Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Victoria, BC.

It’s impossible to be human without a little anxiety and stress. The problem arises when anxiety sticks around even when we’re not under threat. I believe it’s important to understand anxiety and stress in the context of your personal, family and cultural history, as well as any external stressors you may be experiencing. Secondly, anxiety and stress live in the body—locating them and applying practical tools like mindfulness, muscle relaxation and breathing techniques to help calm the nervous system can also be very helpful. It all depends on where you’re at and what you need. Ready to feel calmer and sturdier in the face of life’s challenges? Let’s get started.

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.

The circumstances and issues that you are dealing with are unique to you, but you don't have to face them alone. Every individual has different experiences, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, values, attitudes, cultural backgrounds and "upbringings". Counselling sessions are private and confidential, and can provide a way for you to explore your problems and really tune in to your feelings. This is an opportunity to speak freely about your circumstances and release pent up feelings, without having to worry about what others think or feel, and without receiving unwanted advise from family, friends or coworkers. At the root of the problem, there are very real, legitimate and understandable reasons for feeling the way you feel, thinking the way...(view profile to read more)

I am honoured that you are interested in my services and I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I have been described as slightly non-conventional in the counselling world, which suits me perfectly, and also tends to suit youth who are trying to stand up to the force of the problems in their life. I am very comfortable working with this population, and I feel fortunate that I can connect with teens the way I do, conventionally or in a way that makes sense to them.

Anxiety can feel overwhelming, persistent and disruptive to the life you're wanting. Gravitate Counselling Inc. has five Registered Clinical Counsellors in British Columbia who offer counselling to help ease the impact of anxiety. We can help you identify what creates anxiety, understand how it impacts you, learn new coping skills and strategies, and make changes in your life to decrease how often and how intensely you experience anxiety. We can also help with stress-related concerns, including counselling for parenting and caregiving stress, work-related stress, burnout, and health issues.

I help people work through and overcome painful experiences of stress and anxiety. I approach my clients with kindness and understanding and let them know that they will not be judged by me. By creating an open and trusting relationship, they will not feel humiliated or shamed. Together we will examine the depth of their problem and how it affects them mentally, emotionally, behaviorally and socially. We will explore the triggers underlying their anxiety and learn new skills to reduce their reactions. Clients learn to change faulty beliefs, to relax, to feel more secure and free, and to attain a calmness that they did not experience before.

Anxiety and stress can be the first signs that something is off that we need to respond to in our lives. They can snowball until they have power over us: their impulses conflicting with our greater needs. They can also be signs of deeper issues that are unique to each of our lives. Our personalities, senses of self, life histories, and individual understandings of the world all play a role; as do our nervous systems and embodied patterns of how we generate and resolve anxious feelings. Together we’ll collaborate to get every part of you on your team, aligned with the direction you want to take as as a whole.

I work holistically with anxiety and life stressors/transitions, believing in a three pronged approach that includes diet/nutrition, physical exercise and dealing with chronic stress and trauma. Addressing all 3 of these areas as well as learning various strategies and tools to deal with stress and anxiety directly can help alleviate your symptoms relatively quickly. In addition, we will take a personalized look at what isn't working in your life and what is fueling your response. Healing looks different for everyone, and I will work with you to sort out your unique situation, and help bring you back in to alignment with your authentic self.

Anxiety is a very common experience for many people and can manifest within a person's life in many different ways. I provide opportunities for people to learn about anxiety, develop an awareness about their thoughts, emotions and beliefs that fuel anxiety and offer clinically proven strategies for overcoming anxiety. I work together with individuals to develop a counselling program that entails understanding where a person's anxiety may have originated, developing an awareness into the situations and relationships that trigger their anxiety and employing coping methods to help manage anxiety in daily life.

Anxiety is a challenging condition that is characterized by excessive worry, muscle aches/soreness, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, restlessness, and difficulty concentrating. While depressed thinking is usually focused on the past, anxious thinking is usually focused on the future. Anxiety and depression often occur together. I use a combination of therapies to help you to change your relationship to anxiety, including cognitive therapy, somatic therapy, mindfulness, self-focused therapies, and narrative therapy.

Are you living your life constantly feeling on-edge? Are you a worrier who can't seem to turn it off? Does anxiety or stress keep you from being fully present for your family? As an anxiety and stress specialist, I know rough this can be. But there is hope. Together, we can deploy powerful techniques to get you feeling calm, relaxed, and emotionally thriving, so you can effectively deal with life challenges. Imagine: going about your day feeling excited rather than worried, confident rather than stressed, and focused rather than scattered. If you’re ready to stop worrying and start living, reach out.

Anxiety and stress are different for everyone. What is exciting to one may be too much for another. They can show up as bodily symptoms (panic, breathlessness, jitters, poor sleep). Others notice changes in their thoughts and attention– you might have racing thoughts, fears, and a hard time focusing. Too much stress makes us fearful, then we cope by avoiding some parts of our lives. Or we cope by doing a lot of things that don’t help so much (like worrying). We can get overwhelmed, or over-plan to try to manage. Counselling can help you identify what is going on, where it comes from – and explore what can be done about it, including different ways to calm your nervous system

Feelings of anxiety can become so intense that it becomes overwhelming. Often individuals struggling with anxiety express constant intruding thoughts that focus on fears of events of the future. Anxiety can create physical feelings of distress like a tight chest that makes it difficult to breath, an upset or tight feeling in the stomach, and general fatigue from constantly trying to control their thoughts and actions. Some people have battled anxiety for so long that they begin to believe it is just who they are and accept the restrictions it causes in their life. Through counselling we will work to break the cycle of anxiety controlling your inner world. Bringing a sense of relief, control and freedom that has been absent for so long.

