Anxiety is good at taking our focus and making sure it doesn’t let it go. Once anxiety has your attention, it can start to control your actions. You may start avoiding activities that you once enjoyed. You may start isolating because being around others can cause such intense fear. Your relationships might suffer because you are having a hard time speaking up for yourself due to fears of judgment or abandonment. It can feel like your only options are to power through it and let it wreck your experiences or just avoid what’s causing it completely, missing out on life.
Anxiety can be a tricky beast, but it doesn’t have to rule your life. I use a combination of techniques and theories to support you with your anxiety. The best combination I have found is exposure work, values-based direction, mindfulness skills, and exploring past experiences that may influence your anxiety.
We’ll really work on developing skills that help you get comfortable with your anxiety even if it’s making you uncomfortable. We’ll practice using these skills to get you out of patterns that maintain your anxiety. And lastly, we’ll keep our eyes on the goal of getting you out into your life so you can experience it to the fullest.
No, although I view anxiety through a social framework—such as how it affects your relationships and movement through the world—I understand that anxiety can be just as debilitating when thinking about your own future or even the future of society and the world (e.g., climate change, politics). The emotion (anxiety) is typically the same, but what causes the anxiety is dependent on the individual.
Anxiety can lead to other complications as well. Such as experiencing depression, an increase in negative feelings about yourself, relationship problems, stress with work, or even existential concerns if you feel like it is holding you back from the life you want to live. Whatever you’re experiencing, we can work together to get you feeling better.
It does a little bit. I love working with introverts because of their insightfulness and thoughtfulness. When you’re dealing with anxiety symptoms, especially social anxiety or agoraphobia, it can make it harder to work through because you recharge by taking time for yourself.
I understand how this can be difficult at times (…from my experience as an introvert in a very social job lol)
My goal isn’t to change who you are. We’ll focus on how to balance your energy levels while you are working on your anxiety as well as focusing on meaningful connections and being in public rather than just “becoming more social.”