Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Bowen Island, BC.

When working with clients experiencing stress and anxiety, I often draw on both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) approaches. CBT helps us identify and challenge the unhelpful thoughts and beliefs that fuel stress and anxiety, replacing them with more balanced and supportive ones. DBT complements this by focusing on building skills like emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and mindfulness, which can help clients manage the intense feelings and reactions often tied to stress and anxiety. By integrating these approaches, I aim to support clients in developing healthier coping strategies and fostering a greater sense of calm & control in their lives

Do you find yourself worrying about whether you locked the front door,even though you know that you checked it three times? Do you feel your palms sweating and your heart racing, with an impending sense of doom as a sense panic washes over you? These are both forms of anxiety, that sense that the world is not a safe place and worry and concern over the future. Together we will work together to improve your sense of well being, decrease your anxiety and release you from the need to devote energy and brain space to safety behaviours.

As a society we tend fear anxiety and stress and make many efforts to avoid or get rid of it. My approach to anxiety and stress is to show you that it does not have to inhibit your functioning – you CAN do things while also being anxious, and you likely already have. Anxiety and stress were once adaptive traits that helped humans survive, and together we can work towards creating a healthier relationship with them, one that does not interfere with your daily life. We will look at your core values, underlying beliefs, and negative thought patterns that might be getting in the way, and work towards a healthier mind and body.

Anxiety and stress take a hold on you and never let go, leaving you trapped and frozen. I help my clients to learn all about the magic of mindfulness practice. It's one of the most effective ways to put you in control of your emotions, rather than them controlling you. Imagine how great it would be to have an internal place of peace and serenity that you can use at any time to relax and become grounded. Mindfulness is an ancient practice that is also supported by scientific empirical studies. It's one of the best ways to change your life.

I approach anxiety counseling with a professional and evidence-based methodology, ensuring that you receive the utmost quality of care. Drawing from a robust background in psychology, education, and therapy, I am well-prepared to navigate the intricacies of anxiety and its impact on your life. While anxiety is a natural response to stress, I recognize that, for some, it can become overwhelming and disruptive. It may manifest in various forms, such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder, or specific phobias. Together we will implement proved techniques to relieve you of the anxiety that is impacting your well-being.

Are you living your life constantly feeling on-edge? Are you a worrier who can't seem to turn it off? Does anxiety or stress keep you from being fully present for your family? As an anxiety and stress specialist, I know rough this can be. But there is hope. Together, we can deploy powerful techniques to get you feeling calm, relaxed, and emotionally thriving, so you can effectively deal with life challenges. Imagine: going about your day feeling excited rather than worried, confident rather than stressed, and focused rather than scattered. If you’re ready to stop worrying and start living, reach out.

Anxiety and stress are natural life experiences. Concern arises when anxiety interferes with a person's ability to carry out daily life responsibilities and/or when a panic attack occurs unexpectedly. Therapeutic intervention is then essential to manage the associated symptoms. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is generally the Gold Seal modality, albeit, a number of others interventions are suitable. Psycho-education is important to help the client understand the difference between fear and anxiety. It is also important to provide home exercises such as breathing activities, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation and other self guided exercises.

Anxiety and Stress are a part of our human experience as we navigate so much that is out of our control and unpredictable in life. Some anxiety and stress is helpful in navigating difficult moments in life. We want to be able to move through life with an awareness of how the anxiety and stress is helping us and how it is also covering deeper emotions that need to be addressed. Through body psychotherapy we can connect more deeply to ourselves and the emotions stored in our bodies and use tools and exercises to regulate the anxiety and stress while processing the deeper emotions. The anxiety and stress dissipates as we become more comfortable with our deeper emotions and we begin to thrive.

Anxiety and stress can be the first signs that something is off that we need to respond to in our lives. They can snowball until they have power over us: their impulses conflicting with our greater needs. They can also be signs of deeper issues that are unique to each of our lives. Our personalities, senses of self, life histories, and individual understandings of the world all play a role; as do our nervous systems and embodied patterns of how we generate and resolve anxious feelings. Together we’ll collaborate to get every part of you on your team, aligned with the direction you want to take as as a whole.

Anxiety and Stress can be incredibly debilitating - and make the smallest of tasks seem like large mountains to climb. I have lived experience with stress and anxiety and support clients with building tools, increase understanding and education and help improve daily functioning. We will work together to determine your goals and take a proactive approach to follow through on a plan for effective solutions. The sessions will lead to improved mood, increased daily functioning and moving from surviving to thriving in your life!

We are far more primitive in our reactions than we like to think, and fear, stress, or anxiety, can go from an adaptive warning to a very non adaptive over reaction, arresting our ability to function. I have worked extensively in this area, in giving workshops and as a trainer for other counsellors, focusing first on understanding the body's reaction and then developing skills to over-ride the anxiety response. Using a mindfulness approach, staying connected with our needs, and focusing on resiliency, anxiety can be tamed.

Do you suffer from Social Anxiety, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, or another form of anxiety? I use a combination of approaches to support your efforts to reduce your distress, creating relief and hope. My therapeutic approach includes using the tools of Cognitive Behavior Therapy, a highly effective clinically proven short term approach, along with Mindfulness Therapy and Relaxation techniques. I also work to provide a warm, intuitive environment where you will feel safe to explore and process the roots of your pain as you learn new skills that can bring a sense of safety, relaxation and well being to your life.

