Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in North Cowichan, BC.

Prolonged stress and anxiety can result in impairment to our mental and physical health. We may experience high blood pressure, significant weight loss or gain, inability to concentrate or sleep, panic attacks, agitation and irritability. Overtime, these ailments can not only decrease our life satisfaction, but reduced our overall health. Don’t ignore the symptoms. Get help. Counselling can help you learn ways to cope, identify the underlying causes of your stress and explore ways to reduce stress and anxiety in your life.

I am honoured that you are interested in my services and I would like to tell you a little bit about myself. I have been described as slightly non-conventional in the counselling world, which suits me perfectly, and also tends to suit youth who are trying to stand up to the force of the problems in their life. I am very comfortable working with this population, and I feel fortunate that I can connect with teens the way I do, conventionally or in a way that makes sense to them.

Do you worry about not being enough, not doing enough, trying to be perfect? Are you constantly wondering what others are thinking and saying. Maybe you worry about your anxiety, about anxiety symptoms like racing heart, chronic pain or dizziness and fatigue. If you have panic attacks, this can cause you to worry about having a panic attack as well as the actual trigger of the attack. Learn to find your triggers. Cognitive behavioural therapy has tools to help you overcome the fear. Wouldn't it be wonderful to believe you are enough and that perfection is some ideal that you never have to achieve because you are okay. Just the way you are. A work in progress and that's okay. Acceptance.

I offer an integrative blend of somatic awareness, mindfulness practices, relational attunement, and trauma-informed presencing to help my clients address anxiety and stress in their lives. Using your natural healing process as our guide, we can help the nervous system learn what a peaceful state of health and vitality is again. I offer EMDR and other trauma processing approaches to support you in your healing when appropriate.

We live in a fast paced 24/7 world dealing with social media, technology and lots of things to worry about in the media. No wonder we are all a little anxious these days. I will help you change your relationship with your thoughts so they have less power and control over you. When we give in and avoid things due to anxiety we end up feeling pretty isolated. I will teach you tools and strategies to get through your stress and anxiety.

Anxiety, stress, and depression are common symptoms of relationship distress. Research shows that having close connections calms our nervous systems and promotes emotional balance and well-being. What we do with emotion impacts the quality of our relationships, and our relationships impact our emotions. I help clients access, understand, and order their emotional worlds so that they can be used as a compass and vehicle for connection with important others. What we do with emotion makes sense based on our biology and our life experiences, but at times our strategies become outdated. Contact today to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. 

Dealing with anxiety and stress can feel overwhelming. Day-to-day tasks can be overwhelming. In our sessions, we'll employ evidence-based techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help you identify triggers and thought patterns, giving you practical tools to manage your anxiety. The road to a calmer mind may have its ups and downs, but please know that you're not alone on this journey. With consistent effort and support, you can regain a sense of control and peace in your life.

Anxiety can feel relentless — tight chest, racing mind, constant what-ifs. I support people as they attempt to break free from those cycles. In our work, you’ll learn how anxiety operates in your nervous system, why it keeps showing up, and how to respond to it differently. Using practical strategies and a steady therapeutic presence, we’ll reduce overwhelm and restore a sense of clarity and control. You don’t have to keep living in fight-or-flight.

Stress can prompt the cracks in our normal ways of coping to come into sharp focus. Similarly, anxiety can be all consuming, causing us to replay the tapes of our past over and over again. We may even be spending hours reviewing the tapes of events that only ever took place in our heads! The result is exhaustion and avoidance of anything that feels overwhelming. As a result, life can become small as we limit ourselves to our comfort zone. Unfortunately, this is when depression can creep in for a double-whammy. Yuck! Luckily, stress/anxiety is highly treatable. I work with clients to develop the insights and acquire the tools to overcome stress and anxiety. There is hope. Promise!

Feelings of anxiety can become so intense that it becomes overwhelming. Often individuals struggling with anxiety express constant intruding thoughts that focus on fears of events of the future. Anxiety can create physical feelings of distress like a tight chest that makes it difficult to breath, an upset or tight feeling in the stomach, and general fatigue from constantly trying to control their thoughts and actions. Some people have battled anxiety for so long that they begin to believe it is just who they are and accept the restrictions it causes in their life. Through counselling we will work to break the cycle of anxiety controlling your inner world. Bringing a sense of relief, control and freedom that has been absent for so long.