Noelle McWard Aquino
ANXIETY EXPERT, THERAPIST, PRACTICE OWNER, BESTSELLING AUTHOR & TEDx SPEAKER
Empowering individuals and professionals to overcome anxiety with tailored strategies, expert training, and compassionate guidance, grounded in over 30 years of experience.
Why Choose Noelle?
Noelle McWard Aquino is a TEDx speaker and engaging presenter who shares relatable stories and unique insights to empower her audiences to better understand themselves, others and to overcome anxiety.
She is known for her warm, relatable and authentic speaking style.
Noelle has spoken to a variety of audiences, offering everything from full day professional development workshops, panel discussions, talks tailored to specific professional communities to keynote addresses.
Her goal is to meet the needs of each specific audience and to deliver engaging, informative and inspiring content.
I was blown away by the quality of your presentation at Expansion and am SO excited about your upcoming book release – I can’t wait for my copy.
Speaking Topics
Anxiety Unpacked
We often discuss anxiety as if it’s the same experience for everyone who faces it. However, anxiety is far more nuanced and cannot be addressed with a one-size-fits-all approach. Anxiety Unpacked offers a fresh perspective by identifying three distinct root causes of anxiety, each with its own unique characteristics, underlying needs, and targeted solutions. Whether you are applying it to your own life or using it in clinical practice, you will gain new insights into understanding and addressing anxiety.
Anxiety and the Law
While many professions face high levels of anxiety, the legal field has a unique constellation of factors that make lawyers especially vulnerable. In this presentation, lawyers will uncover these specific challenges and gain valuable insights and tools to protect their well-being and empower a healthier, more resilient professional life.
The Anxious Couple
Anxiety can show up in many ways within relationships, but control-related anxiety often creates a powerful and challenging dynamic between partners. Discover how couples can move beyond the need for control, fostering more intimate and balanced relationships.
Anxiety in the Workplace
Anxiety shows up on every team, often without anyone naming it. In this talk, Noelle helps leaders and managers recognize the common patterns behind workplace anxiety, in themselves and in the people they lead. Attendees learn to identify their own anxiety type and how it may shape their team’s dynamics, then learn to recognize that same pattern in team members and respond in ways that actually meet their needs. The result: less friction, more trust, and teams that function better under pressure.
Parenting An Anxious Child
With anxiety on the rise among youth and adolescents, Noelle draws on her personal experience as the mother of an anxious child to offer relatable stories and compassionate guidance. She provides parents with practical insights to help them navigate the unique challenges of raising children who struggle with anxiety.
Industry-Specific Anxiety
Noelle will tailor a presentation that addresses the unique challenges contributing to anxiety within specific industries, offering customized solutions to support a healthier, more fulfilling professional life.
“I took the Anxiety Unpacked workshop more than 6 years ago and I still keep the presentation materials close at hand and refer to them often. Noelle’s conceptualization of working with anxiety is relatable and more useful than any other treatment interventions I have come across. Her antidotes to anxiety make sense to clinicians and clients. This workshop was incredibly helpful for my work with clients who live with persistent anxiety. It was also helpful for me personally!”
“I want to thank you, Noelle. Not only has this been one of the best trainings I have ever attended, but you have also helped to heal something in me over these past two days.”
“Great presentation and probably one of the best trainings I’ve ever attended! I would recommend having this presenter come back every year to present on this topic.”
“I was blown away by the quality of your presentation and I cannot wait to read your book!
“I’d like to thank you again, Noelle, for the wonderful presentation this morning. I’ve been hearing positive comments from therapists all day, and at least two of us incorporated some of the material in sessions already!”
“I heard a few people tell me that our panel was great! The sense I got was that Noelle was the star and they thought the analysis was excellent. Some came purely to rack up wellness credits but then were pleasantly surprised how interesting our panel actually was. Bottom line — they liked our panel for reasons unrelated to the fact I was on it. One person said a key contributor to the panel was whoever convinced AILA to let Noelle speak on the panel! (Thanks, Mary!)”
American Immigration Lawyers Association National Conference Panel
Professional Bio
Noelle McWard Aquino
ANXIETY EXPERT, THERAPIST, PRACTICE OWNER,
BESTSELLING AUTHOR & TEDx SPEAKER
I’ve been a licensed clinical social worker in Chicago, IL, for over 30 years, dedicating my career to specializing in anxiety disorders.
Through my years of practice, I developed the Anxiety Unpacked model – a unique and effective approach to understanding anxiety that I use in my work with clients, and teach to fellow clinicians.
I am a regular contributor to Psychology Today and am the author of the book Anxiety Unpacked: Discover Your Type and Recover Your Peace, which challenges the common belief that anxiety is a one-size-fits-all experience.
I’ve taken this work beyond the therapy room as well, from speaking at TEDxKC to teaching continuing education courses for clinicians through PESI.
My personal connection to anxiety runs deep, as a mother of a son with generalized anxiety and OCD. This experience fuels my mission to help people truly understand the root causes of their anxiety and provide lasting solutions, not just temporary fixes.
If you’re interested in learning more about my work or would like to book me for speaking engagements, workshops, or training, I’d love to connect.
Podcasts
Featured Articles
Noelle’s writing has been featured in: PsychologyToday, Psychotherapy Networker Magazine, Mind Body Green, and Marriage.Com
Psychology Today
The Problem With Control
If you attempt to manage your life and anxiety through control and over-functioning, there is a better way that can yield greater relaxation, calm, and feeling more fully human.
Psychotherapy Networker
Discerning Three Types of Anxiety
Understanding some of the most common ways anxiety can look in therapy can provide us with guideposts to intervene strategically and support better outcomes…
Mind Body Green
9 Steps To Emotionally Detach From Someone
Explore expert-backed strategies for emotionally detaching from someone with clarity, compassion, and self-care.
Marriage.com
4 Steps to Make Your Marriage Work with a Traveling Spouse
Discover practical tips to maintain connection, trust, and intimacy in your marriage when your spouse frequently travels.
Blog on Psychology Today
Noelle has a blog with Psychology Today called “Unpacking Anxiety” where’s she explorers the journey from fear to freedom. Click the link below to read her articles.
Book Noelle
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