Anxiety Counselling in Paddington and West London
Anxiety is a feeling of worry or fear that is a normal response to a range of different situations.
Anxiety can begin to affect your mental health in a negative way when you begin to feel anxious every day. You might even have difficulty remembering when you last felt relaxed. When anxiety reaches a level where you feel unable to function in your usual way, day-to-day, you may choose to reach out for professional help.
Counselling can help you explore the cause of your anxious feelings, understand them and learn coping strategies to help when situations re-occur. A counsellor is less likely to directly cure your anxiety, but can help you to plan for situations that are common triggers, and equip you with tools to help manage your anxiety.
The effectiveness of these tools will depend on how often they are practiced. Repeated use enables resilience to build up, such that the learned behaviour becomes an automatic response to manging anxious situations.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel restless, tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and part of what makes us human. It is the body's chemical response to a threatening situation where the choice is fight, flight or freeze (a fourth response not often associated with anxiety can be fawning, or pleasing others).
Treatment for general anxiety disorders in adults.
Counselling is one of the options available for the treatment of anxiety. The NHS website has a broader overview on other choices available.
It is important to understand what is causing your anxiety – then you can look at steps to address it.
A counsellor can provide you with a safe space to talk about what you're going through, and why you feel as you do. They can help you find ways to manage your anxiety in a way that provides relief and insight. Typically, counselling will start by exploring what’s going on for you, and what underlying issues may be contributing to your symptoms. These can range from external factors to unconscious beliefs.
Counselling will be geared towards what works best for you, as an individual, to help to interrupt and slow down the physical response that causes anxiety. Often, the solution can be as simple as learning to reconnect to the body and the breath. Meditation and conscious breathing techniques can offer a different focal point that calms the nervous system.
Get in touch
If you’re in West London and you would like help coping with anxiety or panic attacks, get in touch with me. I offer a free, no obligation, 15 minute online or over the phone meeting.
Call 07837165148 or Email info@chriswilsontherapy.com