- Anxiety Counselling
- Symptoms of Anxiety
- Anxiety Disorders
- How a psychologist can help you with treatment for anxiety
- Self Care Strategies for Anxiety
- Anxiety Therapy Perth
When anxiety hits, it can be debilitating.
It becomes a disrupter to your life. It makes everyday tasks feel impossible and overwhelming.
Stressors that would normally be easy to get through become triggers and can pile on top of one another.
If you experience an anxiety attack or panic attack, it will bring you to a stand still. The symptoms can feel both mental and physical.
To experience any of this is highly stressful, alarming and truly upsetting.
Anxiety Counselling
Anxiety disorders can affect up to 14% of the population within a 12 month period, according to Sane Australia.
It is important to get some help for anxiety, to bring down your heightened state, so that you can get through the everyday, deal with the stressors your life throws at you and function again at your normal level.
Anxiety counselling can help you manage your anxiety symptoms and live your daily life the way you want.
Anxiety Counselling Perth can help you to
- find relief from feelings of anxiety and depression
- discover new tools and techniques to cope with anxiety
- minimise your symptoms of anxiety that affect your home, work and social life
Symptoms of Anxiety
Anxiety symptoms can be very difficult to deal with on a day to day basis.
Anxiety symptoms may include –
- feeling on edge
- feeling grumpy and irritable
- difficulty concentrating
- difficulty sleeping, falling asleep or waking in the night
- feeling excessively worried about things and/or feeling the worst will happen
- going over and over a particular difficulty in your mind
- feeling scared or fearful
- losing patience easily or having outbursts
- being pessimistic and focusing more on negative aspects of situations
- avoiding situations or activities that make you feel more anxious, even though others do not find these activities anxiety inducing
- feelings of panic, sweating palms, racing heart, fast breathing, restlessness, feeling on edge
- experiencing anxiety attacks or panic attacks
- other physical symptoms such as muscle tension and headaches or influencing a flare of other illnesses such as dermatitis, migraines or asthma
Accessing a psychologist or counsellor for anxiety can help you to manage these symptoms and allow you to live with less anxiety in your life.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety can appear in the form of an anxiety disorder. These anxiety disorders can be diagnosed by a GP or mental health professional such as a psychiatrist or psychologist. An anxiety disorder is a mental health condition and can include:
- Panic Disorder
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Agoraphobia
- Social Anxiety Disorder
- Specific Phobia
- Separation Anxiety Disorder
Other mental health disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can also share traits of anxiety.
It is important to remember that not all anxiety is related to an anxiety disorder.
How a psychologist can help you with treatment for anxiety
The best treatment for anxiety disorders will depend on you and your individual circumstances, experiences and symptoms. Depending on what you and your health professional feels is right, treatment may include:
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for anxiety focuses on the unhelpful thought and behavioural patterns a person with anxiety may be experiencing. An anxiety counsellor or psychologist using this method will assist the person with anxiety in finding new ways to think about anxiety producing situations and different behaviour patterns.
Behaviour Therapy
Behaviour Therapy looks at ways to change behaviour that avoids anxiety provoking situations. One of the ways this works is through exposure. With the guidance of the psychologist the person may be slowly introduced to anxiety producing situations so as to reduce their reaction to them.
Talk Therapy
Talk Therapy and anxiety counselling allows the person experiencing anxiety a safe place to express and process their feelings about what is happening for them. A psychologist using talk therapy also allows the person to feel heard, understood and to explore the possible origins or reasons behind their anxiety.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a a type of therapy that uses mindfulness and acceptance strategies. This may be used to change a person’s behaviour. ACT can assist a person by accepting outcomes that are beyond their control and helps to commit to the action that improves and enriches a person’s life.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can be used for the treatment of panic disorder. The anxiety therapist will talk about the thoughts and feelings that trigger the panic attacks. The therapist would ask the person to become mindful of the those thoughts and physical sensation that arises during a panic attack. The goal of EMDR is to break the association the trigger and circumstances and symptoms of panic.
Hypnotherapy for Anxiety
Hyponotherapy for anxiety can induce a deeper level of consciousness for a person and can decrease their heart rate, blood pressure and anxiety. By using hypnosis the anxiety therapist may assist the person to rewrite healthier behaviours, thoughts and processes to use when encountering anxiety provoking events.
Exposure Therapy
Gradually a person is exposed to the object or situation that is causing them anxiety and distress. The purpose of exposure therapy is to expose the person to the feared situation or object in a safe and controlled support environment, with the goal of removing the fear response.
Help to Deal with Anxiety
More than ever it is important to practice self-care strategies and as well as seeking anxiety treatment.
Your self-care has the power to determine how this stress will affect you.
Here are some self care strategies you can do to help reduce and manage your anxiety from our Perth Anxiety Therapists.
Self Care Strategies for Anxiety
- Practice deep mindful breathing, regularly
- Look after your body by eating healthy, exercising and getting plenty of rest
- Meditate or pray
- Avoid using alcohol and drugs to cope with stress.
- Watch your favourite movie or TV show
- Practice gratitude daily to bring the good to the forefront of the mind
- Reach out to your support network such as your friends, family and colleagues and talk about your thoughts and feelings, instead of bottling them up. Remember, if you can’t see them in person, you can still call, message or video chat with them.
- Take a break from repeatedly hearing and watching the news or checking your phone and devices
Anxiety Therapy Perth
Anxiety help and mental health support through your GP and anxiety therapist can be invaluable in providing support and tools to bring down your heighten state and address the anxiety.
Your GP may recommend or prescribe medication for anxiety and/or a natural treatment for anxiety including psychology or counselling.
Accessing a psychologist for anxiety treatment may help you to
- recognise patterns of thinking that are not useful
- learn to relax using specific techniques such as meditation and progressive muscle relaxation
- recognise unproductive worries
- create a plan to minimise the impact of anxiety in your life
It’s time to start living and functioning again the way that you want to.
Don’t be anxious about seeking support. Health professionals are ready when you are.
It’s time to get on with your life, without your anxiety and enjoy it.
Treatment from a professional anxiety psychologist Perth can help you.
Vision Counselling and Psychology Perth offers –
- Multiple Perth counselling locations – Perth City, Scarborough, Midland, Belmont, Byford Rockingham, Mandurah
- No waiting lists
- After hours Perth counselling and psychology
- Weekend Perth counselling and psychology
- Face to face and telehealth psychology appointments available
Book online or contact us today for Perth anxiety counselling and find relief from your anxiety symptoms.
Book Anxiety Counselling Appointment
Counselling and talk therapy can be very effective tools for managing anxiety. A counsellor or psychologist can use their training in different therapeutic techniques to address the anxiety causes and symptoms. Some of these techniques may include Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Counselling and other forms of therapy to treat the anxiety.
Research has shown that anxiety treatments including as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) have proven to be highly effective for treating anxiety when used as part of counselling and psychotherapy techniques. CBT seeks to identify and challenge how negative thought and behaviour patterns relate to the anxiety.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) can provide short term therapy for anxiety. The amount of CBT sessions required will vary from person to person and an anxiety therapist will be able to recommend the amount of sessions needed and monitor the effectiveness of anxiety symptom reduction.
