Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Port Alberni, BC.

I have a passion for working with clients who struggle with anxiety and stress. Using CBT techniques, I work with you to identify your personal triggers and how they spark feelings of anxiety and ruminating thoughts. We explore how these thoughts and feelings impact your actions (such as avoidance, procrastination, removal of the trigger, etc.) and implement strategies to break this cycle. I also offer counselling for stress and burnout. We explore the sources of your stress and how to release tension from your body. Possible strategies may include creating a self-care routine, building your support network, and experimenting with evidence-based practices for relieving stress.

In anxiety and stress counseling, I provide a safe, confidential space to express whatever thoughts and feelings are weighing on you. Anxiety often involves racing thoughts, physical tension, and feeling overwhelmed by worries about the future. Together we'll work on bringing you back to the present and developing practical tools that help. This might include mindfulness practices to interrupt anxious thought spirals, relaxation techniques to release tension, or examining thought patterns fueling your stress. Our therapeutic relationship matters most—having someone genuinely listen without judgment has real healing power. Clients report feeling calmer, more grounded, and able to handle challenges in a more balanced way.

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.

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.

Anxiety isn’t a personal failure — it’s your body asking to be heard. In my counselling practice, I help you understand the patterns beneath overwhelm and create space for calm, clarity, and choice. Together, we untangle the tension, slow down racing thoughts, and reconnect you with a grounded sense of self. With practical strategies and a warm, relational approach, you don’t have to navigate stress alone. There is a steadier way forward, and we can find it together.

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.