How It's Complicated works
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Find your therapistUse our free matching service for personal recommendations, or browse our network of 2,500+ therapists yourself.
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Create your free accountSign up in under 2 minutes. All you need is an email and a password, and you're ready to go.
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Start therapyReach out to your therapist and book your first session within 24 hours. Online or in person, in 60+ languages.
Learn more about stress
Stress is the psychological and physical response to demands or pressures that feel difficult to manage. In the short term it is a normal and adaptive response: it mobilises energy, sharpens focus, and prepares the body to act. Problems arise when stress is chronic, when the demands do not ease or the person cannot recover between them, and when the stress response becomes a sustained state rather than a temporary one. Chronic stress is associated with burnout, anxiety, depression, and a range of physical health difficulties. It is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy, and one of the most responsive to psychological support.
Stress becomes a concern when it is persistent, accumulating, or beginning to affect how you function.
- You feel under constant pressure without adequate recovery between demands
- You are irritable, reactive, or short-tempered in ways that are not usual for you
- Sleep is disrupted, either difficulty falling asleep or waking with your mind running
- You are experiencing physical symptoms, including headaches, muscle tension, or fatigue, that do not have a clear medical cause
- Concentration is reduced, decision-making feels harder, or small things feel disproportionately difficult
- You are managing stress primarily through avoidance, alcohol, overworking, or other habits that provide short-term relief
- You feel as though you are permanently in reactive mode, unable to step back or think clearly
Stress responds well to a range of psychological approaches, depending on whether the focus is on thinking patterns, physical responses, or building longer-term resilience.
- CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) CBT addresses the thought patterns and behavioural responses that amplify stress, including catastrophising, perfectionism, and difficulty delegating, and builds more adaptive ways of managing pressure.
- Mindfulness Mindfulness-based approaches reduce the automatic escalation of stress responses and build a more stable, less reactive relationship with difficulty and uncertainty.
- ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) ACT supports engagement with what matters even under sustained pressure, building psychological flexibility rather than waiting for the stress to resolve before acting on values.
- Somatic coaching Somatic coaching addresses the physical dimension of stress, including how tension, fatigue, and activation are held in the body, and builds greater capacity to regulate the physiological stress response.
- Coaching Coaching is particularly useful when stress is driven by specific domains, including work demands, time management, or role transitions, and practical restructuring alongside psychological support is needed.
It's Complicated is a therapist-founded mental health platform connecting clients with verified practitioners across Europe and globally, in over 60 languages. We work with over 2,500 vetted therapists, with in-person availability in Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Vienna, and other major cities, alongside online sessions worldwide. It's Complicated is free to use, and you pay your chosen therapist directly at rates they set.
Finding the right kind of support for stress, whether that is therapy, coaching, or a combination, is not always obvious from the outside. Our matching service is built to remove that friction. You complete a short survey, our psychologists combine data-driven insights with human judgement to identify the right therapists for your situation, and you choose from a shortlist of strong candidates. You can also browse our directory directly if you'd prefer to choose yourself.
Get matched with a therapist who specialises in stress, or browse the directory.
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