Anxiety is a totally normal response to fear and temporary worry
Racing heart
Panicky
Tensed
…is a familiar experience for everyone. It’s our body’s alarm system, and if working properly, it can be one of our most reliable informants.
However, if anxiety does not go away once the source of danger has averted, and typically gets worse with time, it’s time to get HELP. In other words, the alarm system is broken and goes off without reason, on most days and about a variety of issues. It causes significant problems in our relationships, work and school. Side-effects range from low self-esteem, inability to watch the news, self-harming behaviour, abusing alcohol or drugs to suicidal ideations.
Symptoms include feeling restless, wound up or on edge, having difficulty concentrating or mind going blank, being irritable, having muscle tension, difficulty controlling worries, having difficulty falling or staying asleep, inability to remember when you last felt relaxed.
WHAT I AM TRAINED TO TREAT
You do not need a specific diagnosis to get on a treatment plan for Anxiety with me. If you suspect that your symptoms and challenges are interfering with your daily functioning, then you deserve to get the right support.
However, if you have an assessment from a licensed Psychologist, Psychiatrist or Doctor, then let me know and we can directly get to the treatment.
The specific diagnoses that I can help you with are:
→ Generalised Anxiety Disorder
→ Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
→ Health Anxiety or Hypochondriasis
→ Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
→ Social Anxiety Disorder or Social Phobia
→ Co-morbid Anxiety e.g. together with another illness, Personality Disorder or Depression
WHAT MY METHOD IS
Our aim during therapy is not to get rid of “Anxiety”, but to bring it to a level where it can help, rather than hinder you. It’s to put you back in control and be able to rely on your anxiety flexibly.
During therapy, we conceptualise the ‘model of anxiety’ specific to your challenges. This includes identifying, and interrupting, behaviours and mental processes that keep the experience of anxiety persistent beyond normal. In addition, we tackle the metacognitive beliefs and worries that keep you locked into the anxious patterns, increasing distress and leading to counterproductive attempts at controlling it.
With anxiety disorders, I prefer to purely work with Metacognitive therapy since currently, it shows the best evidence for curing anxiety disorders. Above even medication, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Exposure Therapy.
