Anxiety Counselling Hertfordshire
Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe. We all have the propensity for experiencing levels of anxiety according to what’s happening in our environment. In my 20 years of practicing anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire, I use a combination of counselling psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural theory with the objective of minimising your anxiety levels.
As children we can form distorted core beliefs that aren’t always true. We tend to project those core beliefs into our adulthood. Early learning core beliefs can be both positive and negative. If they are the latter, they can limit personal growth, leading to self-doubt and anxiety. My anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire facilitates both exploration in order to identify these distorted core beliefs and reframe them in a way that new core beliefs can be borne out.
Beliefs like “I am capable” encourage resilience and positivity. In contrast, thoughts such as “I am unworthy” can contribute to low self-esteem. Research has demonstrated that individuals with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) hold unhelpful beliefs about worry, uncertainty, and the problem-solving process. My anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire is an integrative and comprehensive treatment that takes into account people’s individual differences, personalities and characteristics.
If you are experiencing generalised anxiety disorder, if left untreated it may progress to depressed mood and/or panic attacks. This is why it is essential to seek professional therapeutic treatment. My anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire enables identification and effective management to help reduce the severity of symptoms.
Anxiety can negatively impact many aspects of your life, including your relationships. Not only can anxiety affect how you function in your daily life, but it can also interfere with your ability to communicate and connect with other people. Having an anxiety disorder can impact relationships in different ways. My anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire facilitates open communication that alleviates levels of anxiety.
Managing Stress
As part of my anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire I help my clients to identify what stressors they may be experiencing in their lives and ways to alleviate those stressors. Cumulative stress over time can be a large contributing factor in the development of anxiety disorders. When stress persists without let-up over a period of time, such as several months or years, it tends to accumulate. This sort of stress is more enduring than normal, temporary stresses such as moving to a new house, the Christmas season, or a short-term financial setback. Cumulative stress can arise from unresolved psychological conflicts lasting over many years. Or it can be due to difficulties in one area of your life – such as problems with your marriage or physical health that persist over a long period of time. Finally, it may be due to the accumulation of a large number of life events. Life events include changes in the course of your life that require an adjustment and reordering of your priorities, such as going off to college, changing jobs, a marriage or leaving an intimate relationship, moving to a new location, having a baby, having your children leave home, and so on. While one or two life events every year is a common and manageable experience, a series of many of them stretching over one or two years’ time an lead to a state of chronic stress and exhaustion.
My anxiety counselling in Hertfordshire employs various ways of treating stress and generalised anxiety that can include talking therapy, cognitive theories and deeper exploration according to the individual needs of my client(s). They include visualisations, guided imagery and sand tray techniques. Anxiety can suppress authenticity and spontaneity. This can lead to rigid ways of living one’s life. The freedom to lead an autonomous life is very liberating. No matter what your current levels of stress and anxiety are, my anxiety counselling can help to minimise and alleviate your symptoms that can aid personal development, improve your interpersonal relationships and enable you to have a fresh perspectives on your life.
