Health Anxiety Therapy in Stourbridge & Online UK-wide

 

What is Health Anxiety?

Health anxiety often involves a pattern of misinterpreting normal or benign bodily sensations as signs of serious disease, followed by reassurance-seeking and checking (self-exams, internet searches, GP visits, tests, asking others). These behaviours often reduce anxiety in the short-term but sensitise attention to threat and increase doubt over time.​​

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What it looks like...

• Checking the body for signs of illness, such as lumps, tingles, asymmetry, moles, heart rate, bowel changes.

• Repeated GP visits/tests despite “all clear” results.

• Endless symptom Googling and forum trawling.

• Reassurance seeking from partners/ friends & family (“Are you sure this isn’t…?”).

• Avoidance of exercise/sex/travel in case it “triggers something.”

• Brief relief after a check, then the fear returns—often about a new disease.

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Why it keeps you stuck (the reassurance cycle)

Short-term checking and reassurance reduce our tolerance for uncertainty, leading to cycles of checking and reassurance seeking to manage uncertainty when anxiety provoking thoughts show up.  Paradoxically, the more we try to achieve total certainty the worse our anxiety tends to become.  Attention narrows, sensations amplify, and uncertainty becomes intolerable.
Our aim: break the cycle, improve tolerance for uncertainty, and rebuild a life not organised around physical sensations.

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Therapy for Health Anxiety

​Evidence-based treatment involves a cognitive behavioural approach, utilising exposure/response prevention to reduce avoidance of uncertainty (dropping reassurance and checking in response to anxiety provoking thoughts) alongside gaining new skills to help improve tolerance of bodily sensations and redirect behaviour instead toward importance aspects of your life, which are often negatively impacted by health anxiety.

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What changes

• Reduction in googling, checking, reassurance seeking - such as “just to be safe” tests at the GP.

• Reduced impact of anxiety and increased ability to respond effectively to uncertainly and uncomfortable thoughts and feelings

• Increased ability to carry uncertainty without spiralling.

• Normal activities return

• Progress measured by being able to actively re-engage with life, not by “never noticing sensations.”

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Fees & logistics

• Individual therapy: £125 per 60-minute session

• Location: Stourbridge (West Midlands) & online across the UK

• Availability: Daytime and limited early evenings

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FAQs

• Should I stop seeing my GP?
  No. We create clear criteria for appropriate medical checks (e.g., new, persistent, function-impacting symptoms). Therapy targets excess checking and reassurance, not sensible healthcare.

• What if the symptoms are real?
  Sometimes they are. We plan for both realities: (1) when it’s benign, you follow the therapy rules; (2) when red-flag criteria are met, you seek care. Either way, you don’t need compulsive reassurance.

• Is this the same as OCD?
  There’s overlap. Many people with health anxiety use OCD-like compulsions (checking, mental review, reassurance). The treatment principles are similar: A cognitive behavioural approach, including exposure + response prevention

• How long does therapy take?
  Many clients see functional gains in 12 sessions. Long-standing or complex presentations may take longer. We’ll tailor frequency to progress and goals.

 

Next Steps:

Enquire about availability for face to face appointments Stourbridge.

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Or, if you would prefer an online appointment, you can find out more by clicking the button below

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