Anxiety Therapy
Compassionate and Thorough Approaches to Alleviate Anxiety
Does Constant Worry Keep You From Living Life To The Fullest?
- Are you tired of alarm bells going off in your head every time you experience something unexpected?
- Do your perfectionistic tendencies for small and relatively inconsequential concerns spiral into full blown panic?
- Do you worry that you’ll never be able to manage your fearful and catastrophic thinking?
As much as you want to come home at the end of the day and decompress, perhaps your brain refuses to shut off. Overthinking the day’s events and worrying about what’s to come could leave you constantly preoccupied and disconnected from family and friends. You may find that you feel overwhelmed and can no longer function the way you normally do. Because you don’t feel like your usual self, your fears only become more amplified.
Anxiety and Social Anxiety Can Create Physical Symptoms That Cause Concern
Unexplained physical symptoms, like headaches, nausea, digestive issues, chest tightness, or shortness of breath, may be affecting your health, work performance, and relationships. Insomnia may lead you to toss and turn at night, hit the snooze button in the morning, and feel exhausted all day. Or maybe you experience intense emotions or profound feelings of fear that seemingly come out of nowhere, like bouts of crying or panic attacks. You may be unaware of how much these ailments are caused by underlying stress.
As you struggle to maintain your equilibrium, your interpersonal relationships may become more strained. You might be avoiding social situations (social anxiety) because they make you uncomfortable, you fear judgement from others, or you have people pleasing patterns. Perhaps you are drinking, smoking, or scrolling online more to cope with your stress, but realize resorting to substances/distractions is masking a deeper problem.
Living with anxiety can make you feel like you are on a merry-go-round that never stops. Fortunately, therapy can help you slow things down, check in with your body and mind, and learn how to quiet anxiety so it’s no longer in control.
Meet Our Anxiety Therapists
Our therapists support adults managing anxiety, from persistent worry to panic and overthinking, using relational, somatic, and evidence-based approaches.
understanding anxious patterns, identity, and self-exploration, EMDR
overthinking, constant worry, burnout, and feeling stuck in patterns
anxiety, ADHD, and the overwhelm that comes with feeling stuck
Although Anxiety Is Common, It Is Preventable
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental issues facing our population today. As prevalent as anxiety is, many of us don’t understand how unaddressed anxiety affects us. When we compartmentalize our stress, it often manifests in ways we don’t expect, like panic attacks, gastrointestinal issues, or crying spells. Because anxiety is a natural part of the human survival instinct, it is tied to the nervous system, triggering both physical and emotional responses.
We Are All Susceptible To Anxiety
As hectic as modern life has become, it’s no wonder that so many of us feel burnt out, stressed, and on edge. Too many demands coupled with a lack of downtime becomes a recipe for anxiety. This pressure is exacerbated by social media’s comparison culture that has us constantly second-guessing ourselves. Unfortunately, most of us were never taught how to handle stress when we were growing up. As adults, we may struggle to keep all the plates in the air without becoming overwhelmed.
Although we are all susceptible to anxiety, we often feel ashamed to admit when we are struggling. Instead of talking about it, we may isolate ourselves and get stuck in our heads, which can make anxiety feel insurmountable. Unfortunately, this stigma may prevent us from seeking help that would benefit our well-being.
But there is no reason to feel ashamed to ask for help. Anxiety treatment can help address anxiety-related disorders—such as social anxiety, panic attacks, people-pleasing, and phobias—allowing you to feel more relaxed so you can enjoy more of what life has to offer.
Anxiety Therapy Allows You To Regain Control Of Your Life
When you need help managing anxiety, friends or family may not be the right people to turn to. Sometimes, these relationships may contribute to the issues you’re having. Seeking professional help from a therapist helps you understand what is causing your anxiety and how it affects you.
The relationship that develops between you and your counsellor is an important part of treating anxiety. We will provide you with a safe, welcoming, and nonjudgmental space to explore how you feel, both physically and mentally.
