Anxiety Therapy in Denver | Specialized, Evidence-Based Treatment
If you’re stuck in cycles of worry, intrusive thoughts, panic, or endless “what ifs,” you’re not alone. I’m Josh Kaplan, LCSW, and I provide evidence based anxiety and OCD therapy in Denver and throughout Colorado, helping teens and adults break these patterns and regain a sense of calm and confidence.
Meet Josh Kaplan, LCSW
Denver Anxiety and OCD Specialist
Hi, I’m Josh Kaplan. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing exclusively in anxiety disorders and OCD. My practice is focused on evidence-based treatment, not general counseling, with an emphasis on helping clients break out of fear-driven cycles and move forward with greater flexibility and confidence.
Training and Treatment Approach
My work is grounded in CBT, Exposure Therapy, ERP, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, with over a decade of specialized experience treating OCD and anxiety disorders. Treatment is practical, direct, and focused on lasting change rather than short-term symptom management.
Over a decade of exclusive specialization in treating Anxiety Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Advanced expertise in CBT, Exposure Therapy, and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Structured, clear, actionable, and collaborative treatment that helps clients understand the “why” behind each step of therapy
Contributing member of the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)
The Anxiety Cycle That Keeps You Stuck
What Anxiety Disorders Really Are
Anxiety disorders are not simply about stress or overthinking. They are driven by a sensitized nervous system that has learned to misinterpret certain thoughts, bodily sensations, or situations as dangerous. This triggers fear responses that feel urgent, overwhelming, and difficult to control.
How Anxiety, Avoidance, and Safety Behaviors Reinforce Each Other
When anxiety is triggered, the natural impulse is to escape, avoid, or reduce discomfort as quickly as possible. This may include avoiding certain places or activities, constantly monitoring bodily sensations, seeking reassurance, over-preparing, or using coping behaviors meant to prevent panic or illness. While these behaviors bring short-term relief, they teach the brain that anxiety truly was dangerous, reinforcing the cycle and increasing sensitivity over time.
Why Talk Therapy Alone Isn't Enough for Anxiety Disorders
How Avoidance and Control Attempts Maintain Anxiety
Traditional talk therapy often focuses on insight, emotional processing, or reassurance. For anxiety disorders, these approaches may provide temporary comfort but often fail to address the behaviors that keep anxiety going. Avoidance and attempts to control anxiety can unintentionally strengthen fear and reduce tolerance for discomfort.
Why Understanding Anxiety Is Not the Same as Recovering
Many people with anxiety already understand that their fears are exaggerated or unlikely. Recovery requires changing how you respond to anxiety in real time, not simply understanding why it exists. Effective treatment focuses on retraining the nervous system rather than eliminating anxious thoughts altogether.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Exposure Therapy: The Gold-Standard Treatment for Anxiety
How Evidence-Based Anxiety Treatment Works
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Exposure Therapy is considered the gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders. This approach helps you gradually face feared sensations, thoughts, or situations while reducing avoidance and safety behaviors. Over time, the nervous system learns that anxiety is uncomfortable but not dangerous.
How Exposure Therapy Reduces Anxiety Over Time
By repeatedly responding differently to anxiety triggers, the fear response weakens. Panic becomes less intense, anxiety episodes become less frequent, and confidence in your ability to handle discomfort increases.
What You Learn Through Treatment
Treatment focuses on building tolerance for uncertainty, allowing anxious sensations to rise and fall naturally, and disengaging from unhelpful mental habits such as constant monitoring or reassurance-seeking. As these skills develop, overall anxiety decreases, distress becomes more manageable, and many people begin to feel a greater sense of safety within their own mind and body. The goal is not to eliminate anxiety completely, but to prevent it from running your life.
CBT and Exposure Therapy for Anxiety in Denver
CBT that includes Exposure Therapy is the most effective, evidence-based treatment for Anxiety Disorders and is the primary approach I use with clients in Denver and throughout Colorado. Treatment focuses on breaking the anxiety cycle by helping you respond differently to feared sensations, thoughts, or situations rather than trying to eliminate them.
Why Specialized Treatment Matters
Anxiety Treatment Requires Precision
While many therapists offer CBT, effective anxiety treatment requires careful identification of avoidance patterns and subtle safety behaviors, along with specialized training in exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is a distinct area of specialization that not all therapists are trained in. My work is grounded in advanced training in both CBT and exposure-based treatments, allowing therapy to target anxiety at its core rather than unintentionally reinforcing fear.
