Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Pitt Meadows, BC.

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!

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.

Anxiety is a powerful emotion that can cause a lot of distress when not managed well. Anxiety is a normal human emotion in response to stress or a threat in our environment but can sometimes get out of hand. Therapy at West Coast Counseling can help you to manage your anxiety, identify the stressors in your life and develop coping skills to manage your life better all in a safe, supportive environment.

Anxiety for the most part is an important part of life as the Fight-or-Fight response is a powerful survival tool. If walking in the forest and you are confronted by a bear a surge of adrenaline is helpful. However, if one is experiencing this same intense response while walking through a shopping mall their quality of life rapidly diminishes. There are several effective treatments for anxiety, such as: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Systematic Desensitization, EMDR, and the development of positive self soothing skills. I incorporate these, customized for each person and their own unique experience with anxiety. You will be surprised at how fast your life can change.

We all have anxiety and stress! It is a matter of how we manage this challenge in our daily lives. Often the anxiety and stress overwhelm us to the point of feeling hopeless! But there certainly is hope and with some consistent therapy and support one can be feeling significantly better after only a few sessions. Once we dissect the overwhelming feelings we begin to understand the underlying issues at the root cause. While medication is an option, quite often it is not necessary as psychotherapy is effective.

Anxiety and Stress can be related to a number of things going on in our lives at a given time. Typically it is how we perceive the stressors in our life, or the feeling that we don't have the resources to cope that determines whether or not we feel anxious, stressed, or overwhelmed. If we are unable to get into a RECOVERY zone, anxiety and stress can quickly seem to spin out of control and EVERYTHING may feel too hard. I use Cognitive and Behavioural, Mindfulness, and Ego State therapies to help individuals quickly acquire the tools, and insights that help them reduce the Anxiety symptoms and navigate their anxiety triggers. Moreover, they regain a sense of calm and control in their lives.

Heightened stress or anxiety is so common in our society that sometimes we fear that without the adrenaline rushing through our bodies, we would suffer from extreme boredom or worse, fall into a deep, dark depression. Unfortunately, the stress response that protects us in times of extreme danger actually harms us when left to run rampant. Finding safe, healthy ways to ‘self-soothe’ will increase physical health & also free you to enjoy your life more fully. Since we have absolutely no power to control anyone but ourselves & nothing but the present moment, decreasing our ‘stress response’ frees up energy that can be put into significant relationships & activities that bring life to us.

Anxiety comes in many forms - constant worrying, a sense of loss of control, or the overwhelming feeling that something is going to go wrong. As humans, we all experience some level of anxiety, it's a part of our normal stress response to help motivate us and even keep us safe by thinking ahead to danger. However, when we get stuck in this experience and feel held back, it can be helpful to talk to a therapist. My approach to anxiety is to help you understand your unique reactions and triggers and guide you in building further strategies and tools to cope with anxiety in a way that is manageable and healing.

One of the many ways I approach stress anxiety is by teaching the client about each person's unique ability to manage their stress capacity. Once someone is out of their stress capacity, they start to feel anxious, overwhelmed, possibly angry, or shut down. We may also explore external factors that can contribute to the individual's stress load. In understanding the nervous system and social factors and perhaps integrating mindfulness and body practices, the goal is to enhance stress tolerance while making a change in the client's world. Essentially, anxiety is there to protect us from threats and danger. When the body detects safety, ideally anxiety should lessen. Safety is key.

In our modern society, we are constantly surrounded by stressors: work, relationship, past hurts, guilt and shame, illness, abuse, etc.. I use various counselling methods to help you become aware of these anxieties and fears, and then teach ways to reduce their control over your life. Clients routinely experience improved self-image, a renewed sense of hope and purpose, and a greater sense of personal freedom.

I work with children, teens, adults and families who are facing difficult decisions and seeking happier balanced lives. We all suffer from worry and anxiety at times in our lives, but when these problems become overwhelming, I provide a safe, non-judgmental, caring counselling environment. My therapeutic approach starts with building a trusting relationship and then addresses these issues with strategies such as those that are built into the Cognitive/Behavioural framework. For example, this approach helps clients better manage their feelings and worries and leads to a more balanced and happier life.

One of the most most successful approaches to helping my clients cope with anxiety, is helping them understand anxiety itself and the overall awareness of how it psychologically and psychologically affects us all individually. It is then I will be be able to introduce several cognitive behavioral interventions so that my clients may learn better coping mechanisms to help manage their anxieties.

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.