Anxiety Treatment in Toronto

How does anxiety affect you?

“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”  — Kahlil Gibran

Anxiety is a form of worry or dread that lives in your body – and thrives on uncertainty. We don’t know what is going to happen or how we’ll cope.

People experience anxiety in all sorts of ways. There’s the butterflies-in-your-stomach before something important (a  speech,  a test,  a difficult conversation).  Or the more crippling dread or panic that something terrible could happen.

Anxiety is ordinary. Human.  And everybody has it or experiences it in some form or another. Especially if you’re alive on the planet today. Anxiety can be stressful, in a positive or negative way.

Positive anxiety can help us get things done because we want a positive outcome. So we might study or prepare for a test,  clean the house before company arrives, or practice a difficult conversation with someone important to us.

However, negative anxiety can often be difficult to tolerate, especially when people are dealing with overwhelming issues.  In these instances, medication prescribed by a doctor or psychiatrist can help. Studies have shown that medication and therapy together are the best way to treat anxiety that interferes with normal functioning, whether  general, social, panic attacks, PTSD or CPTSD.

Some people with anxiety self-medicate – with work, busyness, preoccupation with social media, alcohol, weed, sex, porn and food, to name a few. All of these can be effective – in the short-term. In the longer term, these coping mechanisms can create more problems.

Anxiety as information

I see anxiety as information. My system, my physical body, is telling me something. That I’m scared of something – maybe scared to fail, or even scared to succeed. Or that I don’t know what choice to make. Kind of like an early warning system.

So if I can find out what this anxiety/warning system is trying to tell me, I won’t need it anymore. Or I won’t need it at that unbearable intensity. Some clients have been able to reduce or eliminate their need for regular medication.

As a Gestalt-trained therapist, I use a holistic approach to treat anxiety, exploring the physical, mental, emotional, social, historical and/or spiritual parts of awareness. This includes how we experience relationships – with others, with ourselves, and with the world around us, past and present.  I draw from a range of tools and techniques – cognitive (CBT, DBT), emotional, somatic (body-oriented), and spiritual – starting with what is most relevant to the client.

If you struggle with anxiety, and would like some professional support, just fill out the contact form on the right-hand menu and I’ll get back to you asap.