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The key to treating anxiety is applying neuroscience to how our mind and body react to threats.
Sometimes, it seems that anxiety is all around us. Anxiety fills our thoughts: worry about our health, about meeting deadlines at work, about feeling not good enough or up to the task at hand (whatever the task might be).
And anxiety fills our bodies: waking up in the middle of the night with tightness in the chest and heart pounding (seemingly for no reason) or being limited in our activities by fears about illness, or cleanliness or heights or spiders that are felt in the gut or as a tightness in the throat making it hard to speak.
These two very different ways of experiencing anxiety show up because there are two separate pathways in the brain that can give rise to anxiety. This is the neuroscience of anxiety.
And each pathway needs to be understood and treated for maximum relief. Both thoughts (that arise in the higher brain area known as the Cortex) and body-type reactions (that arise in the middle brain area known as the Limbic System containing the Amygdala and other structures) are involved and therapy must address both to be effective.
In my work with clients, we address anxiety symptoms using both thinking-based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy that targets the Cortex and also mind-body interventions like Mindfulness, diaphragmatic breathing, relaxation, EFT/Tapping, heart-rate variability (AKA Biofeedback), yoga, nutrition and more.
Through a caring, emotion-focused approach we try to calm the Amygdala’s threat system so a client can feel safe enough to process the distress caused by and maintained by thoughts & beliefs. And we explore what’s at the root of their anxiety on a deep level looking at the lessons learned in childhood, communication and relationship skills while exploring hopes and dreams for the future.
Having the focus on creating a fabulous life ahead without debilitating anxiety is the motivating factor that keeps us on track through the tough times that inevitably emerge in the most effective therapeutic journeys. My holiday gift for you is the belief you can survive anxiety & use the confidence from overcoming it to create an amazing life in 2022.
