Therapy for Anxiety/Depression

At times we can be overcome by uncomfortable feelings, among these Anxiety and Depression, and Grief are amongst the hardest. But it’s possible to overcome them, let me show you how I can help you overcome these, I’ll talk about Anxiety first and then Depression.

What is anxiety?

Let’s start with the basics. Anxiety is an uncomfortable feeling we experience when we think about the future, about what might happen. We can experience anxiety in our body, like a tightness in the chest, or it may come up as an emotion: feeling scared, worried, nervous or even angry, and It normally involves thoughts about “What if”.

What causes anxiety?

Usually there is more than one cause for anxiety. Some people are biologically more prone to anxiety than others, others may have traumatic past events that have triggered a pattern of anxiety within them, in most cases it will be a combination of the two. Anxiety arises with how we look towards the future, how we react to thoughts about the future. It’s hard to just stop anxiety, because we don’t normally have control over these thoughts and reactions, they are automatic.

The negative cycle of thoughts, sensation & emotions.

Anxiety usually starts with a thought about the future. We are presented with a new situation, and when we think about it we start having thoughts about what could go wrong, what could hurt us. When we have these kinds of thoughts some sensations are generated in our body, and we feel emotions like fear, anxiousness, on edge & worry.

If you look very carefully, it’s normally not the thought itself which bothers us, but how it makes us feel when we have it. “Normally” thoughts come and go, and it is both natural and important that we are able to feel concern about things, it comes with having a balanced view on the world, if you suffer from anxiety you are most likely suffering from the fact that these thoughts emotions and feelings just don’t go away.

Why is this happening? Because of the reaction our body has to the thoughts, you see the thought which triggers the anxiety can pass rather quickly, but we are left with the uncomfortable feeling, with a feeling of fear that is not connected to anything. And then our wonderful mind which tries to understand the world from the moment we are born does the thing it is accustomed to do, it finds a reason why you are feeling the way you are feeling, a thought, an idea. An idea which might not at all be connected to why you started to feel the way you do, it just finds any thought that fits into the role, something that also produces fear and anxiety. And guess what happens now? This new thought creates more uncomfortable feelings and sensations and the cycle continues.

How do I know if I suffer from anxiety.

There are many symptoms for anxiety these include:

Emotional:

Physical:

The different ‘flavors’ of anxiety.

Anxiety can come in multiple ‘flavors’ each one of them having a slightly different mechanisms acting inside us. Sometimes these are called “Anxiety Disorders”, but I have to admit to you that I don’t like this type of “put you in a box” definitions, I find each individual to be a world onto themselves, and though we may find that we suffer from one or another form of anxiety, it does not need to define who we are.

The different ‘flavors’ of anxiety.

Panic Attacks

this is probably the most intense form of anxiety, usually people feel as if they are having a heart attack, they feel a strong pain the chest, inability to breath, fainting and thinking they will die. After suffering one or two of these, and realizing you will not die, usually people start having a constant fear about having these attacks. As colorful and intense the experience these are the simplest to treat, and usually within 3-5 sessions the problem subsides.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

this is when we feel anxious about many different things, it’s like a constant fear that is there even without a reason, or the thing that worries us just shifts from one thing to another. This a pattern it’s like our bodies have become addicted to producing fear inducing chemicals. To resolve this we need to really look at how we think, become conscious of the unconscious processes inside of us and change course.

Phobias

Phobias are specific fears, we may be afraid of spiders, dogs, being outdoors or in public, this type of anxiety is usually more specific, it’s like for some reason we developed a fear from something that logically is not supposed to be so dangerous. To work on our phobias we work by both disarming the pattern of fear and avoidance we have developed, as well as disarming the events in the past that have kickstarted the phobia

What are the best treatments for anxiety?

"How do I get rid of my anxiety?"

