Is Anxiety Inhibiting Your Sense of Self?

Do you struggle to feel present in your life?

Are anxious thoughts preventing you from making connections with others?

Is it hard to know what will trigger the feelings of panic and anxiety you experience?

You may feel tension and pain in your body that shows up of nowhere or lacks a medical explanation. Or perhaps your anxiety arrives with anger, sadness, or frustration that have deeper, more complex meanings than what is merely felt. As a result, you may feel you have little control over what is happening in your mind and body during times of distress. Thoughts might spiral downward from here.

However, through therapy, we can get in front of this spiral. The truth is anxiety, while often uncomfortable, is a valuable source of meaningful information. Anxiety is your body’s way of signaling a need for focused attention in other areas of your life—areas that may remain unresolved and in need of processing. As this work can be difficult to accomplish on your own, it’s helpful to know that treatment with a counselor or therapist can help you find perspective on the questions that anxiety poses in your life.

Anxiety Is Our Body’s Way of Communicating

Anxiety is by and large the most common way that unresolved issues from painful experiences manifest themselves. More often than not, it is the first sign that there is information about ourselves that needs to be unpacked, unraveled, and understood. As such, anxiety can be seen as a pathway for improving our mental health.

Processing painful experiences, however, can be difficult to do in a culture full of noise. We are constantly inundated by new information and different forms of media, creating distraction and disconnection from ourselves. There is not one calm place that exists where the noise of politics, social unrest, and global emergency can’t reach. In this reality, it is extremely difficult to find space in our lives where we can feel safe—where feelings of panic and anxiety are not triggered.

Like not being able to see the proverbial forest through the trees, it can be very difficult to view emotions with clarity from within the confines of anxiety. The feelings that arise as a result can be hard to locate and verbalize, creating a sense of overwhelm that worsens the cycle of panic and anxious thinking.

Learning how to process these feelings can be extremely difficult to do alone. However, treatment for anxiety offers an opportunity to not only process your emotions but also foster a deeper connection with yourself and others.

Therapeutic Treatment Can Help You Learn and Grow from Anxiety

Doing anything that facilitates growth or progress almost always requires insight from an objective, outside source. In therapy, you can bring whatever information or experience that you would like to explore without judgment or expectation, fostering a different relationship than what you might have with other confidantes.

In this setting, there is no pressure to perform, please, or be wary of the emotions belonging to other people. You can be your genuine self and benefit from the perspective of an experienced therapist who can point things out that may otherwise go unnoticed or be hard to see from your own point of view.

We will begin by discussing what brings you to treatment and what exposure you have had to therapy in the past. At the start of the treatment process, I will work to establish trust within the therapist-client relationship by focusing on the ways we can make your sessions feel safe and secure. From there, we will work together to determine your goals for therapy, as well as how I can best help you to manage your anxiety.

During our sessions, we will explore what happens in your body when feelings of panic or anxiety arise. I will also help you identify the strengths that have allowed you to cope with anxiety in the past as well as the triggers that seem to worsen it. We will then discuss how you see your anxiety interfering with who you are, where you want to go, and who you want to become.

Using mindfulness techniques, I will help you to observe your breathing and recenter your thoughts in order to understand what noise is being created in your life to keep you from being present. We will then work together to reimagine ways that you can feel secure and instill an external sense of safety into your surroundings during moments of distress. Anxiety is often a result of being unable to find meaning or purpose for a specific event or feeling. However, in effectively interpreting where your anxiety is taking you away from and where it is trying to bring you, you will be able to acknowledge the information that your brain and body are trying to convey.

I am not interested in pathologizing your symptoms, nor do I believe in any such thing as a bad or negative emotion. Instead, I believe that all feelings are necessary in nurturing personal growth and newfound understanding. Rather than looking at anxiety as an impediment, I will help you to learn from your anxiety as you reduce the disruptive symptoms it presents in your life.

Perhaps you are considering therapy for anxiety, but you are unsure if counseling is right for you…

How much does anxiety treatment cost?

A 50-minute session costs $250. However, I aim to make therapy affordable and accessible and as such, will offer an income-based sliding scale on a case-by-case basis.

How long does anxiety treatment take?

The length of this process will vary from person to person. Growth and development take time and determination. By exploring the prospect of therapy or counseling for anxiety, you are already approaching the first milestone of treatment, which is acknowledging that you are capable of change and do not have to do it alone.

What if we determine that we are not a good match for anxiety treatment?

The therapeutic relationship is perhaps the most fundamental part of the treatment process. That is why I will use our initial sessions to gather information about your history and experience while working to instill trust. After a few sessions, we will assess how you are feeling about the fit and if you decide you would like to explore other options, I’m prepared to provide referrals based on your needs. Whatever you may require, I am invested in helping you to process and understand your anxiety.

Rethink the Role Anxiety Plays in Your Life

If anxiety is presenting uncomfortable symptoms or impacting your quality of life, therapy can help you to learn and grow from the messages that your anxiety is trying to convey. For a free, 15-minute consultation to find out how I can help, contact me via my website or call (323) 201- 7450.