Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Vancouver, BC.

Anxiety, panic, and stress often show up as tension or unpleasant physical sensations in the body as fear and other emotions are held back. Trauma, relationship problems, losses, and attachment issues are often the hidden source of emotional pain. To resolve anxiety and panic, I use a mind-body approach which integrates cognitive, emotional, and body sensing techniques to get curious about and resolve the true underlying issues.

I approach anxiety counseling with a professional and evidence-based methodology, ensuring that you receive the utmost quality of care. Drawing from a robust background in psychology, education, and therapy, I am well-prepared to navigate the intricacies of anxiety and its impact on your life. While anxiety is a natural response to stress, I recognize that, for some, it can become overwhelming and disruptive. It may manifest in various forms, such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder, or specific phobias. Together we will implement proved techniques to relieve you of the anxiety that is impacting your well-being.

Are you a gay man that struggles with felling anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed? Perhaps you’ve even felt the out of control experience of a panic attack before. All of these experiences can show up in unique ways for gay men, and sometimes a general approach to these issues just isn’t enough. First, I’ll help you with anxiety by teaching you tools that can get you quick relief from some of your anxiety right away. From there, I’ll work with you to grow your progress further, and understand the roots of your anxiety so that you can maintain your freedom from anxiety long term.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is often the modality of choice with issues of anxiety or depression. When the roots of either are found in thought distortions, CBT will be used. At times anxiety and depression might mask deeper concerns such as unmet needs, unspoken pain, frozen anger or other trauma wounds. Family systems, Compassionate Inquiry and CBT are used in these more complex situations.

We provide comprehensive support to clients dealing with anxiety and stress by utilizing various effective techniques. First and foremost, we employ psychoeducation to help clients comprehend the underlying mechanisms behind anxiety and stress. Through this knowledge, they gain a better understanding of their own experiences. Additionally, we integrate mindfulness practices, somatic experiencing, and other approaches aimed at fostering self-awareness of both thoughts and physical sensations. This helps clients develop a greater sense of being present in the here and now, enhancing their ability to manage and cope with anxiety.

In Anxiety & Stress Treatment and Counselling, my approach centers on providing clients with practical tools and strategies to effectively manage and alleviate anxiety and stress. I create a supportive and empathetic environment where clients can openly discuss their concerns and fears. Through a combination of CBT techniques, mindfulness practices, and stress-reduction strategies, clients can expect to develop a deeper understanding of the triggers of their anxiety and stress responses. Together, we work on building resilience and adaptive coping mechanisms, enabling clients to regain a sense of control over their emotions and lives.

Anxiety is often the manifestation of an overactive fight or flight mechanism. This mechanism is in us for a reason, so we won't try to shut it down. But we will look at ways to modulate the alarm response so our lives are enjoyable and fulfilling. Stress is not the same as anxiety, and my favourite intervention for it involves reframing stress as a challenge and opportunity to build capacity. With a little work, stress can become your friend.

Anxiety and stress is the body’s natural response to danger, an automatic alarm that goes off when we feel threatened. But when anxiety is constant or overwhelming, when it interferes with your relationships and activities—that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders. As a product of the body’s fight-or-flight response, anxiety involves a wide range of physical symptoms. Many people experiencing anxiety benefit from supportive counselling or couples or family therapy. However, experts agree that the most effective form of treatment for the is cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

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.

We are far more primitive in our reactions than we like to think, and fear, stress, or anxiety, can go from an adaptive warning to a very non adaptive over reaction, arresting our ability to function. I have worked extensively in this area, in giving workshops and as a trainer for other counsellors, focusing first on understanding the body's reaction and then developing skills to over-ride the anxiety response. Using a mindfulness approach, staying connected with our needs, and focusing on resiliency, anxiety can be tamed.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues. If you are feeling anxious, you are not alone. Anxiety can be crippling and can drain our energy to enjoy life. The good news is that anxiety is also very treatable. When working with anxiety, I use my clinical experience to tailor my approach to your specific situation. We will focus on what tools will be most useful for you to regulate your anxiety and will also discuss the roots of your anxiety. We will get curious about what anxiety is trying to tell you about the emotions that need to be addressed or the changes that need to be made in your life. We will work together to find your inner calm again.

Anxiety and Stress has become a part of what we all deal with in life-today. We can help you develop the right coping tools to manage both, so it doesn't feel these emotions are in control of you. If you want to experience and learn effective and unique coping mechanisms for anxiety and stress, book your free 15 minute consultation appointment with us today. We can help!

You might be familiar with that tense, unsettled feeling that you can't shake. The overthinking, ruminating, and worrying. It's so hard to be present and engaged when we suffer with anxiety! Anxiety is the #1 reason people seek out my services. I can help you get to the roots of your anxiety (hint: it's not ONLY about disputing your irrational thoughts) so that you feel more grounded and alive. Through their work with me, my clients have reported that they are more socially engaged, less in their heads, more in tune with their bodies, and better able to attend to the underlying emotions and needs underlying the anxiety. I look forward to supporting you in moving beyond your anxiety.

