ANXIETY, FEARS AND PHOBIAS

Most of us experience some level of fear or anxiety from time to time, but for some people, persistent feelings of nervousness and dread can become debilitating. Anxiety can begin to corrode feelings of self-worth and undermine our capacity to be positive and happy. Sometimes, a person has been living with anxiety and depression for so long, they have gotten used to living and feeling this way, and they believe this is who they are now. They have forgotten what it feels like to feel alive, to be inspired and to have goals to look forward to, because their best qualities have been buried beneath feelings of anxiety and dread.

Feelings of anxiety can manifest themselves in a variety of ways including nail biting, comfort eating, smoking or trichotillomania (hair pulling). Some people may find themselves becoming irritable or impatient in certain situations, and others may subconsciously avoid certain situations or procrastinate when they know there is work to be done. In severe cases, anxiety can lead to full-blown panic attacks and moments of absolute terror, where they are left feeling powerless, confused and overwhelmed by their emotions, feeling like there is no way out and no possible solution.

These feelings of anxiety are often deeply interwoven with negative events of the past and stored so deeply in the mind, that often it can be difficult to identify the specific underlying cause of the problem you are experiencing. Anxiety and the inability to identify and understand its cause, can compound the anxiety further and lead to feelings of frustration, powerlessness, hopelessness and despair.

Often it is the fear of the unknown that creates a lot of the anxiety. The first step to alleviating the stress experienced as a result of anxiety is by first identifying and understanding the cause. Understanding why it is that you feel this way can provide some initial relief in itself and motivate you toward facing your fears and overcoming any perceived obstacles in the mind.

Fear is a natural human survival and defence mechanism. The mind is hard wired for survival and fear is a natural emotional response to any real physical threat. The trouble with this protective mechanism is that the subconscious mind cannot differentiate between a real fear and an imagined or perceived fear. When the mind is triggered by something negative that reminds it of something that happened in the past, it automatically works to protect itself at all costs, no matter how irrational or illogical these fears are. When a person is unable to identify the cause of this fear, this self-preservation mechanism can often lead people to create their own explanation and reasoning. People can often invent stories or imagine bad things are going to happen, in an effort to guard and protect themselves against any ‘anticipated’ hurt or pain they may have experienced in the past. When people are unable to control their subconscious minds creativity, it can spiral out of control and lead people to experience panic attacks. Some people who have had more negative experiences in their lives are more hard-wired for survival and self-protection than others and so are more sensitive and experience more anxiety as a result.

It is therefore, important to understand how the events in a person’s past have shaped their perceptions in the present. It is important to understand the roots of these reactions and identify the subconscious beliefs and programming because this will inevitably lead us to understand their reactions and behaviour.

So, to eliminate your anxiety, we will work with you to fully understand the underlying psychological patterns or causes which are triggering you and keeping you in a fear cycle. We will first closely examine your current choices, decisions and behaviours and help you become more self-aware of your thoughts, emotions and behavioural patterns. We will then work with your subconscious mind to transform any self-defeating perceptions and disempowering beliefs and thought patterns that are not serving you and which are keeping you stuck in an anxious cycle. We will provide you with practical strategies to support the physical symptoms of anxiety while you are transforming any negative self-defeating thought patterns. We will do this by using a variety of cognitive and psychotherapeutic techniques such as hypnotherapy, EMDR therapy, and cognitive behavioural therapy. These techniques will help you to overcome any personal limitations, enabling you to reconnect to your inner strength and confidence so that you can move forward in your life.

Through the use of psychotherapeutic techniques such as hypnotherapy and EMDR therapy, many people have been able to eliminate the causes of their anxiety and make positive changes in their lives. Hypnosis and EMDR therapy has helped people to quit smoking, lose weight, and overcome their phobias. It has been successful in treating a wide variety of anxiety issues, including addictions, procrastination, and insomnia.