Luckily, there are tons of great treatments to help you get rid of anxiety. It’s important that the anxiety treatment you take is uniquely fitted to your needs Here are a few anxiety treatments I use in my work

Therapy & Counseling: How I Treat Anxiety

Here’s the gist of how I do therapy. If you’ll get bored with this, feel free to skip it:

CBT

Cognitive behavioural therapy looks at the connection between thoughts, actions, and feelings. I will teach you how to look at the processes that are happening within you, so when you feel anxious you will understand what the real reason for the anxiety is, and what are just thoughts that hitched a ride. I will also share with you practical tools to cope with every day events, and build strategies to take control of your life. You will see how by controlling your actions you can actually change how you feel, think and perceive.

Somatic Therapy

Through somatic therapy we bring the connection to the unconscious mind. I will teach you how to be aware of your body and how to control how it reacts to and sustains the anxiety. I will teach you how to let the thoughts, feelings and emotions resolve without adding” fuel” to the fire. There are many small “tricks” that we apply to break the cycle of automatically reacting to these patterns. With the somatic therapy we actually change how our nervous system reacts to life events, if there is anything close to “reprogramming the mind” this is it. And we can learn to cope with and overcome even our biological tendencies.

Psychodynamic Therapy

In Psychodynamic therapy we go to the past, we look into the patterns of reactions, we understand why we have developed this way of reacting. I tell you, it served a purpose, it’s like anxiety started out as a guard, helping us to survive and cope with life, but at some point the guard forgot its original purpose and now it is guarding against everything and everyone, it sounds an alarm of an intruder even if it is our best friend. By understanding what was the original mission of this guard we can find ways to “reassign” the guard, that is to reprogram the pattern to something else.

Anxiety can be treated with or without medication.

Some people want anxiety medicine, and others don’t. Whatever you want, just know there are options. I myself am a staunch believer in allowing the healing to come from inside. At the same time I do believe that at times, when our brain goes out of balance medications can be used to bring the balance, and the therapy can help us maintain that balance in the long run. If you wish to take medications in parallel to the therapy I can work with your physician or psychiatrist to make sure that all your healing efforts are happening in unison.

What if Anxiety isn't my only issue?

It’s very possible that you don’t only feel anxious. Other stuff can come up too. Anxiety can trigger a host of other issues, you may also experience depression, irritability, or even an urge to self-harm. The good thing is, no matter how bad it gets, things can get better. You can get rid of anxiety and any other issues. I can help you get back to feeling the way you want.

How do I know if I suffer from Depression?

Depression is often linked with anxiety, and they share a biological basis. But depression is also an independant difficulty you may be facing, and the experience of Depression is very different.

Emotional symptoms

Feeling hopeless, thinking that nothing positive will ever happen for you, others or the world
Believe it is not worth trying
Lack of interest in things
Feelings of worthlessness, as if who you are or what you do is not valuable
Feelings of guilt, as if you do not deserve anything
Thinking about death or suicide

Physical symptoms

Tiredness
Difficulty sleeping, or Difficulty getting out of bed
Lack of appetite, or emotional eating
Poor concentration
Slowness in action
Physical pain

Where depression comes from?

Depression like anxiety also arises from the interaction between our body, or how we Act how we feel and how we think. But the type of thoughts, the type of feelings, the type of Sensations and actions that we take are different.

Underneath depression they’re usually lie beliefs about our self-worth and about our self-efficacy in the world. We use the same tools for addressing depression as we did for the anxiety. We use cognitive to look at our thinking, we challenge our beliefs, we use somatic therapy to look at how our body is holding the pattern of depression, and finally we look at the past to see what traumas have led to this condition.

In depression we also work with hope, for depression I work a lot with transpersonal psychotherapy. Part of this therapy reconnects us to the strength that we all have inside, I know that you might not feel that you have this, you may feel disconnected from yourself or that inside of you there is nothing but darkness, i’ve experienced this myself. Through the transpersonal work we go beyond the mind we go beyond our limiting beliefs which you may feel to be real at this moment, and we encounter something new.

Reach out for your free 15 min consult