ANXIETY and STRESS

You’re constantly worrying about the future and things out of your control…

You’re experiencing unease and nervousness, often with no apparent reason…  

You’re having a hard time falling asleep because you can’t turn your mind off…

Anxiety is very uncomfortable. When you are anxious you feel unease, tension, and nervousness. You may even experience changes in your body such as sweating, increased heart rate, more shallow rapid breathing. Other symptoms of anxiety may include a sense of impending danger, feeling weak or tired, trouble concentrating or thinking, or losing touch with the present reality.

Anxiety is our body’s response to threat or danger. Our anxiety response is hardwired in all of us by way of the central nervous system. Occasional anxiety is normal given that it helps us deal with everyday life situations which require us to be alert and focused.

Here’s an example:  You’re walking down the street and suddenly become aware of a large dog that does not appear friendly galloping towards you. If you’re like most people, you may become nervous, on-edge, and your heart rate may increase. These changes are designed to help you to be alert to the situation, gather yourself, find safety, or face the dog in a firm assertive way. In this way, healthy anxiety/fear is present to help protect you.

However, anxiety becomes a problem when it’s experienced excessively, often, and without an immediate danger. To put it another way, we can find ourselves anxious and on alert much of the time without the dog around.

Anxiety is uncomfortable, so naturally we find ways to lower or avoid our anxiety. That is very normal.  If you have anxiety in social situations, you may avoid social gatherings even if you yearn for human connection. If certain emotions such as sadness or anger make you anxious, we may avoid certain people that trigger these emotions even though we may care for them. You may have general unease most of the time for no apparent reason, and use various forms of relaxation to ease our tensions. While these ways of dealing with our anxiety may work and ease us in some way, we may never deal with things at a deeper level.

At Positive help Therapy I use psychotherapy to help you better understand anxiety and the stress response, and using hypnosis I can help you deal with it at a deeper level so that you can live with more freedom and calm.

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I am always open about my thought process and the approaches I use because I consider the work to be collaboration.

Here are some of the issues I work with:

• Emerging from depression
• Becoming less anxious, more relaxed, more confident
• Healing traumatic memories that may be inhibiting or upsetting you in the present
• Improving your relationship with yourself
• Improving your relationship with others
• Taming a harsh inner critic
• Mastering panic attacks
• Overcoming phobias
• Grieving in a healthy way
• And other issues as well

Regardless of the issues, my overall goal is to provide a place that is welcoming and confidential where you can engage with a skilled psychotherapist to create positive changes in your life.