Anxiety treatment in London
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy, and one of the most misunderstood. It is not simply nervousness or stress. For many people it is a persistent state of threat that shapes sleep, relationships, decisions and the body itself.
This practice offers specialist anxiety treatment in London and online, with Dr Philippe Jacquet, an integrative psychotherapist and Jungian analyst with twenty-five years of clinical experience.
The kinds people arrive with
Generalised anxiety. No single feared object, just a low continuous hum that attaches itself to whatever is nearest. Work, health, money, a child, a conversation from Tuesday. Remove one worry and another takes the slot within a day.
Panic. Sudden, physical and convincing. Chest, breath, the certainty that something is catastrophically wrong. Most people have been to A&E at least once and been told their heart is fine, which helps for about a week. The fear then quietly becomes fear of the next attack, which is what narrows a life.
Health anxiety. Checking, googling, scanning the body for evidence. Reassurance works briefly and then stops working, which is the diagnostic feature: a problem that gets temporarily better from exactly the thing that keeps it going.
Social and performance anxiety. Not shyness. The specific dread of being seen and found wanting, in a meeting, a presentation, a room where you are supposed to be the capable one. Frequently carried by people whose careers depend on appearing entirely at ease.
The anxiety nobody can see. More on that below, because it is the most common presentation here and the least likely to be named.
The anxiety that looks like competence
A great many people seen here would not describe themselves as anxious. They would say they are busy, driven, thorough, or that they have high standards.
What that looks like from inside: waking at four with a sentence from yesterday’s meeting replaying. Drafting an email six times. Reading tone into a one-word reply. Never quite finishing a day, because finishing would mean sitting still with whatever is underneath the activity. Doing all of this while performing at a high level, which is precisely why nobody intervenes.
This is sometimes called high-functioning anxiety, and the term is useful mainly for naming something people recognise instantly. The difficulty with it is that the functioning is real, so there is no obvious moment to stop. Nothing collapses. The reward for managing it well is being given more.
It is also the version that most reliably ends up being treated with alcohol.
When it is being managed with drink
Anxiety and alcohol run together so often that it is worth saying plainly.
Alcohol is a fast, effective and entirely available anxiolytic. Two glasses genuinely do quieten the mind at the end of a demanding day, which is why the pattern establishes itself without ever looking like a decision. What follows is less discussed: alcohol disrupts sleep architecture and raises baseline anxiety the next day, so the thing that relieved the symptom at ten in the evening is manufacturing more of it by eleven the following morning.
Treating the anxiety while the drinking continues tends to stall, because the feeling never fully arrives in the room. Treating the drinking without touching the anxiety tends to relapse, because the thing it was for is still there. Addiction is a core specialism of this practice, so where both are present they are treated as one piece of work rather than referred apart.
When anxiety is trauma wearing a different coat
Some anxiety is not about the present at all.
Where there is a history of trauma, the nervous system can remain set to a threat level appropriate to something that finished years ago. It presents as anxiety because that is what it feels like, but it does not respond well to being reasoned with, because the material is not held in words.
EMDR is often the more direct route in those cases, used within the wider work rather than as a standalone technique. Twenty years of practising it is long enough to know when it is the right tool and when it is not.
A depth approach, not symptom control
Breathing techniques, grounding and cognitive strategies ease anxiety in the moment, and they are useful. Nobody here will discourage you from using them.
But anxiety that keeps returning is usually saying something. The work looks at what it is responding to: the pressures, the fears, the unprocessed experience, the part of a life that is not being lived. Naming and working with that is what allows anxiety to settle durably rather than be managed indefinitely.
The approach is integrative and depth-oriented, drawing on psychotherapy, Jungian analysis and EMDR where trauma sits underneath.
What the work looks like
Weekly, fifty minutes, open-ended rather than a fixed number of sessions.
There is no homework and no worksheets. Early on, much of the value is simply having one hour a week in which you are not managing anybody’s impression of you, which for people in the high-functioning group is often the first rest they have had in years.
Anxiety frequently travels with depression, and where both are present they are worked with together rather than sequentially.
Where sessions happen
In person at Harley Street W1 and at 45 Fitzroy Street in Fitzrovia, and online across the UK and internationally. Evening appointments are available.
Starting
A first appointment is confidential and usually available within two days. Write to the practice and say briefly what has been happening.
Common questions
What kinds of anxiety do you treat?
Generalised anxiety, panic attacks, health anxiety, social anxiety, performance anxiety, and the chronic background tension that many high-functioning people live with for years. Treatment is tailored to the individual rather than a fixed protocol.
How is this different from short-term anxiety management?
Techniques can reduce symptoms, and they have their place. But anxiety that keeps returning is usually signalling something underneath. The work here addresses that underlying cause, so the change holds, rather than only managing the surface.
Do you use EMDR for anxiety?
Where anxiety is rooted in trauma or specific past experiences, EMDR can be highly effective. Dr Jacquet is an EMDR practitioner with over 20 years' experience, and integrates it where clinically appropriate.
I am coping fine. Is it worth coming?
This is the most common hesitation here, and the functioning is usually real, which is why nobody has intervened. The question worth asking is not whether you are managing but what the managing costs: the four o'clock waking, the email drafted six times, the inability to sit still without a task. People in this group often describe the therapy hour as the first rest they have had in years, because it is the one place they are not managing somebody's impression of them.
I keep checking my symptoms and googling. Can that be treated?
Yes, that is health anxiety, and the checking is the mechanism rather than a side effect. Reassurance relieves it briefly and then stops working, which keeps the cycle running: the thing that helps for an hour is the same thing that guarantees the next hour. The work is less about proving you are well and more about what makes the uncertainty unbearable in the first place.
I have been to A&E and they said my heart is fine, but the panic keeps coming back.
That is a very typical history. Being told the heart is fine helps for roughly a week, because the original fear has usually been replaced by fear of the next attack, and it is that second fear which narrows a life. Panic responds well to therapy, and where it has roots in earlier experience EMDR is often the more direct route.
I drink to take the edge off. Does that matter here?
It matters and it is common enough to be worth saying plainly. Alcohol is an effective short-term anxiolytic, which is why the pattern establishes itself without ever feeling like a decision, but it disrupts sleep and raises baseline anxiety the following day. Treating one and ignoring the other tends to stall. Addiction is a core specialism of this practice, so where both are present they are treated as one piece of work.
Is treatment available online?
Yes. Sessions are available in person at Harley Street W1 and Central London, and online by secure video, in English and French.