Therapy for Overthinkers
Located in Boston, MA. Serving adults throughout Massachusetts & Florida.
Untangle the thoughts THAT KEEP you stuck.
Sometimes, it feels like your brain has a mind of its own. Like you’ve got no control over your thoughts. When you’re busy, it’s not so bad. But, in those slivers of downtime, your thoughts run wild. Sometimes they’re interesting, like ideas for your next project. More often, they’re stressful: replays of all the things that went wrong over the past week, lists of the tasks you have to do, predictions for how something will go wrong in the future.
Your brain is always on overdrive. It never stops working. And, you’re exhausted.
You’ve tried to make it stop. You bought that scented candle that your friend recommended. You started meditating… kind of. You even went to a yoga class. Nothing’s worked. If only you could get some space, maybe you could actually organize those thoughts.
A moment of peace would be amazing…
THINKING CAN BE SUCH AN ASSET!
It helps with work, with scheduling, with home life, and with solving problems. But it can also feel like a hindrance. Getting caught up in your thoughts makes it hard to be present, slow down, and enjoy what’s in front of you
Have your loved ones ever told you that “you’re not really here” or that they “can never get your attention”? It can feel impossible to focus on the person in front of you when your thoughts are yelling for your attention.
Overthinking can make it hard to focus on tasks at work. It can make you feel overwhelmed easily. This makes sense, right? When your brain is working overtime to process so many thoughts, it can be hard to make sense of the task in front of you. And, it can feel hard to make a decision. When your brain is already fatigued from running through thoughts, it can feel impossible to do the deductive reasoning needed for decision-making.
overthinking can make us work s0 hard to tackle a problem that we end up feeling exhausted and stuck.
Do these situations feel familiar?
You feel overwhelmed by too many options.
You think through every possible outcome until you become so inundated with information that you can’t make a decision.
You get caught in the research, but freeze when it’s time to take action.
You feel paralyzed or lost without a plan.
You don’t trust your feelings and work hard to override strong emotions by thoroughly thinking things through.
You repeatedly review something you’ve said or done to determine whether you may have done something wrong or possibly offended someone.
Let’s slow your thoughts down and explore them.
In therapy, We Can…
Explore the Pattern of Overthinking: When thinking becomes overthinking, it feels less like a tool and more like an obstacle. Let’s gain a better understanding of when your brain moves toward overthinking. What are the triggers? What is your brain trying to accomplish at those times?
Slow down the thoughts: When you’re in the process of overthinking, it can be hard to separate out and understand all of the different ideas that you’re having. Your thoughts can form a huge knot that feels impossible to untangle. In therapy, we can separate those thoughts out from each other and give space to each.
Find the feelings: If only we could solve all problems by thinking… but we can’t. Feelings are vital in helping us understand what we need and want. And, while thoughts can feel easier to quantify (who doesn’t love a good pros/cons list?), they can obfuscate our feelings, making it hard to find our internal compass. In therapy, we can give space to both the thoughts and the feelings, helping you make decisions that not only seem right, but feel right.
Therapy for overthinking can help you
Reduce overwhelm.
Make decisions more easily.
Develop strategies for slowing down and sorting through thoughts.
Gain trust in yourself.
Understand patterns in your thinking.
Feel more focused and present at home, at work, and with friends.
Let’s help your brain work less so that you can enjoy the things that matter to you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
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No, I will not. Some people really love meditation; others don’t. And, while I believe that meditation can be very helpful with overthinking, I also believe that it’s not the right fit for everyone.
Read on for a short plug for meditation and a note on other activities that can be helpful for folx who don’t like meditation.
The Plug: Meditation has a number of benefits: it helps us notice our thoughts and better understand them. It helps us practice creating space in our minds. It decreases stress and increases focus.
The Other Activities: A number of other activities can have some of the same benefits that meditation does: walking, observing the environment around you, making art, playing music, dancing, cooking, etc. What’s your meditation?
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While therapy may not completely eliminate overthinking, it will help you: identify when you are beginning to overthink something, know the situations that make you more likely to overthink, and develop strategies for easing overthinking when it’s happening. Therapy will help decrease instances of overthinking.
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No. Overthinking may be due to anxiety, but it can also be related to a number of other things. Here are a few:
Stress: our brains may respond to pressure by trying to think through everything that is weighing on us.
Facing a Difficult Decision: When trying to make a choice, our brains often try to predict the future and run through all possible outcomes.
Having too many choices: Have you heard of decision fatigue and analysis paralysis? Too many options can send our brain into overload.
Perfectionism: When we’re trying to make things perfectly, we tend to run through all the things that could possibly be wrong or that we could do better.
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Better understanding and trusting your feelings can be helpful for so many reasons, but we’ll focus on how feelings relate to overthinking:
When our brains go into overdrive, there is always an emotion below all the thinking. Becoming more familiar with our feelings can help us understand and tend to the root of overthinking. In turn, this can decrease our overthinking.
Feelings can also give us incredibly important information about our environments, our experiences, and our own mental states.