You might recognize some of this
- Lying awake running the same thought around at three in the morning.
- Saying no to things you used to say yes to.
- A stomach that hurts before anything has even happened.
- Snapping at people you love and not knowing why.
- Checking, planning and rehearsing until the day is used up.
- Feeling your heart go before your head catches up.
In children it often does not look like worry at all. It looks like stomachaches, refusing school, clinginess, or a temper that arrives from nowhere.
How Ann Marie works with this
Counseling for anxiety is practical. You will learn what your anxiety is actually doing, work out which of the things you have been doing to cope are keeping it going, and build skills that work in your body and not only in your head. Where avoidance has narrowed your life, you will go at that gradually and at a pace you set.
It is not a lecture and it is not homework for its own sake. It is a plan you help build.
Who this is for
Children from age three, teenagers, adults and older adults. Individually, or with a parent or partner where that helps.
About medication
Ann Marie is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She does not prescribe medication. Some people do better with medication alongside counseling, and if that looks likely we will help you talk to your doctor and, with your written permission, work alongside them.
Coming from Tawas City, West Branch or Oscoda
People drive in to Hale for anxiety counseling from right across the Sunrise Side. The road times are worth knowing before you commit to a weekly appointment, so here they are.
- Tawas City, about 32 minutes by road.
- West Branch, about 40 minutes by road.
- Oscoda, in Iosco County, about 45 minutes by road.
Say which town you are coming from when you call. It changes which times are sensible to offer you, and on the longer drives a longer appointment spaced further apart sometimes works better than a weekly hour. Road times from the rest of the area are on the service area page.
Practical
Sessions are 30 or 60 minutes. The first appointment is longer and is mostly about getting to know you; what to expect and what to bring is set out in full. Most major insurance is accepted, see which plans and what to ask yours before you come.
Anxiety rarely arrives on its own. Depression often travels with it, adjustment and stress covers the same skills after a life change, and where the anxiety started with one specific event, trauma therapy is usually the better door.
Reviewed by Ann Marie Shay, MA, LPC, September 2026.