Therapy Resources and Tools for Anxiety — Curated by Dr. Jaime Bercuson, PsyD
Resources
& Tools
Evidence-based tools, worksheets, books, podcasts, and recommendations to support your mental health journey. Curated by Dr. Jaime Bercuson, PsyD — for the woman who looks fine on the outside and is white-knuckling on the inside.
This page offers free, evidence-based anxiety therapy resources curated by Dr. Jaime Bercuson, PsyD — a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in high-functioning anxiety in high-achieving women. It includes a free downloadable High-Functioning Anxiety Toolkit; CBT worksheets (Thinking Traps, CBT Thought Record, Worry Time, Box Breathing); DBT handouts (Radical Acceptance, Wise Mind); 5-4-3-2-1 grounding; recommended books (Bourne, Burns, McKay, Nagoski, Tawwab, Suglani, Neff, Smith, Brown); recommended podcasts (The Anxiety Reset, We Can Do Hard Things, Ten Percent Happier, Unlocking Us, The Anxious Truth); TED Talks on anxiety (Damour, Remes, Brown, Puddicombe); apps (Calm, Headspace, Insight Timer, Woebot, Finch, How We Feel); printable journals (The Anti-Anxiety Notebook, The Five Minute Journal); relationship resources (the 5 Love Languages quiz, Esther Perel's Where Should We Begin?, the Gottman Institute); a directory of therapist finders (Psychology Today, ADAA, ABCT, Inclusive Therapists, Therapy for Black Girls, Open Path); 24/7 crisis hotlines (988, Crisis Text Line, SAMHSA, NDVH); and links to authoritative psychoeducation from NIMH, ADAA, APA, NAMI, HelpGuide, and ABCT.
The High-Functioning Anxiety Toolkit
A 12-page workbook for the woman who's running on adrenaline and pretending it's discipline. Five science-backed tools you can use today — written for the woman who already knows how to push through, and is starting to wonder what it's costing her.
- The Sunday-Night Anxiety Reset
- A worry-window worksheet that actually works
- Boundary scripts for high-achievers (no over-explaining)
- A 90-second nervous-system reset
- The thought record I send my clients on day one
Check your inbox — and grab your copy now:
Download the Toolkit (PDF)Practical tools you can use today
These are some of the worksheets and handouts I recommend most often. All are free to download and use on your own or alongside therapy.
Thinking Traps
Identify common cognitive distortions like fortune-telling, catastrophizing, and black-and-white thinking. One of the most practical CBT tools for understanding how anxiety distorts your thoughts.
Radical Acceptance
A visual reminder of what radical acceptance looks like in practice — a core DBT distress tolerance skill. Accepting reality as it is doesn't mean approving of it; it means choosing to stop fighting what you can't change. View image →
Wise Mind
A DBT mindfulness skill that helps you find the balance between emotion and logic. The Wise Mind Venn diagram shows how Emotional Mind and Reasonable Mind overlap — and how to access that centered place where you can honor your feelings while still thinking clearly. View image →
CBT Thought Record
Track and challenge anxious thoughts using this classic CBT tool. Helps you identify the situation, your automatic thought, emotions, evidence for and against, and a more balanced perspective.
Grounding Techniques (5-4-3-2-1) by Therapist Aid
A simple sensory-based technique to bring you back to the present moment during anxiety or panic. Name 5 things you see, 4 you hear, 3 you touch, 2 you smell, and 1 you taste.
Worry Exploration Questions by Therapist Aid
A structured set of prompts that helps you separate productive worry (problem-solving) from unproductive worry (rumination). Use it during your designated worry-window so anxious thoughts don't bleed into the rest of your day.
Box Breathing & Deep Breathing by Therapist Aid
Four-count box breathing (in 4 / hold 4 / out 4 / hold 4) is one of the fastest ways to signal safety to a nervous system stuck in fight-or-flight. Two minutes is usually enough to feel a shift.
Anxiety Self-Help Modules by Centre for Clinical Interventions
Free, comprehensive, evidence-based CBT workbooks from a public Australian mental health service. Their anxiety, perfectionism, and self-compassion modules are some of the best free resources I know of.
A List of Emotions adapted from Susan David
A categorized emotion vocabulary list covering six core feeling families — angry, sad, anxious, hurt, embarrassed, and happy — with roughly ten specific words under each. Building a richer emotional vocabulary helps you name what you're actually feeling instead of defaulting to "fine" or "stressed."
Emotion Wheel
A visual tool that maps emotions from broad core feelings at the center to increasingly specific words at the outer ring. Use it when you know something feels "off" but can't quite name it — start at the center and work outward until you land on something that fits. View image →
Noticing What You Feel
A 60-second daily emotional check-in practice with three simple questions. Helps you build the habit of pausing to notice what you're feeling, where you feel it in your body, and what triggered it — using the format "I felt ___ when ___ happened."
