Understanding Anxiety

Anxiety is a natural response to stress, and let’s face it, life can be stressful! While some level of anxiety is normal and even helpful in certain situations, it becomes a problem when it interferes with daily life, work, relationships, or your sense of well-being. Anxiety can feel like a general state of unease, your thoughts being on a loop, worrying about the future, or feeling on edge. You might have trouble falling or staying asleep. You avoid situations that trigger anxious feelings. It’s exhausting—both physically and emotionally. 

Sometimes you might be anxious and not even be aware of it because you’ve become so skilled at avoiding it. One example of this is being anxious about relationships and intimacy. I wrote a blog post about this here.

What Causes Anxiety?

The causes of anxiety are varied and in if you’re looking for a therapist for anxiety, you’re looking for some relief. In anxiety therapy with me, we talk about potential causes, but there usually isn’t just one situation or cause of your anxiety. It can stem from a combination of genetic predisposition, childhood circumstances, personality traits, and current stressors. 

You might be going through a temporary stressor such as going through a break-up or move that is causing you to feel more anxious. You might be a Highly Sensitive Person and get anxious in social situations and ruminate more deeply about interactions. Perhaps growing up, your parents communicated a fearful and cautious view of the world or they were overly critical and set extremely high standards. This can cause a person to be excessively worried about making mistakes and how people perceive them.

My Approach to Anxiety Therapy

As a holistic therapist, I approach and think about anxiety through many different perspectives since the causes and ways that it manifests are so varied. There are many forms of anxiety such as generalized anxiety, social anxiety, specific phobias, OCD or panic attacks. Anxiety therapy is not a one size fits all treatment. If you’d like to know more about my approach and whether I can help, contact me for a free 15 minute phone consult.