Anxiety and Depression Counseling in Ridgeland, MS and Online Across Mississippi
The worry gets loud and everything else goes quiet.
Stillwaters Counseling Group provides counseling for anxiety, panic, and depression in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and online for clients located anywhere in the state. Our clinicians use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and EMDR when trauma is part of the picture. We work with persistent worry, panic attacks, low mood and numbness, rumination, sleep trouble, and the toll stress takes on the body.
You may be here because pushing through stopped working.
Maybe your mind runs the same worry at 2 a.m. that it ran at noon, and knowing it is unlikely does nothing to slow it down. Maybe your heart started pounding in the grocery store and you left your cart in the aisle. Maybe nothing is especially wrong and you still cannot make yourself care about the things you used to love.
You may have tried the reasonable things. Sleeping more, exercising, cutting back on caffeine, praying about it, telling yourself to snap out of it. Some of it helped for a while. Then the weight came back, and it felt like one more thing you were failing at.
It is not failure. Anxiety and depression are not problems of willpower. They are patterns in how your mind and body have learned to respond, and those patterns can change. Effort alone usually does not change them, which is why trying harder has felt like running in place.
Who this helps
Who this is for
Adults whose worry has started running their days. People who have had panic attacks, or who now avoid places and situations because they are afraid of having one. People with depression that feels like sadness, and people with depression that feels like nothing at all: flatness, exhaustion, irritability, or a loss of interest that is hard to explain.
People whose stress shows up in the body first, as tension, headaches, stomach trouble, or sleep that never feels like rest. People whose anxiety or depression arrived with a loss, a major change, or a hard season at home or at work.
For teens, our teen counseling page covers how we work with ages 10 to 17.
You do not need a diagnosis to come in. If it has been going on long enough that you are reading this page, that is reason enough.
What we work on
What we work on
Persistent worry and the what-if thinking that will not shut off.
Panic attacks, and the avoidance that grows up around them.
Depression, including low mood, numbness, and loss of interest.
Rumination, replaying conversations and decisions long after they are over.
Sleep trouble and exhaustion that rest does not fix.
Stress in the body: tension, headaches, stomach trouble, a chest that will not loosen.
Anxiety and depression that follow a loss, a transition, or a trauma.
Perfectionism and the pressure to keep everything together.
Our approach
How Stillwaters approaches anxiety and depression
- 1
Understanding it first.
Your therapist starts by learning what is actually happening: when it started, what makes it worse, what helps, and what else is going on in your life. Anxiety and depression often travel together, and sometimes they sit on top of something else, like grief, trauma, or a relationship under strain. The plan follows from that picture.
- 2
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Works with the link between what you think, what you feel, and what you do. You learn to catch the thoughts that feed the spiral, test them instead of obeying them, and gradually return to the things anxiety or depression has taken off your calendar.
- 3
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Rather than arguing with every anxious thought, ACT helps you make room for discomfort without letting it make your decisions, and move toward what matters to you while the feeling is still there.
- 4
EMDR,
when anxiety or depression is rooted in experiences that still carry a charge. Your therapist will assess whether it fits.
- 5
Working alongside your medical care.
Our clinicians are licensed therapists, not prescribers. If medication might help, your therapist will talk it through with you, refer you to a prescriber, and, with your signed release, coordinate with your physician or psychiatrist.
Not every therapist uses every approach. Tell our intake coordinator what is happening and we will match you with someone whose training fits your situation.
Availability varies by therapist. It depends on which clinician you are matched with and how flexible your availability is. If you need to be seen sooner, say so when you call and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
Why it matters who you see for this
Anxiety and depression are common, and that can make them easy to treat generically. A therapist who listens warmly every week but never helps you change anything can leave you feeling understood and exactly as stuck. Good care here is active. It has a plan, it gives you something to practice between sessions, and it checks whether the plan is working.
It also means looking at what else could be going on. Persistent low mood can be tied to grief, trauma, a medical issue, or a relationship, and anxiety can sit on top of any of those. A careful therapist looks for what is underneath rather than treating only the surface, and will tell you if a medical check-up or a different level of care makes sense.
Meet your specialist
Therapists who do this work
What to expect
What to expect
- 1
The first call.
Tell our intake coordinator what you have been noticing, in your own words. You do not need to know whether it is anxiety, depression, or both. They will ask about scheduling, insurance or self-pay, whether faith or spirituality matters to you, and any preference about your therapist.
- 2
The first session.
Your therapist will ask about what is happening now, how long it has been going on, sleep, appetite, energy, and what support you already have. They will also ask about safety directly, because asking is part of good care, not a sign that something is wrong with you. By the end you should have a sense of what the work will involve.
- 3
The work.
Sessions are active. You will learn to notice the pattern as it starts, practice ways of interrupting it, and try them between sessions. Some weeks will feel like progress and some will not. Your therapist will check with you about whether it is helping.
- 4
Length.
A focused concern may need a shorter course of work. Depression that has lasted years, or anxiety layered on trauma, usually takes longer. Your therapist should give you a real estimate after intake and should be tracking whether it is working.
Cost and availability
Cost, insurance, and getting in
We work with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare or UMR, and Fox Everett. Participation varies by clinician and by plan, so call us and we will confirm your benefits before your first session.
Availability varies by therapist. It depends on which clinician you are matched with and how flexible your availability is. If you need to be seen sooner, say so when you call and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
Where we meet
In Ridgeland, and online across Mississippi
Our office is at 197 Charmant Place, Suite 2 in Ridgeland, convenient to Madison, Jackson, Flowood, Brandon, and Clinton.
We are licensed to serve all 82 Mississippi counties, for clients physically located in Mississippi at the time of the session. When anxiety makes leaving the house hard, or depression makes the drive feel like too much, telehealth can make the first step smaller. Some clients start online and move to the office later. Your therapist will talk with you about which fits.
Common questions
You do not have to sort that out before you call. Stress usually eases when the pressure does. When worry, low mood, or exhaustion stays after the pressure lifts, starts shaping your decisions, or shows up most days, it is worth talking to someone. Sorting out what is going on is part of what your therapist does in the first sessions.
You do not have to keep white-knuckling it.
Tell us what you have been noticing and we will match you with a therapist whose training fits.
Availability varies by therapist. It depends on which clinician you are matched with and how flexible your availability is. If you need to be seen sooner, say so when you call and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
Stillwaters is an outpatient counseling practice and is not an emergency service. If you are in immediate danger or unable to stay safe, call 911 or call or text 988.