Experiencing anxiety before an important interview or making major life decisions is common; however, if your symptoms continue to affect you it might be beneficial to seek anxiety counselling for support. Bennett often leads her clients on walking meditations to help refocus their thoughts and emotions, teaching them to distinguish what they can control from what’s out of their hands.
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the process of becoming aware of your thoughts, emotions and physical sensations within yourself and can help identify any underlying mental health triggers. Although this can be challenging to achieve, mindfulness techniques and breathing exercises can be useful tools in raising your level of awareness.
Therapists can assist in creating a more rational and positive approach to managing anxiety by teaching you to recognize irrational predictions or negative distortions in your thoughts and replacing these with more rational, calming thoughts.
Kuhn works with clients to develop an internal target, with concentric circles representing things they can control such as their thoughts and behaviors. She encourages them to identify what is out of their hands such as others’ reactions – this will reduce stress levels while simultaneously building confidence and contentment.
Triggers
Anxiety attacks may be caused by certain people, places or situations; therapy can help you identify these triggers and develop effective coping techniques to ease anxiety at those times.
Anxiety can also be caused by feelings of fear or worry over things outside your control, such as witnessing abusive relationships in close family circles or facing health concerns within the household. Such situations may add stress and lead to feelings of anxiety for all concerned.
Therapists are available to provide support when it comes to dealing with triggers that cause anxiety. Desensitization techniques, in which you purposefully expose yourself to your triggers until they no longer cause anxiety, may help. For example, if public speaking anxiety is your issue, your therapist might encourage giving public speeches before their peers in order to gradually build confidence. Imaginal or in vivo exposure may also help with learning how to cope with anxiety-provoking experiences.
Identifying negative thought patterns
Counseling can teach you to identify unhelpful thought patterns and learn to break them, leading to anxiety and depression.
Bennett often takes her clients for mindful walks up and down the block to help them be present and less focused on anxious thoughts. Kuhn helps clients to identify what they can control via an exercise she calls The Target Technique; all aspects they can directly manage go into one circle while partially controlled aspects are placed into another one, with anything out of reach sitting on its side.
Pisarik also educates her clients on ways to lead healthy lifestyles, offering advice such as exercise and healthy nutrition as well as refraining from caffeine, smoking and alcohol which can aggravate anxiety. Furthermore, she urges them to find ways to be social and foster a sense of community.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an ancient Eastern practice adapted for Western medicine that has proven effective at helping people manage anxiety. The practice involves being present and accepting each moment without judgment – just being mindful.
Your therapist may instruct you on a meditation technique designed to reduce stress levels and relax the mind, as well as help identify any irrational or negative distortions in your anxious thoughts and show you how to replace them with realistic ones.
One mindful exercise is mindful inquiry. This entails uncovering emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations driving panic and anxieties which often lie dormant beneath the surface. By doing this with nonjudgmental awareness of experience – rather than judgemental attention – balance is restored along with courage in facing fears head on. An exercise often recommended is focusing on breathing techniques which will calm the body down quickly.