How Treatment Can Stall Without Specialization
There are many therapies that claim to treat anxiety, but many focus primarily on surface-level symptom management rather than true recovery. When treatment centers on reassurance, avoidance, or short-term relief, progress often plateaus and anxiety remains fragile beneath the surface. Specialized treatment takes a different approach by targeting the underlying mechanisms that maintain anxiety, leading to more durable, long-term change rather than temporary symptom control.
The Benefits of Online Anxiety Therapy in Denver and Throughout Colorado
Practicing Treatment Where Anxiety Actually Shows Up
Online anxiety therapy allows treatment to take place in real-world environments where anxiety is triggered. This may include your home, car, workplace, social situations, or public spaces.
Applying Skills in Daily Life
Because exposures and skill practice happen in real contexts, treatment is more targeted and effective. Skills learned in session are immediately applied to daily life, accelerating progress.
What to Expect From Online Anxiety Therapy
Sessions are structured, collaborative, and tailored to your specific anxiety presentation. Online therapy is offered throughout Colorado, and many clients notice meaningful improvement within 8–12 sessions.
Anxiety Disorders I Treat
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Treatment (All Themes & Subtypes)
OCD involves intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors that create cycles of fear and temporary relief. I use Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold-standard treatment, to help you break that cycle, retrain your brain’s response to anxiety, and reduce both obsessions and compulsions over time.
Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder Treatment
Panic attacks can feel terrifying and unpredictable, often leading people to avoid certain situations or places. Using CBT + Exposure Therapy, we work together to gradually and safely face the physical sensations and triggers of panic in a structured way, helping you reduce fear, decrease the frequency of panic attacks, lower overall anxiety, and rebuild confidence in your ability to cope.
Illness Anxiety Disorder Treatment (Health Anxiety)
Health anxiety causes persistent fears about physical symptoms or medical conditions, even when reassurance or medical tests show nothing is wrong. Through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), I help clients reduce checking, reassurance seeking, and compulsive online researching while learning to trust their body and tolerate uncertainty. Over time, this leads to less preoccupation with health concerns and a significant decrease in overall anxiety.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatment (Chronic Worry)
With Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), worry becomes a habit your brain struggles to turn off. Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), we’ll target the thoughts and behaviors that keep anxiety going. You’ll learn how to interrupt excessive worry, shift your focus to the present, and gradually retrain your brain to respond more calmly and confidently to life’s uncertainties.
Agoraphobia Treatment
From grocery stores and highways to crowded spaces and being far from home, agoraphobia can shrink your world quickly. With targeted CBT and Exposure Therapy, we gradually and systematically face the places, situations, and sensations you’ve been avoiding so your nervous system can relearn safety, your confidence can return, and your life can expand again.
Emetophobia Treatment (Fear of Throwing Up)
Emetophobia is far more common than most people realize, affecting both children and adults whose lives quietly shrink around the fear of throwing up. From everyday sensations and routines to places, foods, and situations that suddenly feel risky, this fear can quickly take over. With targeted CBT and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), we gradually and systematically face the cues, situations, and sensations you’ve been avoiding. Over time, your brain relearns safety, the fear loosens its grip, and you can return to living with confidence, ease, and a much wider world.
And All the Other Ways Anxiety Shows Up
Anxiety doesn’t always fit neatly into a checklist or a textbook definition. Sometimes it shows up in ways that feel confusing, contradictory, or hard to explain. If you’re feeling anxious but aren’t sure what’s happening or why, that’s okay. Together, we can sort through the symptoms, identify what’s driving the fear, and apply effective, evidence-based treatment. You don’t have to have it all figured out before reaching out. That’s what therapy is for.
Anxiety Therapy in Denver and Across Colorado
My passion is helping people recover from Anxiety and OCD, whether symptoms are mild, moderate, or severe. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, afraid, and tired, I encourage you to reach out and schedule a free online consultation with me. We can discuss your current symptoms and explore what specialized anxiety treatment would look like for your specific situation, tailored to your individual needs and goals.
Online Anxiety Therapy Services
I provide online anxiety therapy for clients throughout Colorado, making specialized treatment accessible regardless of location.
Serving Denver and Surrounding Areas
This includes Denver, Aurora, Littleton, Centennial, Lakewood, Highlands Ranch, and other communities across the state.
Start Anxiety Therapy in Denver
If Anxiety or OCD has been controlling more of your life than you want, help is available. With the right treatment, it is possible to break out of the cycle and move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
I offer a free 20 minute online consultation to answer questions, discuss your symptoms, and help you determine whether my approach is the right fit.
CBT 4 Anxiety