Anxiety Therapy
Treatment For Anxiety
Everyone feels anxious at times. Anxiety is an inherent part of the human condition and a natural response to everyday stress such as: relationship conflicts, financial problems, work demands, receiving a medical diagnosis, and making an important decision. However, if you suffer from panic attacks, persistent fears, worry, or phobias, are on “edge,” irritable, have difficultly sleeping and concentrating, experience frequent muscle tension, or have intense dread, you may benefit from therapy in order to get relief from the debilitating effects of anxiety and improve the quality of your life.
Do you:
Experience anxiety or worry most of the time?
Have feelings of fear, uneasiness, or experience sudden, unexpected panic attacks?
Feel constantly tense, keyed up, or on “edge”?
Feel irritable or restless?
Have difficulty concentrating and making decisions?
Have difficulty falling or staying asleep?
Suffer from fears that you know are irrational, but can’t shake?
Avoid everyday situations or activities because they cause you anxiety?
Have a sense of impending doom?
Have an excessive fear of dying?
Suffer from feelings of unreality or of being detached from yourself?
Feel out of control or like you are going crazy?
Have frequent intrusive thoughts or ruminations?
Experience frequent muscle tension?
Have difficulty breathing or feel like you are choking?
Fatigue easily?
Excessively sweat, tremble, or shake?
Have frequent headaches?
Feel dizzy, lightheaded, or faint?
Have abdominal distress, stomach cramps, urinate frequently or have diarrhea?
Have chills or hot flashes or have cold or sweaty hands or feet?
Have numbness or tingling sensations?
Have nausea or dry mouth?
If you answered yes to four or more of the above then you might benefit from psychotherapy. The good news is that anxiety is a treatable condition.
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety and fear are the body’s natural alarm system and occur in response to danger. The emotion of fear is experienced when we are faced with a dangerous situation and has an evolutionary role in providing safety by preparing us for fight or flight. Fear. In contrast, anxiety can occur when we anticipate or perceive an imagined danger or threat, even if unreal.
Anxiety can be mild, moderate, or severe. In moderation, anxiety can be adaptive in that it helps us to stay alert and focused, spurs us to action, motivates us to solve problems, and can be used as a signal that something is important to us. However, when anxiety is constant, overwhelming, and interferes with relationships, work, and other aspects of life, it stops being productive and becomes debilitating. At the severe end of the spectrum, anxiety, worry, fear, and panic cause extreme distress that interferes with one’s ability to cope with life.
A combination of factors contribute to anxiety such as: ongoing external pressures and stress, a genetic predisposition or a family history of anxiety, adverse or traumatic childhood experiences, certain medical conditions, the effects of certain medications, foods, or substances like caffeine, and negative beliefs about oneself. Anxiety manifests in a variety of ways such as: excessive worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, and physical symptoms.
My Approach To Treatment For Anxiety
Anxiety is so much a part of our modern life that it is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy. Since anxiety manifests differently in different people, my approach integrates different approaches such as: psychodynamic psychotherapy, Jungian psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and mindfulness. Psychotherapy can help you to better understand and manage the physical and psychological effects of anxiety and panic.
If we worked together we might:
Explore the history of your anxiety and identify any patterns or triggers of it.
Explore any life stressors or circumstances that are contributing to your anxiety and identify any changes that you would like to make in your life.
Explore any negative thoughts about yourself that are worsening your anxiety or panic and work to change those thoughts.
Look at how your current lifestyle might be contributing to your anxiety by exploring your eating habits, medication and substance use, and environmental influences.
Explore some practical tools for calming and managing your anxiety such as breathing techniques and mindfulness practices.
Utilize EMDR or other trauma focused methods, if you have experienced any trauma that causes you to feel anxiety or panic in order to help you gain relief and move forward in your life.
Rule out any medical contributors of your anxiety by a referral to your primary care physician.
“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.”
- Pema Chodron
You Do Not Need To Be A Prisoner Of Your Anxiety
Therapy for anxiety can help you gain relief from the debilitating symptoms and effects of anxiety, which can improve self-esteem and self-confidence and help you experience more enjoyment and fulfillment in your life.
