Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Chemainus, BC.

Anxiety as a result of stress is one of, if not the major contributing factor to poor health in most areas of people lives. If you have ever been tense before an exam or a visit to the dentist, you have a felt anxiety. Increased heart rate, sweating, rapid breathing, dry mouth, & a sense of dread are common. Changing this involves cognitive & behavioural approaches. Cognitive change is understanding how thoughts contribute to symptoms and how to change thought patterns to reduce the intensity of your anxiety. And behavioral changes involve using techniques to reduce or stop any undesired behaviors that are a result of the anxiety you have been experiencing.

Prolonged stress and anxiety can result in impairment to our mental and physical health. We may experience high blood pressure, significant weight loss or gain, inability to concentrate or sleep, panic attacks, agitation and irritability. Overtime, these ailments can not only decrease our life satisfaction, but reduced our overall health. Don’t ignore the symptoms. Get help. Counselling can help you learn ways to cope, identify the underlying causes of your stress and explore ways to reduce stress and anxiety in your life.

Do you worry about not being enough, not doing enough, trying to be perfect? Are you constantly wondering what others are thinking and saying. Maybe you worry about your anxiety, about anxiety symptoms like racing heart, chronic pain or dizziness and fatigue. If you have panic attacks, this can cause you to worry about having a panic attack as well as the actual trigger of the attack. Learn to find your triggers. Cognitive behavioural therapy has tools to help you overcome the fear. Wouldn't it be wonderful to believe you are enough and that perfection is some ideal that you never have to achieve because you are okay. Just the way you are. A work in progress and that's okay. Acceptance.

I offer an integrative blend of somatic awareness, mindfulness practices, relational attunement, and trauma-informed presencing to help my clients address anxiety and stress in their lives. Using your natural healing process as our guide, we can help the nervous system learn what a peaceful state of health and vitality is again. I am currently offering sessions online and in person.

Chronic stress and anxiety when untreated can make just 'regular human function' feel like an unsurmountable task. Anxiety tends to be a downstream symptom of other psychological dynamics and experiences, so understanding how we got here can help us process their impact and develop tools to increase resiliency, improve insight, and manage feelings and emotions.

Anxiety and stress are universal human experiences to which we can all relate. Though they may present in a myriad of ways being equipped with tools and strategies will improve your confidence in our ability to manage your own stress and anxiety. Our therapists are here to help you build out your toolbox so that you can gain a greater sense of control and balance.

Stress can prompt the cracks in our normal ways of coping to come into sharp focus. Similarly, anxiety can be all consuming, causing us to replay the tapes of our past over and over again. We may even be spending hours reviewing the tapes of events that only ever took place in our heads! The result is exhaustion and avoidance of anything that feels overwhelming. As a result, life can become small as we limit ourselves to our comfort zone. Unfortunately, this is when depression can creep in for a double-whammy. Yuck! Luckily, stress/anxiety is highly treatable. I work with clients to develop the insights and acquire the tools to overcome stress and anxiety. There is hope. Promise!

We live in a fast paced 24/7 world dealing with social media, technology and lots of things to worry about in the media. No wonder we are all a little anxious these days. I will help you change your relationship with your thoughts so they have less power and control over you. When we give in and avoid things due to anxiety we end up feeling pretty isolated. I will teach you tools and strategies to get through your stress and anxiety.

Anxiety can be debilitating. Uncovering the underlying causes for the worries and fears then learning how to relax will help control your anxiety levels, stop worrisome thoughts, and conquer your fears. Developing more positive coping and problem solving skills will provide you with life long tools for managing unexpected situations. Realizing it is your thoughts and their perceptions, not the external event, that affects the way you feel and react, will allow you to replace the negative reaction with positive ones. Stress can be managed by taking control. Prioritize, identify the major source then each additional one then follow through with changes remembering you are in control.

We live in stressful times and often the day-to-day demands of dealing with challenges at home and in the workplace begin to overwhelm us. Counselling can help to prevent problems with mental health by providing a place to talk through the stressors that bother us, resolve internal conflicts, and develop the skills to set limits and create boundaries with others. I use a variety of approaches in therapy to help you manage stress and resolve the symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety is a disorder that comes in many forms. I specialize in helping people resolve Generalized Anxiety (GAD); Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD); Phobias and medical procedure anxiety.

Anxiety and stress are common challenges that many face. These two challenges can leave great impacts on our minds, bodies as well as our relationships. I like to use empathy to create a safe space for my clients to share. I also teach my clients what is happening in their bodies when they have large amounts of stress and anxiety. As well as tools they can use to cope during their everyday life.

Often people will tell others to stop worrying and lower your stress because of the serious health problems it can cause, but despite our best attempts to do this, most often people are simply unsuccessful -- the more we try to "control" these problem areas, the worse the worry cycle usually gets. Mindfulness and self-compassion can help us break this cycle by learning to accept our feelings and stop getting hooked into the stress, anxiety and worry. What if these attempts to "control" the anxiety is actually part of the problem that keeps us stuck in it and leads us away from the meaningful life we desire? These are ways we begin to unwind the challenges that come with anxiety and stress.

Anxiety and stress can impact every aspect of life, but with the right support, you can regain control and find balance. My approach helps clients understand the root causes of their anxiety and stress, identify triggers, and develop practical tools to manage overwhelming emotions. Together, we’ll build coping strategies tailored to your needs, promote relaxation, and foster resilience. Clients benefit from reduced feelings of tension, improved emotional regulation, and a greater sense of calm and confidence in their daily lives.

Everyone reacts differently to stress and there can be variance depending on what the stress stimulus is! Knowing how you respond can be helpful when learning to cope with stress or anxiety. Fight, flight, freeze, and appease are types of responses that are reactive to stress and anxiety. Flight response includes avoiding situations, people, or thoughts. Those who react with fight tend to feel frustrated and irritable. This can look like bursts of anger or resistance to situations and people. Those who freeze tend to shut down, feel like they are disconnected from themselves or the world, or feel stuck in the stressful situation. Therapy can help mitigate some of these responses.