In my experience as a counselor in Gainesville, FL, I often provide counseling for anxiety. I have many clients who are suffering from anxiety and want to know the best way to cope with it. They need help with counseling for anxiety.
I use several different routes to explore anxiety including exploring any past trauma or experiences that have caused painful memories. In addition, I look for unhelpful or maladaptive thinking patterns that create anxiety and cause distress. I will ask the client to pay attention to what is happening in their body and how it feels. Then to pay attention to what the automatic thoughts are that go along with these feelings.
Our bodies are primed to respond to danger. When our brain sends a signal to our body that there is danger, we go into fight or flight mode. We will experience physical symptoms like increased heart rate and tense muscles, preparing us to respond to the danger. Over time, these signals can cause distress if they are activated when they aren’t needed.
During a counseling session, I can often help my client to pay attention to their body and the automatic thoughts that their brain is sending. By reframing these thoughts into calming thoughts that are more accurate about what is going on, the body will calm down and go from fight or flight back to normal. The client feels a sense of calm and notices that they have control over their body’s response to stress. Not all stress requires full blown panic and there are ways that you can regulate your body’s responses by changing your thinking.
These are some of the methods that I use to help clients reduce their anxiety and these strategies are often combined with supportive therapy, processing past trauma, and coping strategies for stress and anxiety provoking situations. Anxiety can be helpful in situations such as avoiding a collision or running from a dangerous animal. It’s important to be able to send the correct signals to your body to let it know when to go into fight or flight and when it can stay calm. Individual therapy can be helpful to learn and practice techniques to reduce and control anxiety.
