ANXIETY

We have all experienced the dread, worry, and apprehension associated with anxiety at some time in our lives. Whether it be fear of social situations, public speaking or a generalised all pervasive anxiety that you can’t seem to put your finger on, anxiety presents in a variety of life situations. For some, feelings of anxiety can be quite overwhelming and debilitating to the point where they feel out of control.

The symptoms of anxiety can manifest themselves in a variety of ways including comfort eating, nail biting, smoking or trichotillomania (hair pulling). Some people may find themselves feeling impatient and irritable in particular situations, or subconsciously avoiding other certain situations. Others may experience sudden onsets of anxiety in the form of debilitating panic attacks which leave them feeling overwhelmed, confused and powerless.

Some people struggle to understand where the source of this fear comes from and why they continue to feel this way in certain situations. A counsellor’s role is to help a person to understand what is causing the anxiety and why they are feeling this way. We help you understand the triggers that may be associated with certain situations that may be causing the anxiety. We help you to identify and become more self-aware of the certain thinking patterns and beliefs behind the anxiety. When you understand what is causing it and why you feel that way, you’ve begun the process of change. We stand by you each step of the way in helping you to understand your thinking patterns, remove limiting beliefs and create strategies and new thought patterns to reduce or eliminate your anxiety. When you are more self-aware of the thinking patterns and beliefs causing your anxiety, you are in a better position to make good decisions which can change how you feel. Your sense of control increases, enabling you to feel more confident and motivated toward facing your fears and overcoming any perceived obstacles in the mind.

Here at Harmony Counselling Services, we encourage clients to recognise and reconnect to those innate strengths and resources within themselves. Sometimes it can be difficult to remember what it feels like not to have anxiety if you have been living that way for some time.It is easy to lose touch with the best part of yourself that knows what truly fulfils you and drives you toward reaching that fulfilment.It can be difficult to have goals, feel alive and be inspired when you have feelings of dread and anxiety weighing you down.

A person may be conscious or unconsciously aware of the triggers underlying the anxiety. The triggers may be disguised andapparently invisible to the individual but there is often a trigger such as an internal thought in relation to an external stimulus which creates an uncomfortable feeling. The trigger may be unconsciousbecause the person has blocked it out and buried it deep in the subconscious in extreme cases being entwined and intricately linked with events from the past. Often the fear of the unknown can increase anxiety. The inability to identify and understand the cause of anxiety can compound anxiety further, leading to feelings of despair, hopelessness and more intense fear.

Fear is a natural humandefence and survival mechanism. The mind is hard wired for survival and fear is a natural emotional reaction in response to any real physical danger. It is designed to protect itself against physical or emotional pain at all costs. The mind remembers negative events strongly and stores any negative associations away for future.If or when a person experiences a similar experience any component of the current situation that the mind associates or links with the past negative event reactivates the same fear. The same fear becomes reactivated in order to prevent the same pain reoccurring, no matter how illogical or irrational these fears are. This defence mechanism can be useful in protecting a person when there is a real threat. However,if a person has encountered negative events their mind has now been sensitised for particular sensory triggers. Now any resemblance of the previous event becomes magnified and prominent in one’s mind distorting reality in a biased way. The defence mechanism is so strong that it can often cause people to imagine that the same bad things that happened in the past are going to happen again. That person has difficulty now distinguishing between a real fear and an imagined or perceived fear.So they react in an effort to protect and guard themselves against any ‘anticipated’ pain or hurt they may have experienced in the past. Often people are unaware that they are ‘associating’ and believe their own minds perceptions and inventive reasoning. Sometimes people are unable to control the creativity of their subconscious minds, they allow it to spiral out of control leading them to experiencepanic attacks.

Sometimes people who have had more negative experiences in their lives, have become more hard-wired to protect themselves than others and are therefore more sensitive and experience more anxiety as a result.It is therefore imperative to understand how the events of a person’s past have moulded their perceptions for the present. It is important to identify the subconscious beliefs and conditioning behind the roots of their reactions. This enables us to understand a person’s current reactions, drives and motives for behaviour.

Here at Harmony Counselling Services we will help you to eliminate any underlying beliefs, thinking patterns and triggers that are causing your anxiety and keeping you stuck in the fear cycle.Our counselling methods help you to examine your current choices, decisions and behaviour and provide you with alternative options, tools and strategies for managing stressful situations. At Harmony Counselling Services, we encourage our clients to become more self-aware by exploring their thoughts, emotions and behaviours and understanding how they are connected.We are dedicated to helping you tap into your inner wisdom, strength and confidence for you to overcome any person limitation that is preventing you from moving forward in your life. We want to support you to build the confidence and resilience you require to live the life you want.

Our counselling methods have helped people to change self-defeating thinking and behavioural patterns and transform disempowering beliefs. Our purpose is to help you find the confidence, inner strength and inspiration you need to live the most fulfilling life you can.