Anxiety
Anxiety is a natural response that our bodies and minds have to perceived threats or stressful situations.
Anxiety is a normal and necessary part of our survival instinct, as it prepares us to deal with danger or challenges. However, when anxiety becomes excessive or persistent, it can become a mental health condition.
Anxiety is often characterized by feelings of unease, worry, or fear. It can manifest in both physical and emotional symptoms. Physically, anxiety can cause increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, muscle tension, and even stomach discomfort. Emotionally, it can lead to restlessness, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and a constant sense of apprehension.
Treating Anxiety
Anxiety counselling often involves understanding and normalizing your physical and psychological responses and gently changing them to more adaptive responses.
Effective approaches for treating anxiety:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and gradually changing emotional, mental and behavioural responses.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): focuses less on eliminating anxiety and instead on accepting it as part of the human experience and learning to live well alongside it. Helps develop more psychological flexibility
Exposure Therapy: focuses on gently and systematically facing feared situations so your brain learns they’re not actually dangerous. Builds psychological resiliency and increases emotional tolerance.
What to Expect
Counselling for anxiety can involve:
Learning how anxiety works
Understanding the brain/body anxiety loop can be oddly relieving—it helps things feel less “out of control.”Skill-building
calming or grounding techniques
reframing anxious thoughts & beliefs
learning to tolerate uncertainty
developing a hierarchy of exposures to triggering stimuli
gradual exposure to fears