Foundation For A Better Life. Available Therapies, Part 2
In order to bring more good into our lives it is vital for us to create a foundation for a better life. Below are just a few examples of the work I do.
Available therapies, Part 2.
Anxiety
We’ve all come across a dangerous or stressful situation which provoked feelings of panic, anxiety and fear in us. Fortunately, for the majority of us, these feelings are completely natural and do not occur very often. However, for people with anxiety disorders, these feelings occur regularly and can strike at any time, causing significant distress and leaving them feeling extremely frightened, powerless and out of control.
Anxiety can also produce unpleasant side-effects of sweating, tension, panic and avoidance behavior, and if left untreated can cause wider difficulties in your relationships, at work, and in your general mood levels. If this sounds like your experience, then you should know you are not alone; anxiety is one of the most common reasons that people seek counselling.
Psychotherapy and counselling can help you deal with your anxiety by exploring both the root causes of your anxious feelings and the factors that are maintaining your anxiety problems.
There are several conditions for which anxiety is the main symptom including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Hyper-Vigilance, Depression, Dizzy Spells, Tightness in Chest, Unsettled Tummy, Forgetfulness, Disorientation – all of which tend to be focused around specific issues or events.
Alternatively, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety condition that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and non-specific worry.
If you are suffering from several of these symptoms, you may benefit from counselling and psychotherapy to help you manage your anxiety.
I can help you explore the possible causes and triggers of your anxiety – including those created by employment, relationships and past experiences – and work with you to develop more effective coping strategies.I can also help you create a personalized recovery plan to bring about healthy change and teach you techniques and tools that will help you manage stressful situations in the future.
As you progress on your journey to reduced anxiety, I will help you to keep on track with your goals, providing ongoing emotional back up and helping you identify any potential barriers to self-improvement.
In tailoring the treatment to your needs, I often use a specific approach such as cognitive behavioral therapy, or I may combine several techniques which suit your circumstances more appropriately.
I have helped many people facing these issues, and helped them on the path to self-recovery.
Panic Attacks
Here are some little tips to help people who think they are having a panic attack.
- Get outside into an open space
- Slow down your breathing by breathing in for 5 seconds, breathing out for 7 seconds
- Think positive thoughts
- Focus on a happy memory
- Distract your mind with a puzzle or quiz
It always important to seek professional help if you are suffering from panic attacks. Don’t suffer in silence.
Trauma – Physical And Mental
Traumatic experiences are situations that are overwhelming, frightening and difficult to control. It can be helpful to process traumas with a professional. If ignored or covered up, deeper troubles can surface later on.
Counselling and psychotherapy can help with traumas such as rape, accidents, fire, personal injury, assault and mugging. Trauma and post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD) respond well to cognitive behavioral therapy.
What Causes Emotional Or Psychological Trauma?
Because of the development of brain scan technology, scientists can now observe the brain in action. These scans reveal that trauma actually changes the structure and function of the brain, at the point where the frontal cortex, the emotional brain and the survival brain converge. A significant finding is that brain scans of people with relationship or developmental problems, learning problems, and social problems related to emotional intelligence reveal similar structural and functional irregularities as is the case resulting from PTSD.
What Is The Difference Between Stress And Emotional Or Psychological Trauma?
Trauma is stress run riot. Stress dis-regulates our nervous systems – but for only a relatively short period. Within a few days or weeks, our nervous systems calm down and we revert to a normal state of equilibrium. This return to normalcy is not the case when we have been traumatised.
One way to tell the difference between stress and emotional trauma is by looking at the outcome – how much residual effect an upsetting event is having on our lives, relationships, and overall functioning. Traumatic distress can be distinguished from routine stress by assessing the following:
- how quickly upset is triggered
- how frequently upset is triggered
- how intensely threatening the source of upset is
- how long upset lasts
- how long it takes to calm down
If we can communicate our distress to people who care about us and can respond adequately, and if we return to a state of equilibrium following a stressful event, we are in the realm of stress. If we become frozen in a state of active emotional intensity, we are experiencing an emotional trauma – even though sometimes we may not be consciously aware of the level of distress we are experiencing.
What Causes Psychological Trauma?
Psychological trauma can result from events we have long recognized as traumatic, including:
- natural disasters (earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, etc.)
- physical assault, including rape, incest, molestation, domestic abuse
- serious bodily harm
- serious accidents such as car or other high-impact scenarios
- experiencing or witnessing horrific injury, carnage or fatalities
Other potential sources of psychological trauma are often overlooked including:
- falls or sports injuries
- surgery, particularly emergency, and especially in first 3 years of life
- serious illness, especially when accompanied by very high fever
- birth trauma
- hearing about violence to or sudden death of someone close
At my practice, trauma counselling is designed around your specific needs. Trauma counselling can target your traumatic symptoms whether they include anxiety, depression, guilt, sleep disturbances, flashbacks or nightmares. I am a certified trauma therapist and can help you to bring some balance back into your life.
Abuse
For those who have suffered the pain and devastation of abuse, it can be extremely hard to confide in those around you the painful memories and unwarranted feelings of guilt, shame and anger that you may be experiencing. Instead, you may carry the heavy weight of these memories and emotions inside making life seem simply unbearable. However, counselling and psychotherapy can offer you a safe space to talk through abusive memories and discuss how they are affecting you in the present.
An abuse counsellor can provide a supportive and non-judgemental environment to help you to deal with the intensity of emotion as you walk through painful memories. They can also equip you with new perspectives and tools to help you develop healthier coping strategies, and provide you with the reassurance to deal with flashbacks and nightmares that keep the pain of abuse alive.
The journey to overcoming abuse is a difficult one, and it may be the case that it has to become harder before it gets better, but no matter the circumstance I can support you through every step, empowering you so that you are able to move on and live life without such devastating burdens.
How can counselling help with abuse?
- It can help process traumatic events in safety and confidence
- It can help you deal with the by-product of trauma and abuse including nightmares and flashbacks
- It seeks to relieve accompanying symptoms such as depression, anxiety and low confidence
- You are your therapist will devise tailor-made coping strategies to deal with the effects of abuse.
If you have suffered from abuse of any kind including the types of abuse listed below, you may benefit from counselling and psychotherapy.
- Physical Abuse: Physical abuse constitutes acts of physical violence such as hitting, shaking, burning, choking and other actions that can cause physical injury to the body. Mugging can also be constituted as physical abuse.
- Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse covers actions of a sexual nature such as rape, sexual assault, or forms of child abuse.
- Emotional Abuse: This can be the most difficult to identify because there are usually no outward signs of abuse. Emotional abuse constitutes actions such as being criticized constantly, threatened, bullied, dismissed, or being yelled at. Emotional abuse can be just as painful and damaging as physical abuse.
- Neglect: Neglect can occur when adequate food, housing, clothing or medical care is not provided for example in childhood. Additionally, emotional neglect happens when support, love and attention are not provided.
As a certified abuse therapist, I have helped many people in coming to terms with abuse and dealing with the after effects of it.
Comments
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More Information And Guidance.
Your success is our business. If you are struggling professionally or personally, Siobhan can help. You can visit us on our free FB group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/LifeEducationGroup/
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Remember – “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins.
Warmest Regards,
Siobhan Leijen.