My approach to anxiety and stress is wholistic—I will help you understand and free yourself from critical inner voices as well as teach you how to self-regulate your nervous system for calm and ease by: • Learning about you and your life, which can include any or all of the following: personal/gender identity, family, culture, relationship, social life, work, medical issues • Selecting the modalities we both feel will be most helpful for you and practicing them in session together • Modalities I work with include: attachment healing, self-regulation, body sensing inquiry, setting healthy boundaries, disarming the inner critic, self-esteem, hypnosis, family constellations

The UBC Psychology Clinic is an outpatient mental health and state-of-the-art training clinic in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. We offer comprehensive psychological services for children, adolescents, adults, and families in the Greater Vancouver community. We provide affordable, professional services using the most recent advances in mental health care. All our services are confidential and meet the ethical guidelines established by the College of Psychologists of British Columbia.

In my professional and personal experience I have found that problems with anxiety, stress, depression, and anger issues are often overlapping. Many people feel mixed emotions of fear, worry, pressure, frustration, guilt, shame and low self worth. Unfortunately we have a tendency to doubt our abilities and our value which can quickly become a 'self fulfilling prophecy' and cause us to judge ourselves harshly, and/or isolate from others. This can become a cycle but it can often be broken by speaking openly with a professional who is competent, kind and encouraging. I am diligent in helping clients identify the false core beliefs and establish new beliefs that empower them again.

While our bodies are perfectly designed to adapt and react to stress, modern problems mean that we tend to detect life threatening dangers in very ordinary places. Conflicts at work, arguments in our relationships and uncertainties such as the post-Covid world activate old survival mechanisms. We may be stuck in the buzzing, fear states of ‘fight-flight’ or the numb and paralyzed states of ‘freeze and shut down.’ The good news is that I have a long history of safely and successfully helping individuals and couples to reduce and release stress using a variety of CBT and mindfulness techniques, as well as trauma-informed therapy. You have my commitment to compassionate and educated care.

Anxiety and stress counseling offers individuals practical tools and emotional support to manage overwhelming feelings and regain a sense of balance and well-being. Evidence-based techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), relaxation exercises, and mindfulness practices are utilized to help clients identify and challenge anxious thoughts, regulate physiological responses, and develop coping strategies. Through collaborative goal-setting and validation, counseling empowers individuals to build resilience, enhance self-care practices, and cultivate a greater sense of calm and mastery in navigating life's challenges.

I will teach you how to reduce anxiety and stress response through calming your mind and body. Using Mindfulness and Mindful Self-Compassion strategies, you will be able to take control of how you respond to difficult life situations. When the mind and body are calm, we are able to expand our thinking about our problems, and solutions to challenges become more readily available.

Anxiety and stress keep us out of connection to ourselves. Anxiety often helps protect you from other feelings that are too seemingly to distressing to bear. But then it came seem to overtake everything else in your life. If you would like to start to understand your anxiety and who you are underneath it, please reach out. A combination of approaches tailored to you can help you connect to yourself and lift the anxiety.

Some worry is a normal part of the physical and emotional human experience. It helps us get things done and keeps us safe. When worry becomes so big that it gets in the way of daily functioning and wellbeing then it may be time to seek help. Heather draws on several types of therapeutic approaches, including mindfulness, cognitive behavioural therapy, and somatic therapies for trauma and relational injuries, to help clients understand and manage anxiety.

I help clients dealing with anxiety and stress by using CBT, DBT, and Mindfulness based approaches. I help clients develop awareness and insight around the way they think to then create change in their thinking. Thoughts, Behaviours, and Emotions are all interconnected and drive each person's experience of an event and of themselves. By changing one, we change the other two. I help clients do this while pairing their thoughts with mindfulness based strategies to soothe their stress and anxiety.

Do you have difficulty “turning off” your brain? Is your anxiety creeping back up on you or has it become overwhelming or paralyzing? Are stress and anxiety negatively impacting your health, relationships, or career? Stress can be even more difficult to manage for those with a pre-disposition towards anxiety. We would like to help. We provide treatment to help you relieve anxiety and stress, develop coping skills, and build confidence. We will address your triggers, your relationship with anxiety as well as your attempts to “control” it, and learn more adaptive ways that allow you to flourish. Call us today at (604) 614 – 7177 to get started.

Do you find yourself worrying about whether you locked the front door,even though you know that you checked it three times? Do you feel your palms sweating and your heart racing, with an impending sense of doom as a sense panic washes over you? These are both forms of anxiety, that sense that the world is not a safe place and worry and concern over the future. Together we will work together to improve your sense of well being, decrease your anxiety and release you from the need to devote energy and brain space to safety behaviours.

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.