Anxiety Therapy

Have Feelings Of Anxiety Been Taking Over Your Life?

Have you been worrying excessively about the future? Have concerns about money? Children? Health? Upcoming presentations at work or school? Getting on an airplane? Job status? Have these worries started to take over your life? Maybe these worries have escalated into full-blown fears, leaving you feeling out of control of your emotions. Perhaps you’re always moving at a frantic pace, never feeling on top of things – whether at home with the kids or at the office. As a result, panic attacks may have become a regular part of your life – with no prior warning as to when they will occur.

Maybe it seems that no matter how hard you hustle, the day never feels long enough to complete your tasks as the chaos in your head makes it difficult to concentrate. It’s as if you only have one “switch”: you’re either “on,” and constantly moving, or “off” and collapsing in exhaustion.

Do you wish you could just control your emotions so you’d have more inner peace and be able to enjoy your life?

You Are Not Alone In Your Struggle With Anxiety

Much of anxiety is genetic: faulty neurotransmitters and personality traits are all factors that can make one prone to anxiety. Others may have grown up with parents who demonstrated anxious behaviors that have become a part of who you are. Or perhaps they were traumatized at an early age, and the painful memories are just now coming to the surface as an adult. Unresolved trauma, such as physical or sexual abuse, can manifest as anxiety, or depression, later in life. In this way, anxiety can be either a problem in and of itself or a symptom of a more complex issue. Either way, it is not your fault that you experience excessive anxiety and worry.

You may have had people try to “help” you with your anxiety. Perhaps family or friends have offered you some common platitudes, such as “Just be positive!” Or “you need to just chill out!” as an antidote to anxiety. While some may find this encouraging, this “advice” can have an adverse effect on sufferers of chronic anxiety. In trying to keep up with the world around you, even encouragement with good intentions can make you feel bad about yourself. You might even start to think others don’t want to hear your “complaining” and start to withdraw, resulting in loneliness and hopelessness, and other detrimental feelings.

Hope comes from learning the root cause of your anxiousness and figuring out which techniques and strategies will work for you. Anxiety is as unique as people are: a solution that works for one person may not work for you. The strategies you may have been using, consciously or not, often become part of the problem. For example, if you struggle with social anxiety, you may think the best way to deal with it is to cut yourself off from social events. But in doing so, you are cutting yourself off from community – resulting in further isolation, and possibly depression.

Conversely, telling yourself to “just stop it” can worsen anxious feelings because it gives you one more thing to worry about: not being anxious! A common yet ineffective strategy to dealing with anxiety is to avoid it, and in the long run, that cost becomes considerable and rarely works.

Anxiety Therapy Can Help You Confront The Cause Of Your Anxiety

As an anxiety therapist, I recognize the benefits of therapy in helping people change their relationship to negative thought patterns and unwanted feelings. With the right approach, you can gain control of your mind and be less influenced by these reactions, allowing you to be better able to focus on the tasks in front of you.

In a place of safety and compassion, we will start by looking at possible root causes of anxiety, such as past traumas or learned behaviors from family and community members. Depending on which type of anxiety you struggle with, such as trauma-related or chronic anxiety, my healing strategies will always be tailored to your unique needs.

I will show you skills and techniques for staying present in the moment, rather than fearing the future or lamenting the past. Learning how to be present means that you will no longer experience the fight, flight, or freeze sensations when dealing with anxiousness. When you have anxiety, your brain lies to you, telling you that every possible thing that could go wrong, will. But that simply isn’t true: it’s a trick of the brain we fall for. By learning to see the symptoms of anxiety for what they are, you empower yourself to move beyond past conditioning and control your reactions when confronted with triggers.

Anxiety is a very treatable condition. Some people benefit from medication, but in my practice, I use a combination of different strategies designed to safely help you deal with your anxiety, such as EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy), hypnotherapy, and mindfulness-based therapy. I am also the first clinician in Illinois trained in an innovative brain/body therapy called Brainspotting: a highly effective approach to treating anxiety, obsessive thinking, compulsive behavior, and chronic worry.

Other strategies may seem counter-intuitive at first, such as showing up to social events rather than avoiding them. However, my strategies are intended to “lean in” to uncomfortable emotions, thus changing your relationship to anxiety from one of avoidance and fear to one of confidence and opportunity to grow. This will gradually help you become “unstuck” and move forward as you become more confident that you can deal with the previously avoided situations. Anxiety-driven lives are constricting, and shrink your world. When anxiety no longer rules your decisions or interferes with your ability to relax, the world expands beyond what you ever imagined possible!

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health concerns people have, but with anxiety counseling, you can learn to live a full, productive life. It is highly treatable; you do not have to live a life driven by avoidance and fear. You can learn to take control of your emotions, make decisions confidently, and build a future according to what you truly want for yourself.

You May Have Some Concerns About Anxiety Therapy…

I’m tired of talking about my problems.

This is more than just talk therapy – my goal is to get to the root of the anxiety and resolve the issue causing it, not simply talk about negative thoughts and feelings. Through our work together, you can gain valuable tools, education, insight, and support to help you manage and/or eliminate your anxiety in a safe and effective way.

I’ve been anxious my whole life. No one can help me.

The way you have been conditioned to deal with anxiety may be what is discouraging you the most, which means you need to learn new ways to deal with it. Therapy allows you to identify, understand, and counter the reasons behind your anxiety. Once you know what you are dealing with, anxiety becomes much easier to tackle, because it loses its mystery status. Understanding anxiety and learning its true nature helps you change negative thought patterns.

If my circumstances don’t change, how will I feel differently?

You are not a product of your circumstances. Your situation doesn’t determine how you experience, interpret, and react – you do! You can learn to practice and experience internal peace, despite the circumstances you face. I can help you lessen the influence of negative thinking and out-of-control emotions, and help you respond to external situations with a more empowering and productive mindset. With the right tools, effective therapy, and commitment to change, it is definitely possible to feel differently.

Call To Schedule An Appointment With An Anxiety Therapist

If you’re ready to find help for anxiety, I invite you to call me at 847-804-2456 and schedule a free 20-minute phone consultation.