In addition to recognizing how your body responds to stress and formulating better ways to cope, we will also examine how anxiety impacts how you relate to others. If we identify people-pleasing behaviours in therapy, your therapist can help you better manage your relationships, whether by establishing healthier boundaries or gaining the confidence to tell others how you feel.
What To Expect In Sessions
We will move at your pace and comfort level, focusing on building rapport, trust, and confidence to aid you throughout the healing process. Whether you’re seeking therapy for general anxiety or support from a social anxiety therapist, your sessions will be tailored to your needs.
Each session will be crafted around what you bring into it. For example, if you are experiencing tightness in your chest, your therapist will ask you to breathe into it, observing how it feels physically and emotionally. Noticing your body language can help us pinpoint what is happening in your body in the present moment. Not only will we pay attention to your words, but we will also take note of your body posture, as it can tell us a lot about you.
By slowing down and focusing your awareness inward, you will begin to notice sensations moments, situations, and emotions that are often missed or overlooked. Trying to eliminate anxiety completely is never our objective. Rather, cultivating your innate knowing and awareness allows you to gradually rewire your nervous system to restore a sense of calm.
Anxiety Therapy Will Help You Heal And Grow
Our therapy model for anxiety treatment is rooted in somatic awareness. You will learn how to listen to your innate knowing through embodiment—that is, noticing and feeling your body’s sensations and emotions. Through discovery and conversation, we can help you get to the heart of what you’re feeling that may not be obvious to you, but is the source of your extra stress and anxiety, such as your current work situation, interpersonal relationships, or current belief systems.
Your therapist will maintain a relational openness with you that helps you better understand what your stress and worries are and how to manage your symptoms.Once we unpack these situations, we can help you discover your blind spots and identify where you may need to put up extra boundaries, perhaps by having conversations with loved ones or revisiting work-life balance priorities.
We may decide to engage in experiential exercises, such as role-playing, drawing, or movement, that represent situations in your life that feel stuck as a way to create awareness around them. Grounding strategies, like body scanning, mindfulness meditations, guided visualizations, and checking in with your emotions can help you come back to your body in intense moments and keep anxiety at bay.
In psychotherapy, the goal isn’t to distract you or mask your symptoms with superficial coping skills. We want to help you gain awareness of what is causing your issues so you can feel more in control of your emotions and physical health. By learning how to attune to your innate knowing, you will feel lighter, calmer, and have more clarity in your life.
Is Anxiety Therapy Right For Me?
What if therapy makes my anxiety worse?
Understandably, you may want to avoid thinking about what makes you anxious for fear it will make you feel worse. However, the opposite is true. When we are anxious, our body often manifests physical symptoms—such as sweating and heart palpitations—as alarm bells to tell us that there is something we need to address. In therapy, you can get to the heart of what’s underlying your anxiety.
How long will I have to go to counselling before I see results?
Although everyone is different and therapy is never a one-sizes-fits-all treatment, once you begin seeing a counsellor to treat anxiety, you will typically experience a reduction in your acute symptoms right away. Having the support and guidance of one of our anxiety disorder specialists makes dealing with your issues more manageable than trying to figure everything out alone. We like to start with 6 to 10 sessions and then evaluate on how it’s going and if further sessions are necessary.
I tried anxiety therapy before and didn’t have a great experience.
Because of our collaborative therapy style, our therapists consider themselves equal partners in your healing journey to overcome anxiety. We are not an authority on you—only you are. We’re here to listen until we understand the true nature of what’s going on for you, not only in the words you speak but also in your body cues and unspoken language. We take the time to build rapport and walk alongside you as you gain insight and understanding.
Getting Your Anxiety In Check Opens Up A World Of Possibilities
Reaching out for support can help you unlock the resiliency you have within to heal. If you’re looking for anxiety counselling or a social anxiety therapist in Toronto, contact us to schedule a free 20-minute consultatation.
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