criticism, shame and the strain of living with a body that may already feel unpredictable because of chronic illness or difficult medical experiences.
My approach
My work is grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). Rather than following a rigid protocol, I integrate these approaches to meet the individual sitting in front of me.
Together, we can explore:
Health-related thoughts and beliefs
Body scanning and symptom checking
Reassurance-seeking and excessive online searching
Fear of uncertainty and the need for certainty
The psychological impact of chronic illness or difficult medical experiences
Rebuilding trust in your body through self-compassion
Living a meaningful life alongside uncertainty, rather than waiting for it to disappear
Book a consultation
If health worries are taking over your thoughts, decisions or daily life, you are welcome to book a free 20-minute consultation to explore whether therapy may help.