Feelings & Body Sensations List by Hoffman Institute
An extensive vocabulary list pairing feeling words with the physical sensations that often accompany them. Helpful for connecting the dots between what's happening in your body and the emotion underneath — especially if you tend to intellectualize or disconnect from feelings.
Books I recommend to clients
I only recommend books I've read and use in my practice. If a book is on this list, it has earned a place on my own shelf.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
The go-to self-help workbook for anxiety, now in its 7th edition. Covers relaxation, cognitive restructuring, exposure, and lifestyle changes.
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
The classic CBT book that has helped millions. Practical techniques for challenging negative thoughts and improving mood.
The DBT Skills Workbook
Hands-on exercises for the four core DBT skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
High-Functioning Anxiety: A 5-Step Guide
Written for the woman who looks like she has it all together while feeling overwhelmed inside. The closest book on the market to my work with clients.
Burnout: Unlocking the Stress Cycle
For women who carry the mental load. Explores the science of stress and practical strategies for completing the stress cycle.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace
A practical guide to establishing healthy boundaries in relationships, work, and family — essential for women who tend to overextend.
Self-Compassion
The foundational book on treating yourself the way you'd treat a friend. A correction for the internal voice high-achievers tend to live with.
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
Plain-language psychology in short, readable chapters. A gentle entry point if therapy concepts feel intimidating.
Atlas of the Heart
A precise vocabulary for 87 emotions you've felt but couldn't name. Naming what you feel is half the work.
Untamed
A memoir about breaking free from the expectations placed on women. Resonates deeply with high-achieving women navigating anxiety and self-discovery.
Listen on your commute
If reading feels like one more task, podcasts are an easy way to keep the work going between sessions.
The Anxiety Reset Podcast
Specifically for high-achieving women breaking free from high-functioning anxiety. The closest podcast to my work with clients.
We Can Do Hard Things
Honest, vulnerable conversations about the things we don't usually say out loud — relationships, identity, and showing up for yourself.
Ten Percent Happier
A skeptical journalist interviews researchers, monks, and therapists about meditation, anxiety, and being a less reactive person.
Unlocking Us
Deep conversations on shame, vulnerability, courage, and what it actually takes to live wholeheartedly.
The Anxious Truth
Straight-talking, evidence-based anxiety education. Especially good for panic and health anxiety.
Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Parenting
Smart, calm psychology for raising teens — and for the high-achieving women who often were the high-achieving teens.
Worth fifteen minutes of your day
Talks I share with clients on anxiety, vulnerability, and the inner life of high-functioning people.
3 steps of anxiety overload — and how to take back control
The clearest, most practical breakdown of when anxiety is helpful and when it tips into harm. I send this to almost every client.
How to cope with anxiety
A counterintuitive permission slip: do it badly. A perfect antidote to the perfectionism that drives so much anxiety.
The Power of Vulnerability
The talk that started a movement. On shame, connection, and why showing up imperfectly is the whole point.
All it takes is 10 mindful minutes
Co-founder of Headspace. The most accessible argument I've heard for why a daily mindfulness habit matters.
Tools for between sessions
These apps are not a replacement for therapy, but they can be a valuable supplement — especially for building daily mindfulness, mood-tracking, and coping habits.
Calm
Guided meditations, sleep stories, and breathing exercises. Great for daily mindfulness practice.
Headspace
Structured meditation courses for anxiety, stress, and focus. Good for beginners.
Insight Timer
Free meditation library with thousands of guided sessions. Trusted by 125,000+ mental health professionals.
Woebot
An AI-powered CBT chatbot that helps you practice cognitive behavioral techniques between therapy sessions.
Finch
Gamified self-care that keeps a little bird alive when you do small caring things for yourself. A surprising favorite among anxious overachievers.
How We Feel
Free, research-backed mood tracking from a nonprofit collaboration with Yale. Builds emotional vocabulary one check-in at a time.
Pen-and-paper tools that actually work
Sometimes the most useful tool isn't an app. These are the structured journals I most often suggest to clients.
The Anti-Anxiety Notebook
A guided journal built on CBT principles. Each entry walks you through identifying the thought, the feeling, and a more balanced reframe — exactly the work I do with clients in session.
The Five Minute Journal
A morning and evening gratitude practice that takes five minutes. Small, consistent, and surprisingly powerful for anxious minds prone to scanning for threat.
The Mindfulness Journal
Daily prompts for noticing what's actually happening in your body and mind, instead of running on autopilot. Pairs well with any meditation app.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
The same book in the reading list, but worth flagging here too — it's a true workbook, with exercises designed to be written in. The closest thing to a self-guided CBT course.
Resources for the relationships in your life
Anxiety rarely lives in a vacuum. These are the relationship-focused resources I most often share with clients — whether you're partnered, dating, parenting, or somewhere in between.
