Counseling for anxiety is effective and can help improve your life in a number of ways. Anxiety can be something we all struggle with from time to time, but for some of us, it can become debilitating and difficult to function.

 

I see women struggling with higher and higher levels of anxiety as responsibilities and pressures increase in their day-to-day lives. Balancing careers, family life, relationships, finances, health and self-care is an ongoing juggling act that can become overwhelming.

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Anxiety can show up at any age and can sometimes begin from a young age continuing throughout our lives. There are various levels of severity with the most severe turning into panic attacks.

 

Ultimately, anxiety is a pattern of chronic worrying or fear that we are unable to control as well as it being a physical reaction we can feel in our bodies with symptoms such as:

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Restlessness or nervousness

Intrusive thoughts

Rumination

Difficulty controlling worrying

Feeling easily mentally or physically fatigued

Difficulty concentrating or remembering things

Irritability

Muscle tension

Sleep problems

Change in appetite

Difficulty relaxing or slowing down

Pressured speech

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To treat anxiety, I first work with you to find out the underlying causes or triggers by asking questions about when it began and if there are any underlying causes. Some things that can cause or underlie anxiety are:

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Life events

Diet

Regular Caffeine or Stimulants

Nutritional Deficiencies

Ongoing stress

Trauma

Hormonal imbalances

Pregnancy, Peri-Menopause or Menopause

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In treating anxiety, I use a variety of techniques such as ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Exposure Therapy, IFS (Internal Family Systems), Somatic Therapy, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to help you better understand how your thoughts, beliefs and experiences are impacting you and how to begin reshaping and changing them.

 

We will also look at ways to start calming your body and nervous system exploring things like vagal toning, meditation, exercise, yoga, breathing, nutrition, hormone balancing, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and regular self-care. Lastly, it is also important to understand the connected life events or traumas to the anxiety and any family patterns that might have contributed. For this, we might use Inner Child Work, IFS (Internal Family Systems), journaling or insight-oriented therapy.

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If you feel you might be struggling with anxiety, just know you are not alone and there are ways to start feeling better.