Therapist Tips for Reducing Racing Thoughts
How I help clients as an Online UK Therapist to quieten racing thoughts…
When Your Brain Won’t Shut Up (and You’ve Tried Everything)
If your thoughts run laps around you while you’re trying to sleep, hold a conversation, or just exist like an actual human being, you know how exhausting it can be.
You try to breathe.
You try to distract yourself.
You try to think your way out of thinking too much.
And yet, the mind loops, spirals, replays, catastrophises.
If this sounds familiar, your nervous system might be overwhelmed, and trying its best to keep you safe.
Racing Thoughts Aren’t Random — They’re Emotional Signals
A lot of people come to therapy saying:
“I can’t stop overthinking everything.”
“My brain just never switches off.”
“I go to bed and suddenly my mind lights up like a Christmas tree.”
The common assumption? You need more techniques to “quiet your mind.”
But in Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), we look deeper.
We ask:
“What is your mind trying to do with all these thoughts?”
Because often, racing thoughts are your brain’s attempt to manage unprocessed emotion.
What’s Really Behind Racing Thoughts?
Instead of being a purely cognitive issue, racing thoughts are often tied to:
Anxiety: Trying to predict and prevent something bad from happening
Shame: Replaying conversations, trying to "fix" how you came across
Grief: Your mind searching for control when you’re emotionally untethered
Fear: Planning and re-planning because uncertainty feels too big to sit with
🧠 The brain races because the body is overwhelmed.
It’s not that you’re “too much.” It’s that you’ve learned to survive by staying mentally alert, even if it’s exhausting.
What Emotion-Focused Therapy Offers (Instead of More Mental Strategies)
Rather than give you a thought reframing exercise, a to-do list, or another “3-step method to calm down,” EFT offers something different:
Emotional understanding.
Permission to feel.
Relational safety.
We explore:
What emotional discomfort your thoughts might be covering up
Whether it’s safe to slow down, and what happens when you do
How to turn inward with curiosity instead of fear or self-judgment
And yes, over time, your thoughts often slow down, not because you learned a trick, but because your emotional system feels more held.
How Online Therapy Can Help You Feel Less Stuck in Your Head
As an online therapist working across the UK and Europe, I support clients who feel like they’re constantly in their heads and disconnected from their bodies.
Together, we work to:
Identify emotional themes that fuel mental spiralling
Slow the process down, one layer at a time
Reconnect with the parts of you that need compassion, not control
This isn’t “talking you out of your anxiety.”
It’s giving the anxiety a space to be, and be seen, so it doesn’t have to yell through your thoughts.
You Don’t Need to Fight Your Mind - You Just Need to Feel a Bit Safer In It
If you’re tired of waking up with your thoughts already racing, or ending the day more mentally exhausted than physically, therapy might be the next step.
I offer online therapy for anxiety, racing thoughts, emotional overwhelm, and the patterns underneath them all. You don’t need to be in crisis. You just need to be you.
Click Here and Book a free consultation
Alex 🧡