The Best Relationship Advice You Will Ever Receive
Whether you're married, dating, or single — this video will change the way you show up in your love life. One of my favorite recommendations for clients navigating relationships.
The 5 Love Languages Quiz
A short, free quiz that surfaces how you most naturally give and receive love. A useful starting point for couples who keep missing each other in the same way over and over.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
A clear, compassionate map for adults who grew up with parents who couldn't fully show up emotionally. Often the missing piece for high-achievers whose drive started as a way to earn attunement that should have been given freely.
→ Listen: Dr. Gibson on We Can Do Hard Things
Where Should We Begin?
Real, anonymous couples in real, single-session therapy with one of the most respected relationship therapists in the world. The work feels honest in a way most relationship media doesn't.
The Gottman Institute
Decades of relationship research distilled into practical articles, quizzes, and tools. Their work on the Four Horsemen and repair attempts is foundational reading for anyone serious about a long-term partnership.
Looking outside Utah, California, or Florida?
I'm only able to see clients in the states where I'm licensed. If you're elsewhere, these are the directories I'd start with.
If you or someone you know needs immediate help
These resources are available 24/7 and are completely free and confidential. You do not need to be a client to use them.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988
Available 24/7
Crisis Text Line
Text HOME to 741741
Free, confidential 24/7 support
SAMHSA National Helpline
Call 1-800-662-4357
Free referrals and information 24/7
National Domestic Violence Hotline
Call 1-800-799-7233
24/7 confidential support
Veterans Crisis Line
Call 988 then press 1
Or text 838255
The Trevor Project
Call 1-866-488-7386
Crisis support for LGBTQ+ youth
Trusted psychoeducation resources
These organizations offer authoritative, research-backed information on anxiety and mental health.
Recent writing
Notes from my practice on high-functioning anxiety, boundaries, and the inner life of high-achieving women.
What high-functioning anxiety actually looks like in successful women
You're getting promoted, hitting your goals, holding it all together. So why do you feel like you're one bad email away from falling apart?
Read article → BoundariesHow to set a boundary without apologizing for it
Most "boundary scripts" are still apology scripts in disguise. Here's how to say no like an adult who isn't asking permission.
Read article → BurnoutWhen pushing through stops working
For most of my clients, the strategy that got them here is the same strategy now driving them into the ground. The way out isn't more effort.
Read article →Resources FAQ
Some of the best free resources for anxiety include CBT worksheets like the Thinking Traps handout, the CBT Thought Record, and grounding techniques such as the 5-4-3-2-1 sensory exercise. Free apps like Insight Timer offer thousands of guided meditations. Authoritative psychoeducation sites like NIMH, ADAA, NAMI, and APA provide excellent, research-backed information on anxiety disorders and treatment options.
Top recommended books for anxiety include The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund Bourne, Feeling Good by David Burns, and The DBT Skills Workbook by Matthew McKay. For high-achieving women specifically, High-Functioning Anxiety by Dr. Lalitaa Suglani, Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, and Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab are highly recommended.
Recommended apps for anxiety management include Calm (guided meditations and breathing exercises), Headspace (structured meditation courses), Insight Timer (free meditation library trusted by 125,000+ mental health professionals), Woebot (AI-powered CBT chatbot), Finch (gamified self-care), and How We Feel (research-backed mood tracking).
Free CBT worksheets are available from several trusted sources. The Thinking Traps handout helps identify common cognitive distortions. Therapist Aid provides a 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding worksheet and box-breathing handouts. Psychology Tools and the Centre for Clinical Interventions also offer evidence-based CBT worksheets.
Podcasts I recommend for anxiety in women include The Anxiety Reset Podcast with Georgie Collinson (specifically for high-achieving women with high-functioning anxiety), We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris, Unlocking Us with Brené Brown, and The Anxious Truth by Drew Linsalata.
High-functioning anxiety refers to people who experience persistent anxiety while continuing to perform well — outwardly successful, internally exhausted. Burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental depletion caused by prolonged stress, marked by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness. They often overlap: chronic high-functioning anxiety frequently progresses to burnout when the nervous system can no longer keep up with sustained over-functioning.
Free resources are an excellent supplement to therapy and can support your day-to-day mental health, but they are not a replacement for working with a licensed therapist when symptoms interfere with your relationships, work, sleep, or quality of life. Self-help tools work best alongside professional support, especially for persistent anxiety, panic, trauma, or significant life transitions.
Reputable directories for finding a licensed therapist outside Utah, California, and Florida include Psychology Today, the ADAA Find-a-Therapist directory, the ABCT directory of CBT therapists, Inclusive Therapists, Therapy for Black Girls, and Open Path Collective for sliding-scale therapy. Look for clinicians who specialize in your specific concern and offer the modality you want, such as CBT or DBT.
Resources are a great start. Therapy is the real work.
If you're ready to move beyond self-help and work with a therapist who specializes in anxiety for high-achieving women, schedule a free 15-minute consultation.