Whitstable Counselling

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is a normal human experience. It’s natural for new, unfamiliar or challenging situations to prompt feelings of anxiety. Mild anxiety can feel like a sense of unease or nervousness, something we may experience before an job interview or a medical procedure.

We can describe anxiety as an internal body alarm system that is activated whenever we perceive a threatening situation. This can be useful as its lets us know something is wrong. However, if your anxiety is persistent, extreme or overwhelming and interfering with your life it might be time to consider getting some help.

Types of anxiety

How I can help you with anxiety

I will help you establish how anxiety affects you and importantly, why. We'll explore the connections between your anxiety the body’s nervous system and the brain. In doing so, we’ll find the best ways to calm your body and mind. I’ll help you understand your anxiety by exploring past/current experiences, patterns, behaviours, thoughts and triggers that are causing it. Connecting with anxiety can help you understand what it is trying to tell you. I’ll help you adopt a more a balanced view of your life experiences.

What is depression?

Depression has always affected humans. Many of us experience at least a mild depression from time to time and one third of adults will experience a significant depression in their life time.

There are several theories regarding the cause of depression. In many cases depression can be triggered by an unwelcome, stressful or traumatic event but it’s also possible for people to feel depressed for no obvious reason. Depression can affect how we feel, our thinking, energy levels, sleep, sex life and motivation.

People who are depressed are typically very hard on themselves and this can be exacerbated by their internal negative dialogue. They may feel the depression is their fault or that they are flawed in some way. If this sounds familiar then you know these thoughts are not helpful.

How I can help with depression

It's helpful if we can bring a sense of compassion, kindness and self-care to our work. This helps to alter negative thoughts/feelings and facilitates a shift towards more positive perspectives.

It's important to understand your state of mind and symptoms and how these connect with your bodily experiences. Once we understand these connections and come from a compassionate view point you may start to see yourself and your situation differently and be able to separate the symptoms of depression from who you are as a person.

During our work we may identify triggers or adverse life experiences that are factors causing your depression. One way of working is to connect with that part of you that is depressed so we can understand your experiences and establish what the depressed part is trying to protect. We may explore the changes that take place in the brain when we are depressed. This work will illustrate that the depression is not our fault.

We often experience symptoms of depression in the body. We'll work to change those sensations using techniques like mindfulness which helps by noticing feelings/thoughts rather than pushing them away. Using mindfulness in this way helps to develop emotional tolerance not by trying to change the thoughts but to change the relationship to the thoughts and feelings.

LGBTQ Services

I value difference and diversity and work with all people across the spectrum of gender identity, sexual orientation and relationship diversity.

The issues we may explore include:-

• Self-acceptance
• Abusive relationships
• The relationship with yourself / others and how that feels
• Fear around identity, who am I and where do I belong
• Exploration of emotions and feelings that are possibly frozen / locked away
• Painful feelings around shame, rejection, sadness and loss (perhaps for things that might have been)
• The many forms of addiction
• Being curious about yourself but perhaps weighed down by shame
• Exploring self-worth / self-injury / isolation / trauma / anger
• How gender dysphoria / body dysmorphia impacts on your life
• Identifying thoughts and beliefs from the past and deciding if these are true, relevant and integral to your life now

Relaxation

We can all get caught up in stressful and worrying situations perhaps leading to feelings of anxiety / panic. If left unchecked this can significantly impact on our well-being. Learning skills to care for ourselves helps to build resilience and deal more effectively with stressful feelings.

Learning relaxation skills helps us to let go of stress, pressure, worry and mental fatigue. Relaxation increases the blood flow in the body which gives us more energy and helps to regulate our emotions by calming and clearing the mind. Relaxation helps with concentration, memory, decision making and promotes positive thinking.

There are a variety of self care techniques that we can learn in your sessions such as mindfulness, guided visualisation, breathing techniques, sleep hygiene, body scans and the use of sound / vibration / body movement.

It's important to recognise not all techniques work equally well for everyone and that one technique may not work in every situation. We will develop a program of techniques that work for you. Relaxation techniques may be used in conjunction with other therapeutic approaches.