Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.
Janine offers Anxiety counselling in fourways lonehill and online
Understanding Normal vs. Problematic Anxiety
A certain amount of worry, nerves or stress is part of life at times, and a normal reaction to some events such as exams or interviews. Being a little nervous can motivate you to do your best, take extra care or pay attention to detail.
However, when this worry, stress and anxiety hinders you in your performance, disturbs a healthy sleep pattern, your daily life, how you interact with others, and you find you cannot function optimally or is debilitating this is no longer adaptive.
The Anxiety Spectrum
Anxiety exists on a spectrum, ranging from mild, occasional unease to persistent, overwhelming fear that dominates your thoughts and behaviors.
Physical Symptoms
Many people experience anxiety as physical sensations:
- Racing heart
- Shallow breathing
- Muscle tension
- Digestive disturbances
Mental Symptoms
Alongside mental symptoms like:
- Racing thoughts
- Difficulty concentrating
- Constant worrying about what might go wrong
These symptoms can create a self-perpetuating cycle where physical sensations trigger more anxious thoughts, which then intensify the physical response.
How Anxiety Impacts Daily Life
Living with heightened anxiety can transform everyday situations into seemingly insurmountable challenges. Simple activities like grocery shopping, attending social gatherings, or even leaving your home might trigger intense fear responses. Professional responsibilities may become increasingly difficult as presentation anxiety, performance pressure, or workplace interactions become sources of significant distress.
Types of Anxiety
Your anxiety may be a general feeling or be about a specific event, situation, or person. Some people experience anxiety around particular triggers, while others feel a more constant sense of unease without an obvious cause.
Anxiety can manifest as specific conditions such as:
- Social anxiety
- Health anxiety
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- Various phobias
Each with their unique characteristics but all sharing the common thread of fear responses that exceed what the situation warrants.
How Anxiety Counselling Can Help
If you have anxiety that is having a significant negative impact on you, your life and relationships, anxiety counselling can help to regain a sense of control over your environment and emotions and reset your survival system. Through therapeutic approaches specifically designed to address anxiety at its neurological roots, you can develop new response patterns that allow for greater calm and presence in your daily life.
Effective Treatment Approaches
Brain Working Recursive Therapy (BWRT), Brain Spotting and other processes and tools are particularly effective in treating anxiety and panic because they work directly with the brain’s response patterns, creating lasting neurological changes rather than just temporary symptom management. These approaches can help transform your relationship with anxiety, allowing you to reclaim aspects of your life that fear may have limited.
Anxiety counselling in fourways lonehill and online can include modalities such as BWRT and Brain Spotting. For more on these modalities you can visit the following links :
Brain Spotting https://yourtherapy.co.za/blog/brainspotting-in-fourways-lonehill/
BWRT : https://yourtherapy.co.za/blog/bwrt-fourways-bwrt-dainfern-bwrt-sandton/
