Anxious feelings get in the way of living your life the way you want to. Anxiety therapy, right here in Vancouver, BC, can help.

Working with a counsellor can help change your experience of anxiety. Reaching out for help is the first step in taking care of yourself.

Anxiety can be present in very physically uncomfortable ways, be accompanied by terrible thoughts, or involve intense emotions. Whatever forms your anxieties may take, they can show up like a storm and feel like they are taking over.

These uncomfortable, anxious states can have a big influence on the choices you make in your life. Much of time it may feel like you are not even making deliberate choices, but instead you're just trying to get through a difficult, anxiety-riddled day. It can be incredibly exhausting.

(You might find my Therapy Prep Package useful: a free resource I send when you sign up for my newsletter)

Some typical signs and symptoms you may experience:

  • increasing fears

  • avoidance

  • sleeplessness

  • stress or increased difficulty in managing stress

  • difficulty concentrating

  • physical tension or knots in your stomach

  • difficulty articulating your needs

  • difficulty asserting yourself in relationships

  • excessive worry

  • increased feelings of insecurity

  • a sense of being social awkward

  • feelings close to panic

  • overwhelm

  • distressing thoughts you can’t shake

You might find yourself thinking things like:

  • "will I ever feel calm again?"

  • "what if people notice how awkward I am?"

  • "I can’t give that presentation. I know I will mess up."

  • "I want to cancel my plans. I feel too uncomfortable. It's better not to go."

  • "will I ever feel confident?"

  • "why does stress affect me so much?"

You may also notice things like:

  • frequently expecting things to go wrong

  • often feeling agitated or unsettled

  • increased pessimism

  • feeling too afraid or nervous to speak up about things that are important to you

  • panic attacks

  • feeling excessively irritable or annoyed

  • always wanting outside reassurance

  • body tension or queasiness

  • being more isolated

  • increased criticality of yourself

  • increased anger at yourself or others

The result is that you start to do less, avoid more, and shrink your life until it is smaller and smaller. You stop pursuing your cherished goals. You feel less close to important people in your life, and find it difficult to get close to new people.

How can I help?

I help by identifying the thoughts that fuel your particular anxieties. We identify the patterns, beliefs, and contexts that contribute to your struggles. We explore coping strategies that help you to calm yourself. We work together to problem-solve difficult situations. I share information from contemporary neuroscience research on how the brain works and understand how anxiety intersects with your body.

The goal of therapy is to shift you to a state where YOU are making the decisions in your life, not your anxiety.

You can make changes!

If you are reading this, then I bet you have been struggling with your anxieties for a while now. I can imagine that you are tired of them controlling you and feeling like you don’t have a choice. It feels terrible when anxious feelings hijack your day without warning. Know that you can shift the role anxiety plays in your life — you can have more choice in how anxiety impacts you.

Reach out for help and start the process of change now

I am guessing that you’ve tried a bunch of things on your own, but anxieties keep coming back and disrupting your days. Reach out to me to take the next step in calming your anxiety. Join the many people who have experienced a significant benefit from therapy and have become evangelists for it. With the support of a counsellor you can start making changes in your life today.

I work with people as they make major transformations in how anxiety impacts their lives. You can too. You don’t need to do it alone.

Looking for help is a great first step in taking action. Reaching out is the next step. You can experience long-lasting changes in how you feel, how you cope, and how anxiety shows up in your day-to-day life. You do not have to go through this by yourself.

Reach out and begin getting help with your joy-inhibiting anxieties today.