Anxiety and stress can be overwhelming. Constant worry and rumination suck your energy leaving you worn out and unavailable to family and friends. I can help you identify the patterns that keep you stuck in anxiety, and use CBT to help you change your brains structure so that worry will be a thing of the past. You'll move forward with confidence clarity and a sense of peace. Worry is a mental habit, it can be unlearned, I will show you exactly how to do this. I've done it for myself (life-long worrier here) and countless clients. I'd be honoured to travel with you on your journey.

I specialize in supporting neurodivergent and diverse clients in managing anxiety, traumatic stress, workplace stress, and academic stress. My approach to stress management and anxiety support is as diversified as your needs are unique. Together, we will review your current stressors and coping strategies, identify what works well, what needs to be tweaked, and what other types of strategies you'd like to develop. In order to help you manage anxiety, I will encourage you to engage your thoughts, your feelings, your creativity and your body in the process. Let's aim for more than a reduction of symptoms: let's see how good your life can get and how far you can come!

You can live free of anxiety. There are step you can take. Anxious thinking creates powerful negative messages that impact your thoughts and your body physically. The result is your life begins to shrink. This is no way to live. You are meant to live a full, healthy life. The beautiful thing is you get to choose. Today you can start on a new journey towards freedom that gives you a new level of skill and an understanding of how anxiety works to assist you in defeating it and replacing it with greater peace and joy.

My approach to anxiety and stress is wholistic—I will help you understand and free yourself from critical inner voices as well as teach you how to self-regulate your nervous system for calm and ease by: • Learning about you and your life, which can include any or all of the following: personal/gender identity, family, culture, relationship, social life, work, medical issues • Selecting the modalities we both feel will be most helpful for you and practicing them in session together • Modalities I work with include: attachment healing, self-regulation, body sensing inquiry, setting healthy boundaries, disarming the inner critic, self-esteem, hypnosis, family constellations

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.

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the demands of life? Anxiety is a common experience in our fast-paced world that can leave us feeling depleted, stressed, and uneasy. I will work with you to understand the anxiety you are experiencing. I will help you slow down and reconnect with yourself and your desires. This work may involve tuning into your body's sensations, practicing mindfulness, identifying your values and desired ways of being, as well as setting boundaries to protect your energy and time. I will help to ease your stressors so that you can reconnect to joy, peace, and freedom.

Evidence-based therapies are used to identify and reframe anxious thought patterns. Mindfulness and relaxation techniques can help create space and capacity to sit with, and move through anxious periods. Consideration is given to how anxiety has served you. Stressors are explored and treatment is tailored to your unique needs - what relationship would you like to have with anxiety?

Anxiety is often the manifestation of an overactive fight or flight mechanism. This mechanism is in us for a reason, so we won't try to shut it down. But we will look at ways to modulate the alarm response so our lives are enjoyable and fulfilling. Stress is not the same as anxiety, and my favourite intervention for it involves reframing stress as a challenge and opportunity to build capacity. With a little work, stress can become your friend.

I primarily work with anxiety from an EMDR/body-based perspective. Anxiety is a very "old" physiological response, in that there are parts of anxiety that are unconscious rather than "cognitive." I typically find that if we only attend to the cognitive side of anxiety, the physiological parts, such as body memory and activation, will find somewhere else to pop up. By working on the physical activation, we can better address and move through the anxiety.

Anxiety has a purpose - once you understand it you can benefit from it. The feeling of anxiety is giving you information about who you are and what you need to do to be yourself. In counselling, you can learn how to process anxiety instead of fearing it. You can learn concrete skills to work through anxiety; You can learn from the emotions and in the process find a more colourful and rich, positive experience of life.

Anxiety is more common in our daily lives than ever before. Anxiety functions in a way that is unexpected and sometimes debilitating. I use a holistic and informed approach to treat clients who are experiencing anxiety as I believe that it is a mind and body problem. I can help you recognize your triggers, get control of your body's responses to stress and change the outcome of even the most stressful and scary moments. Together we can help you get control of your anxiety and manage the stressors in your life. Contact me to start making changes today.

While our bodies are perfectly designed to adapt and react to stress, modern problems mean that we tend to detect life threatening dangers in very ordinary places. Conflicts at work, arguments in our relationships and uncertainties such as the post-Covid world activate old survival mechanisms. We may be stuck in the buzzing, fear states of ‘fight-flight’ or the numb and paralyzed states of ‘freeze and shut down.’ The good news is that I have a long history of safely and successfully helping individuals and couples to reduce and release stress using a variety of CBT and mindfulness techniques, as well as trauma-informed therapy. You have my commitment to compassionate and educated care.

Olivia excels in helping clients navigate anxiety and stress, whether brought on by life’s natural demands, unexpected changes, or anticipated transitions. She understands how these challenges can impact emotional and physical well-being and offers a safe space for clients to process their experiences. Through counseling, Olivia provides practical coping mechanisms and strategies to help clients manage their stress and reduce anxiety effectively. Her approach emphasizes understanding the root causes of anxiety while equipping clients with tools to build resilience. Olivia’s compassionate guidance empowers clients to face life’s uncertainties with confidence and balance.