“Feelings are a wisdom source”, my first supervisor told me. “Stay vigilant for those difficult feelings that are unexpressed, like anger and grief”. By then, I’d received a lot of therapy on my own and had been learning how emotions worked. Triggered by memories, feelings rise through the body as sensations seeking expression by way of connection to others who help us validate our experiences and demonstrate understanding and acceptance. “If you feel it, find a way to say it”, encouraged one of my favorite mentors, Mahan Khalsa. I learned much about how anxiety and feelings influence human connection and help us self-regulate from Mahan during my consulting work with the Franklin Covey Institute in Salt Lake City.

That was long ago, but my experiences with feelings and emotions have validated those early wise words. I’ve built a strong reputation here in Delray Beach for specializing in anxiety therapy. In the story that follows to illustrate some of this, the names and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or situations, past or present, is purely coincidental.

When Feelings Go Unspoken, Anxiety Takes Root

Joy’s call was unusual. “I work around the corner. I’ve been passing your office daily and thought I should call you,” she said. “There are some things I need to work on”. Rarely do people find my Delray Beach anxiety therapy practice by walking in front of it. Most search the internet, where reams of information can be found to cross-check and validate one’s inquiry. We agreed to meet the following week. I was curious to find out more.

Joy arrived wearing denim work clothes with a bandana around her head. Her flip-flops were stained with paint. “I’m opening my own store”, she said. “I’m doing it all myself, and I’m having a ball”! She was an attractive woman with a blond mane and a petite figure. She was bright-eyed and vivacious and at first looked much younger than her 48 years. But there were subtle marks of advanced aging that I couldn’t miss.

Her facial skin tone was a bit sallow. Her hair, on closer examination, was dry and brittle and much in need of care. Although slim with attractive features, she’d begun to take on some distinct features of ill health that were hard to miss. Her legs were too thin and disproportionate to her body. She carried a protruding abdomen disguised by her coveralls. There was an unmistakable sadness in her face below the bright countenance. Joy was an alcoholic.

Alcohol, Avoidance, and the Cost of Emotional Suppression

“I’m having trouble with men around here,” she started. “I feel like they are all losers”. Joy had recently moved to South Florida after a disastrous divorce and had been on all the online dating apps, trying to make sense of social connections while suppressing what caused her anxiety. She wasn’t having much luck. But a recent accident had caused her to stop in her tracks and seek help. She’d been out alone on a recent evening and began drinking early.

She remembers few details about the evening, except that, returning home, she’d fallen in her shower, hit her head, and awakened in the hospital the next morning with a concussion. Fleeting images of men talking to her at the bar were vague, and she couldn’t say for sure whether she’d brought anyone home or if she’d had sex. She’d been “blackout drunk” by evening’s end. Besides some temporary vertigo, Joy had emerged unscathed, saved for the trauma responses inevitably internalized by her body.

A Hidden Childhood Trauma and the Burden of Silence

As it turned out, this kind of “socializing” had been going on since high school. Like many alcoholics, she tended to minimize and gloss over her more painful experiences. However, one very traumatic event stood out. When she was six years old, she had secretly witnessed a terrible accident. A negligent babysitter had dropped her infant baby sister, causing severe brain damage. It rendered her sister with profound physical and intellectual disabilities for the rest of her life. The child died from complications when eleven years old. To compound the tragedy, Joy never told anyone and had been unable to even speak of it for years. Although she knew the truth of what had happened, she lived in terror of revealing it. She’d hidden her secret from everyone, keeping a stony silence. And, as a result, she grew anxious and depressed throughout her life.

How Suppressed Emotions Create Anxiety and Addiction

She began to drink the summer before high school. In doing so, she found relief from the burdensome thoughts and feelings she’d carried about her sister and family. Joy reported that it was during this period that she developed a kind of “false self.” Smiling broadly on the outside, and silently cringing beneath it. She became very social and often felt like the “life of the party” after drinking a few rounds of vodka.

Instead of forming healthy relationships, she became known for her sexual promiscuity. This fed her shame, but it made her forget the internal turmoil. It also gave her relief from the intrusive thoughts, “sticky memories,” and nightmares she’d often have about her sister. She drank to quell the anxiety and trauma, even as it stayed a constant companion. But it cost her dearly. She’d had trouble developing a career. She lived through several failed marriages, most of them abusive, and terminated two pregnancies. Joy had been living a “surface” life, completely unhappy and unfulfilled, unwilling and unable at times to really feel authentic.

