While anxiety at a low level is often motivating and helps us avoid threat and risk, for many people it quickly escalates into a constant, debilitating emotion that makes everyday life seem harder. If you find yourself assuming the worst of a situation, feeling nervous in social situations, holding yourself to perfectionistic standards, or experiencing panic attacks, anxiety therapy can help.
Common ways that anxiety shows up
- Intrusive thoughts
- Heart racing and/or heart palpitations
- Rapid/shallow breathing/shortness of breath
- Obsessive thoughts
- Compulsive behaviours (behaviours that you feel the need to engage in in order to stop the obsessive thoughts)
- Sweating
- Avoidance of the thing(s) that cause anxiety
- Specific phobias
- Difficulty sleeping
- Anxiety/panic attacks
How anxiety therapy can help
- Identifying triggers – Therapy helps to build an understanding of the situations, triggers, or stressors that contribute to your anxiety and worry (such as trauma, stress buildup, or health concerns).
- Developing skills – We will work to build skills for calming your body, mind, and nervous system, in order to cope with the physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety.
- Cognitive restructuring – We will examine potential unhelpful thinking patterns that may be related to your anxiety, and ways to change these thinking patterns.
There are several types of therapy that are effective in treating anxiety, most notably Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy.
Benefits of therapy for anxiety
- Symptom reduction – Therapy can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms, improving your quality of life.
- Improved coping skills – Learn practical skills and tools to use to manage anxiety and prevent future struggles.
- Enhanced relationships – Understanding your anxiety and how to manage it could lead to improvements in relationships with loved ones.
- Improved self-awareness – Gain insight into anxiety triggers and patterns in order to better manage them.
If you’re in Kitchener-Waterloo or the surrounding area and can identify with any of the above symptoms, please reach out. I can work with you to help you feel like you can live the life you want to live again.
Fees may be paid using cash, credit card (Mastercard and Visa), or e-transfer.