I believe anxiety is a response to aspects of life that a person deems fearful, unsafe, or uncertain. It is possible to reduce or eliminate a person's anxiety in counselling, and in doing so, you will feel lighter, more secure, and grounded in your daily living. Similarly, high stress levels can perpetuate a person's sense of anxiety. I believe stress can be managed and significantly decreased through counselling.

When you worry you suffer in advance for outcomes which have not yet happened and, in fact, rarely do happen. It is bad enough to suffer the bad things that really do happen without suffering needlessly. We will seek to strengthen faith and trust that the world is mainly safe for you. Stress is the result of overloading our coping competencies. We will talk about riding through anxiety attacks and techniques to reduce uncomfortable hyper vigilance. We will look back into your history to find the roots of anxiety and stress. We may use trauma relief strategies such as EMDR or Traumatic Incident reduction (TIR). Counseling for anxiety and stress should make you happier and more relaxed.

Anxiety and stress seem to be ever-present in our world today. Feeling anxious and stressed can often feel inevitable but we do have choices and we can behave differently when confronted with anxiety and stress provoking situations. With over 10 years experience developing resilience promoting programs and services, I will help you gain increased control over your reaction and have you feeling more confident and in charge of yourself. Resilience is a quality and a skill that can be learned.

Anxiety can be experienced as feelings of stress, overwhelm, overly-cautious disposition, fatigue, headaches, “churning of the stomach”, and problems sleeping. In therapy, clients can expect to explore thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, learn new ways to respond and cope with stress, and increase self-awareness. At the outcome of therapy, individuals will develop clarity around personal needs and boundaries, feel more connected, and have greater control over self and life, experience increased joy and peace-of-mind, and improved functioning in work, social life, and relationships.

Molly uses evidence-based methods such as CBT, mindfulness, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and EMDR to build a framework for working with triggers, developing healthy coping, and fostering more calm and control in your life. Molly's empathetic approach will ensure that you feel heard and empowered as you work toward a more balanced, peaceful life.

The source of our stresses may be numerous but a clear and unbiased awareness of the self-talk that contributes to each experience is a powerful source of change and empowerment. As I listen to each account and draw out further details that make the experience more understandable, I also map out the potential changes and outline the new self-talk that will reduce the stresses and anxiety.

Dr. Sloat feels we live in a world that overstimulates us, and thus stress and anxiety are sometimes unavoidable, especially for the sensitive among us. She takes a triple approach to treatment in that it is, 1) aimed at teaching strategies and tools for dealing with anxiety and stress as we experience them, 2) geared toward challenging thoughts and beliefs that are anxiety and/or stress producing in themselves, and 3) facilitates management of one's lifestyle such that it becomes balanced.

Our culture is permeated with stress and anxiety, and we develop habitual ways of reacting to situations that actually reinforce our stress and anxiety. Although stress reactions can be helpful in avoiding danger, in a day to day way these reactions can actually interfere with our ability to cope. In therapy, you will learn new ways to calm and self-regulate, to change habitual and negative beliefs, and to react differently in stressful situations. By using simple mindfulness techniques that calm the nervous system, you can actually minimize your stress or anxious reaction. The result is a more positive life experience which will lead to more satisfaction.

Anxiety comes in many forms. From generalized anxiety to phobias to panic, I use a blended CBT and Jungian approach to understand your symptoms, why they are happening in your current life, and help you manage symptoms. Anxiety counselling is my specialization and I have worked in the area for over 10 years. You can find a video about Understanding Anxiety on my website scottkouri.com

Some amount of anxiety and stress is a normal and necessary reaction to life events and situations. Yet, too much or too little can create obstacles to living your life fully and peacefully. I can help you to learn and practice skills needed to manage anxiety and to improve interactions with people in your life. We can also work together to reduce, and in some cases, take the "charge" out of the intensity of the triggers that cause unhelpful anxious reactions. Different therapies we can use include to talk therapy, CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and/or EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).

Stress is a fact of life. Work, school, finances, relationships, raising children, concerns about the future, and countless other issues can be overwhelming. We simply cannot handle long-term, chronic stress without health consequences. Anxiety goes hand-in-glove with stress. Stress can lead to feelings of anxiety, and anxiety often heightens stress levels. This feedback loop can feel crazy-making, overwhelming, and get in the way of everything. In my practice, I help people to better understand stress and anxiety, and learn ways to deepen their ability to cope, and move toward enjoying increased peace of mind and sense of stability. Contact me for a free 30-minute consultation to discuss how we can work together toward getting you feeling like you are more in control of your life.

You are not alone. Whether you are anxious in social situations, suffering from PTSD, OCD, or panic disorders, or experiencing a generalized and on-going anxiety, you are not the only one! And you don't have to face it by yourself. At your own pace we will work at alleviating the physical symptoms like nausea, dizziness, chest pain, muscle tension, trembling and sweating. We will manage the manifestations of your anxiety, like isolation, irrational fears, or heart racing panic attacks. Discover helpful anxiety and stress, and why it is essential to our survival. Find peace in our carefully created therapeutic relationship, and recreate it in all parts of your life.