From Anxiety and Addiction to Emotional Integration and Recovery

Joy eventually recovered, and I was privileged to be a part of it. We began with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. That’s a formal way of naming a process designed to help someone explore their thinking, looking for distortions and dead ends, and connect that thinking to behaviors that we seek to change. Getting “unstuck” is often helped by slowing down, carefully and deliberately looking at assumptions and questioning them, making tough decisions, and moving on. We used grounding techniques to anchor Joy into the present, as she often allowed her thinking to run away rapidly into the future and past. She began feeling better, more in control, quickly. And often, as an anxiety therapist, I must recommend a higher, more restrictive level of care.

This was the case with Joy. She needed more help. She entered inpatient treatment for alcoholism shortly after we met and stayed for six months. I was in touch with her only occasionally, but could sense that she was experiencing a “sea change” in her view of self and others. When Joy returned from inpatient treatment, she was sober and completely different. There was a notable change in the way she viewed herself and her relationship dynamics. She looked healthy and rested, her face clear of the worry and stress she’d carried before. She was relaxed and quiet during our follow-up sessions and spoke of the discoveries she held precious from her stay in treatment. “I learned who I am through my feelings”, she said. “I never knew how much grief I’d been holding in”.

Final Thoughts From a Delray Beach Anxiety Therapist

If you or someone you love is struggling with anxiety that is affecting relationships, it can be empowering to ask for help. Especially if alcohol or drug abuse is present. Anxiety therapy can create new paths to satisfying adult health and bring fresh success to difficult relationships. Therapy can be a wise investment and may take time, but the payoff can be priceless. I would love to help. Call or text me at 561-213-8030 or email me at jdlmhc@gmail.com for a consultation.

Find Relief and Support Through Anxiety Therapy in Delray Beach, FL

When anxiety feels constant or overwhelming, it’s often a sign that something deeper needs attention, not just symptom management. Anxiety therapy offers a supportive, structured space to understand what’s fueling your distress, release suppressed emotions, and learn practical tools to calm your mind and body. At my Delray Beach counseling practice, I help clients move beyond chronic worry and tension toward greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, and lasting relief.

Here’s how you can begin taking meaningful steps toward feeling better:

• 1. Explore the root causes of your anxiety in a safe, nonjudgmental setting by scheduling an initial consultation.
• 2. Learn effective strategies to manage anxious thoughts, physical symptoms, and emotional overwhelm with guidance from an experienced anxiety therapist in Delray Beach, FL.
• 3. Develop healthier coping skills that support clarity, resilience, and a greater sense of calm in daily life.

Other Services With John Davis Counseling in Delray Beach, Florida

Anxiety therapy offers a way to gently uncover what’s been held inside and understand how suppressed emotions contribute to chronic worry, tension, and emotional exhaustion. Through therapy, you can learn to safely process difficult feelings, regulate your nervous system, and move toward greater calm, self-trust, and emotional clarity.

Because anxiety often overlaps with other challenges, my Delray Beach practice provides a broad range of therapeutic services that support healing on multiple levels. Along with anxiety-focused therapy, I offer relationship therapy and couples counseling, trauma therapy, addiction treatment, grief and loss support, and therapy for narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). I also work with individuals navigating ADHD/ADD, impulse-control concerns, and spiritual or existential questions.

Each client’s care is tailored to their unique history and needs using an integrative, evidence-based approach. Depending on what’s most helpful, therapy may include CBT, EMDR, Gestalt therapy, mindfulness practices, psychodrama, or clinical hypnosis. My goal is to help you develop lasting emotional resilience, strengthen healthy coping skills, and restore a steady sense of balance and well-being. For additional insight, I invite you to explore my blog or contact my office to schedule a consultation.

About the Author

John Davis, LMHC, is an experienced anxiety and relationship therapist in Delray Beach, FL, known for helping individuals understand the deeper emotional and neurological roots of anxiety. With a trauma-informed background in child and family therapy, John recognizes how early experiences, unexpressed emotions, and long-standing stress patterns can fuel anxiety throughout adulthood.

Using integrative methods such as EMDR, CBT, psychodrama, and mindfulness, John helps clients regulate their nervous systems, process unresolved emotional pain, and develop healthier coping strategies. He is Executive Director of the Mental Health Counselors’ Association of Palm Beach, recipient of the Outstanding Community Service Award, and a featured therapist on StayMarriedFlorida.com. Through his work, John empowers clients to move beyond chronic anxiety and toward greater clarity, emotional safety, and lasting calm.