Is Anxiety Holding You Back From Accomplishing Your Daily Tasks or Achieving Your Hopes And Dreams?
Does anxiety prevent you from pursuing your career goals, enjoying quality time with your family, or achieving the success you know you’re capable of?
Are feelings of extreme stress or unpredictable levels of confidence making your world feel small and limited?
Are intrusive thoughts, negative beliefs, and internal self-criticism making you doubt your own abilities?
Maybe you feel like you want more out of life or have something to offer the world—but anxiety tells you to hide your superpowers and keep to yourself. Over time, this can lead to isolation, self-judgement, fear and sometimes regret about missed opportunities.
Your head might be swirling with thoughts like: If only I had believed in myself and taken that job promotion. If only I had spoken up and not been so concerned with people-pleasing. If only I had told my loved one what they really meant to me when I had the chance. For the first time, perhaps you’re thinking of seeing a therapist who treats anxiety.
Anxiety Makes You Want To Pull Back From Life Or Harden Up and Push On—But That Just Makes Anxiety Worse
In order to overcome anxiety, it helps to step outside of your comfort zone and challenge your fears by taking risks. Yet the more anxious you are, the harder it is to take those risks. Anxiety can make you so stressed out that you choose to stay home, lose sleep, and forge ahead with the same strategy—hoping for a different result. You may even neglect your personal and professional obligations.
After a while, this cycle of stress can lead to negative self-beliefs like “I cannot take it,” “I don’t know what to do,” or, “Is there something wrong with me?” Anxiety therapy is an opportunity to reframe your perspective, overcome people-pleasing behaviors, strengthen your mental and emotional health, and harness the gifts that allow you to be your best self. Anxiety often comes from an inner-conflict—not knowing which way to go or what to do. Anxiety therapy can help you learn how to master this internal dynamic.
We Are Wired For Ease, Yet We’ve Become Increasingly Stuck As A Society
Anxiety usually goes hand in hand with some level of perfectionism or internal conflict. Perfectionism can keep us stuck—thinking we must already know what to do or have all the answers, which makes reaching out for help a challenge. Perfectionism thrives in private, and it disappears when it’s met with empathy, validation, and understanding.
An internal conflict can result from having polarized perspectives of something within ourselves, creating a conflict that becomes hard to resolve on our own. Having expert counseling, in addition to being equipped with tools for navigating life’s challenges, can result in a new roadmap—even self-mastery.
Put simply, we need each other to grow and thrive. Feeling companioned through the therapeutic process is critical in transforming limiting beliefs and healing emotional hurt.
Unfortunately, in the U.S. and abroad, anxiety is on the rise. In the face of an increasingly digital age, many people feel that they have no one listening to or hearing them. We have lost the listener. Historically, communities had sages, elders, and wise people at the well who would provide counsel and deep listening to others, making one’s next step easier to perceive.
The truth is that we often need the safety of a trusted other to help draw out our deepest feelings—perhaps even our deepest selves. Being witnessed is an essential part of the healing journey. In my experience, many clients find it such a relief to truly find a safe space where they can be honest about their struggles, while also having professional guidance to help them find strength, grace, and clarity within.
Therapy Can Help You Overcome Anxiety And Live Out Your Destiny
Destiny means “written in the stars” and desire means “of the stars.” I believe you have a unique destiny. Life’s struggles can feel like obstacles to this destiny, but I believe your struggles are part of life’s guiding light when worked with properly.
My goal is to help you clarify your inner system, identify your truest desires, and fortify the strengths within you so that you can live the best life possible. I want you to feel heard and understood on a soul-to-soul level. For two hours or more each week (see about my intensives), you can expect wise, compassionate therapeutic attention—a retreat-like time—where nothing else is vying for our attention. Think of therapy as a necessary stop amidst the chaos, a time to re-focus and re-direct your path toward the goals you feel most aligned with.
What To Expect In Anxiety Counseling Sessions
My approach is not focused on pathological—rather, it’s about finding the wisdom in your story. In therapy, we’ll take the adversities in your life and transform them, empowering you to connect with the most confident version of yourself.
One of the mottos that underlies my practice is “Stop, Drop, and Roll.” What this means is: when you feel panicked or stressed out, stop what you’re doing, drop into your body or your “inner arena” and recognize what you most need—and roll with that. In this way, anxiety treatment can help you understand your triggers, avoid panic attacks, and practice deeper self-connection.
Creating Your Anxiety Treatment Plan
As a yoga teacher, I interweave psychotherapy with body-centered practices for reducing stress and cultivating your optimal zone. As you know, anxiety is often stored in the body. Learning a tool-kit of somatic practices and polyvagal techniques allows you to release anxiety trapped in your nervous system. In this way, therapy can help you rewire your brain toward greater balance and increase your peace of mind.
In addition to somatic polyvagal training, I draw from a variety of approaches to treat anxiety. I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people challenge negative thoughts, Internal Family Systems (IFS) to help them unburden the anxious parts of their inner system, and Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) to resolve any trauma that’s at the root of anxiety.
Ultimately, it’s important to remember that your brain and body have a natural potential for resolving adversity and for healing. My goal is to help you tap into this potential and get you there as quickly and effectively as possible. I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and take a step toward your “your one wild and precious life,” as the poet Mary Oliver would say.
You May Have Some Questions About Anxiety Therapy…
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While talk therapy can be helpful, many people come to me because the work we do together goes beyond traditional talk therapy. It engages your brain, body, and deeper self. Think of it this way: whenever there is emotional stress, your brain interprets it as a physical threat. So, in order to reduce your stress, it helps to have a physical component to healing. That’s why my approach to therapy is body-centered and aims to release anxiety through brain work, movement, and other somatic techniques.
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Unresolved stress is like a thief of your precious energy, and it can rob you of the success you desire in life. Anxiety can be likened to compound interest related to debt—the longer you wait to address it, the more you accumulate. In this sense, therapy can actually help you buy back the time that anxiety threatens to take away. It can help you redirect your time and energy toward more fulfilling tasks.
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Perhaps ask yourself: how much time, attention, and resources am I spending to either numb, manage, or run away from the pain I am in? Although I don’t intend to stretch your wallet thin, I do encourage you to prioritize and invest in your most valuable resource—your physical and mental health. If it is true that your health is the best asset in your “one wild and precious” life, then attending to you is the best investment you can make. And believe me—there is no better time to begin than now.
Let Me Help You Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Into Your Growth Zone
The fact that you’re reading this page shows that you’re committed to taking that next step to feeling better and to learning how to master your life. I invite you to take that one next step forward and talk to an anxiety counselor today: email me or call 720-513-1705 today!
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