How do I… cope with anxiety?

Anxiety can feel unbearable. It is also part of being human.

I believe in helping you firstly tolerate this emotion and to help soothe your nervous system. Techniques may involve breathing techniques (the counting five in and eight out), grounding yourself with different observing techniques (‘What can I see and hear?’) and reassuring yourself that you are safe (‘This is anxiety and not anything dangerous’).

After this, we would look at your process around anxiety. Does it, for example, make you frequently imagine the worst will happen? The more I help you understand your process, the better chance we have of helping you ‘pause’ and get off the anxiety channel and look at the thoughts it leads to. We can then start looking at other thoughts and choices you could make.

If your anxiety is pervasive and frequent, it will have deeper roots. Anxiety can  sit on top of other deeper emotions, such as anger or sadness, which need to be processed for the top note of anxiety to ease.