You feel it before you can name it. Your chest tightens on the drive up I-77 toward another packed workday. Your mind starts rehearsing the meeting that has already gone wrong seventeen different ways, and it is still two days away. So you do what makes sense in the moment. You reread the email a ninth time, and you cancel the dinner plans.
New research suggests that what happens next, the way you respond to those anxious feelings, may shape your long-term well-being as much as the anxiety itself. That finding is good news, because your response is something therapy can help you change.
Anxiety Has a Job to Do
Anxiety is one of the oldest tools your nervous system has. It scans ahead for trouble and nudges you to prepare, the way a smoke detector sounds before a fire spreads. A smoke detector that occasionally goes off over burnt toast is annoying, and it is still doing its job. Your brain works the same way. It would rather warn you ten times too often than stay silent the one time it matters.
That protective wiring makes sense. It kept your ancestors alive, and it still gets you to the airport on time. The friction shows up in modern life, where the alarm can sound over a performance review or a quiet Sunday with too much room to think.
What Psychological Flexibility Looks Like
Psychologists use the term psychological flexibility to describe the capacity to feel a difficult emotion and still choose your next step based on what matters to you. Picture two people at the same South End rooftop gathering, both feeling the same wave of social nervousness. One notices the feeling, lets it ride along, and stays because the friendships in that room matter to them. The other leaves the moment the discomfort arrives.
Both responses are understandable. Both are attempts at self-protection. Over time, though, the rigid version tends to shrink a life. The gathering gets skipped, then the job interview, then the difficult conversation, and the anxiety learns that the alarm works. Flexibility keeps your choices connected to your values rather than to the alarm.
What the Research Found
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology in 2026 looked directly at this question. Researchers from the University at Albany and Duke University surveyed 265 adults from the community. The surveys asked how intense each person’s recent anxiety had been and how rigidly they responded to distress, and each person reported whether they had experienced clinical anxiety at any point in their lives.
More intense anxiety went along with a higher likelihood of that history, which fits what earlier research has shown. Even after the researchers accounted for how strong the anxiety was, rigid and avoidant responses to distress remained strongly linked to a lifetime history of clinical anxiety. Each one-point increase on the flexibility measure was associated with nearly three times the odds of that history. The team then repeated the study with 853 university students and found the same pattern.
The study has honest limits. It captured a single point in time, so it can show a connection rather than a cause. It is possible that rigid responding deepens struggles with anxiety, or that long struggles with anxiety teach rigidity. The influence may also run in both directions at once. Either way, the response to anxiety stands out as a place to focus, and it is a place where change is possible.
If anxiety has been narrowing your life, our anxiety therapy page describes how we approach this work at Montgomery Counseling Group (MCG).
Building Flexibility in Therapy
Flexibility is a capacity, and capacities can grow. At MCG, our clinicians draw on several approaches that build it. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you notice the thought patterns that turn a single worry into a spiral, and it creates room to respond differently. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches concrete skills for riding out intense emotion while staying anchored to what you value. Mindfulness practices, present throughout much of our work, strengthen the muscle of noticing a feeling without being run by it.
Across our practice, we share a common starting point: the ways you have protected yourself from anxiety made sense. They were your nervous system doing its job. Therapy honors that, and it helps you build a wider range of responses so the alarm informs your choices instead of making them for you.
Anxiety Support in Charlotte
Montgomery Counseling Group offers anxiety therapy in person at our Park Road office in Charlotte and through telehealth across North Carolina. Getting started begins with a free 20-minute consultation, a low-pressure conversation about what you are experiencing and whether we are a good fit. A sliding scale is available, and our rates and insurance page covers the details.
When you are ready, you can schedule that first conversation online. Anxiety may keep sounding its alarm. With support, you can decide what happens next.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is psychological flexibility?
Psychological flexibility is the capacity to experience difficult thoughts and feelings while still choosing actions based on your values and goals. A flexible response to nervousness at a social event might mean noticing the feeling and staying because the people there matter to you.
Can anxiety serve a useful purpose?
Yes. Anxiety is part of your brain’s threat-detection system. It prompts you to anticipate challenges and prepare for them. It becomes painful when the alarm sounds too often or too loudly, and when rigid attempts to silence it start to narrow your life.
How does therapy help build psychological flexibility?
Approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and mindfulness-based work help you notice anxious thoughts and feelings and stay steady through the discomfort they bring, so your actions follow what matters to you rather than the urge to avoid.
How do I get started with anxiety therapy in Charlotte?
Montgomery Counseling Group offers a free 20-minute consultation, in person at our Park Road office or by telehealth anywhere in North Carolina. You can schedule online through our booking page, and a sliding scale is available.
Clinician Bio Blocks
John Burns is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and an EMDRIA Approved Consultant at Montgomery Counseling Group in Charlotte, NC. He specializes in complex and developmental trauma and works with adults on the long-term effects of earlier relational experiences. John uses EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Ericksonian Clinical Hypnosis in his practice. The EMDRIA Approved Consultant designation is an advanced EMDRIA credential that qualifies clinicians to provide formal consultation to other EMDR therapists. He offers in-person sessions in Charlotte and telehealth services throughout North Carolina.
Taylor Banner is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker Associate at Montgomery Counseling Group in Charlotte, NC. She works with individuals, couples, and families, with a focus on communication, trust, and emotional connection. Taylor is trained in Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) and Structural Family Therapy (SFT), approaches that help people understand relational patterns and build stronger, more secure bonds. Her work also draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based approaches. She offers in-person sessions in Charlotte and telehealth services throughout North Carolina
Michelle Daley, LCMHC, is a Senior Clinician at Montgomery Counseling Group in Charlotte, NC, working with children and adolescents. She creates a warm, child-centered space where young people feel safe to express what they are working through and begin to build the emotional skills that support long-term well-being. An EMDR Trained Clinician trained in Play Therapy, Michelle draws on EMDR, play therapy, and person-centered approaches to adapt to each child’s pace and starting point.
Naila McConnell is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate at Montgomery Counseling Group. She is a Certified Dialectical Behavior Therapist and is trained in Alternatives for Families: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (AF-CBT), a trauma-informed approach designed for families experiencing high conflict or a history of physical aggression. Naila works with adults, children, adolescents, couples, and families, and her practice addresses mental health and substance use concerns. She offers in-person sessions in Charlotte and telehealth services throughout North Carolina
Javontae Bradley is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor Associate at Montgomery Counseling Group in Charlotte, NC. His clinical focus includes men’s issues, trauma-informed care, and culturally responsive psychotherapy. He works with individuals experiencing anger, relational stress, and the emotional patterns that develop when there is no framework for processing them. His practice is informed by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Javontae offers in-person sessions in Charlotte and telehealth services throughout North Carolina.
Meredith Turner-Toth is a Senior Clinician and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) at Montgomery Counseling Group in Charlotte, NC. She works with adolescents and adults and brings experience across crisis intervention, group therapy leadership, and trauma-informed care. Meredith draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing, and trauma-informed approaches to support people working through depression, anxiety, grief, life transitions, and relationship stress. She offers in-person sessions at the Park Road office and telehealth sessions throughout North Carolina
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- A Guide on Play Therapy in Charlotte for Parents
- How Play Therapy Helps Children Process Trauma and Build Resilience
- EMDR Therapy for Teens and Children in Charlotte, NC
- Your Child Isn’t Acting Out, They’re Asking for Help
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- NIMH: Anxiety Disorders in Children
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