Treating Health Anxiety With ERP Threapy across California
Understanding and Managing Health Anxiety (Illness Anxiety Disorder)
Illness Anxiety—commonly known as Health Anxiety—occurs when everyday bodily sensations are misinterpreted as signs of a serious medical condition. A normal heartbeat change, a mild headache, or a digestive sensation can trigger intense fear, leading to constant monitoring and the belief that something dangerous is being missed. Even when medical tests are normal or reassurance is given, the worry returns, creating a persistent loop of fear, checking, and doubt.
Understanding Illness Anxiety
Health anxiety affects more than just physical worry—it can interfere with routines, relationships, and the ability to feel present. Many people experience:
- Difficulty concentrating at work, school, or home because intrusive health fears take over
- Avoidance of exercise, medical appointments, or activities that trigger body sensations or feel risky
- Increased anxiety after hearing about illnesses, medical news, or other people’s health issues
- Feeling stuck in reassurance cycles, where each brief sense of relief quickly fades
- Loss of enjoyment, as fear becomes the background noise of daily life
Over time, this cycle reinforces the belief that you must constantly monitor your body—making symptoms feel louder, more threatening, and more convincing.
People with health anxiety often recognize that their fear feels excessive, yet the worry still feels urgent and hard to ignore. Common patterns include:
- Interpreting everyday sensations—such as muscle twitches, fatigue, or stomach discomfort—as signs of severe illness
- Frequent body checking or “scanning” to look for lumps, asymmetry, changes, or sensations
- Repeated Googling or researching symptoms and diagnoses, often for hours, even when it increases anxiety
- Seeking reassurance from doctors, urgent care, specialists, family members, therapists, or online forums
- Avoiding health information entirely—or consuming it obsessively
- Catastrophic thinking, jumping to “worst-case scenarios” (“What if this is cancer? What if something is wrong and no one is catching it?”)
- Difficulty trusting your body, feeling alert to every internal sensation or change
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for Illness Anxiety and health-related distress. ERP helps you:
- Reduce compulsive behaviors, including checking, Googling, self-monitoring, and reassurance seeking
- Face feared sensations and thoughts gradually, so they lose their power
- Break the cycle of catastrophic interpretation, learning to experience bodily sensations without assuming danger
- Build confidence and trust in your body’s natural signals
- Tolerate uncertainty, rather than trying to eliminate it through research or repeated evaluations
With ERP, people learn to respond to fears differently—not by convincing themselves they’re “safe,” but by retraining the brain to stop treating normal sensations as emergencies.
Your Health Anxiety Therapist in California
Matthew Baker, LCSW (CA #121926)
I’m a California therapist who specializes in evidence-based treatment for Health Anxiety (Illness Anxiety Disorder). I provide structured, hands-on therapy and work actively and collaboratively with adults, teens and children to help them reduce reassurance-seeking, tolerate uncertainty about health, and make meaningful, lasting progress.
Many of the people I work with struggle with persistent worries about serious illness, often noticing bodily sensations and interpreting them as signs of something dangerous. These fears can lead to frequent checking, researching symptoms, seeking reassurance, or avoiding medical information altogether. I’ve worked across multiple treatment settings and approach these concerns with openness, professionalism, and care. Together, we’ll understand the patterns that keep health anxiety going and follow a clear, practical plan to help you respond to uncertainty with greater confidence and calm.
Credentials, Experience and Affiliations
M.S.W., California State University, Long Beach
Emphasis: Integrated Health
- California Licensed Clinical Social Worker # 121926
- NOCD Academy - Advanced Training in Exposure and Response Prevention
- Professional and Listed Member, International OCD Foundation (IOCDF)
- Professional member, Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA)
- Professional Member & Listed Clinician, Psychology Today
- Fully Insured • HIPAA-Compliant Telehealth
Exposure and Response Prevention via Telehealth
If intense worries about health are interfering with your life, you’re not alone. Health anxiety often creates extreme distress and can disrupt life in many ways. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is the most effective, evidence-based treatment for illness anxiety.
There’s a way to respond differently to health uncertainty.
See how treatment changes the pattern.
Serving adults, teens and children across California via secure telehealth.
Licensed in California and available to clients in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, Inland Empire, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento and throughout California via secure telehealth.
Whatif Therapy
based in Lakewood, CA
Whatif Therapy | Matthew Baker, LCSW (CA #121926)
Evidence-based treatment for OCD, Anxiety, and PTSD.
Serving clients across California via secure telehealth.
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