Deborah Mitchell Counselling

Anxiety is a feeling or state that affects our whole mind/body system. It is a feeling of fear, either real, or imagined. Often our imagination can go into overdrive, and we can ‘think’ our way into a state of fear. Our central nervous system is always looking for cues of safety or threat (this process is out of our awareness). Anxiety is often linked to our belief systems. Once we experience fear relating to a particular memory of an event, the ancient part of our brain (amygdala) goes into a state of fight or flight; if the triggering event occurs or is anticipated again.

When our nervous system becomes dysregulated, we may experience emotion (fear/dread) accompanied by numerous physical sensations. These feelings can be experienced as heart racing, (palpitations) tight chest, dizziness, dry mouth, tingling, sweating, losing the ability to think clearly, sleep disturbance, negative thinking. This can sometimes escalate into a panic attack.

There are different types of anxiety. Some are, health anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety, phobias, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

How I help clients who experience Anxiety

I provide clients with a number of grounding tools which limit the symptoms of anxiety. Breathing practices are significant in reducing the escalation of an anxiety episode. I provide information which explains what is happening before, during and after an Anxiety state. I recommend further reading and provide links to useful material which underpins the work we do in sessions. Improvement in symptom reduction can be experienced within a few sessions of therapy (subject to the client actively engaging with the work of therapy).

Some clients also want to work on the underlying causes of Anxiety. This is usually longer term work.

If this sounds familiar to your experience of Anxiety and you would like to access support, I’m here to help. Please contact me……