Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Shawnigan Lake, BC.

Anxiety and stress seem to be ever-present in our world today. Feeling anxious and stressed can often feel inevitable but we do have choices and we can behave differently when confronted with anxiety and stress provoking situations. With over 10 years experience developing resilience promoting programs and services, I will help you gain increased control over your reaction and have you feeling more confident and in charge of yourself. Resilience is a quality and a skill that can be learned.

Stress is a fact of life. Work, school, finances, relationships, raising children, concerns about the future, and countless other issues can be overwhelming. We simply cannot handle long-term, chronic stress without health consequences. Anxiety goes hand-in-glove with stress. Stress can lead to feelings of anxiety, and anxiety often heightens stress levels. This feedback loop can feel crazy-making, overwhelming, and get in the way of everything. In my practice, I help people to better understand stress and anxiety, and learn ways to deepen their ability to cope, and move toward enjoying increased peace of mind and sense of stability. Contact me for a free 30-minute consultation to discuss how we can work together toward getting you feeling like you are more in control of your life.

Stress and anxiety are often caused by uncertainty; feelings of loss of control, unresolved conflict or emotional isolation. These thoughts and experiences tend to create a sense of overwhelm, that life is out of our control. Laurie can help you develop coping behaviors so that you can live a more balanced life, where your energy can be spent on living, rather than on stress and worry. Through working with Laurie and implementing various exercises and techniques, she can help you become more aware of patterns that our thoughts and emotions get caught up in. Once you become aware of these patterns, we are in a better position to alter them; this includes changing our patterns of responses that we experience as stress or anxiety.

Dr. Sloat feels we live in a world that overstimulates us, and thus stress and anxiety are sometimes unavoidable, especially for the sensitive among us. She takes a triple approach to treatment in that it is, 1) aimed at teaching strategies and tools for dealing with anxiety and stress as we experience them, 2) geared toward challenging thoughts and beliefs that are anxiety and/or stress producing in themselves, and 3) facilitates management of one's lifestyle such that it becomes balanced.

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 and Stress have become a ubiquitous part of our modern world. For many of us, they are an all too pervasive daily experience and sap the life out of our vital energies. Our work on anxiety and stress will include practical skills and tools to work with and deal with the anxiety and stress. It may involve changing ways of thinking that create more anxiety than necessary in certain situations. We will work toward finding ways of being that allow for more freedom, more ease and more enjoyment in being alive.

I use therapeutic insights and my own experience to guide you. If stress and anxiety paralyses you and is hurting those you love, and you don't know what to do, professional assistance is called for. Feelings of anxiety result from our reality and how we look at this reality. Our perspective is shaped by our experience and thinking. By understanding emotionally why you are where you are and why you feel about this the way you will be helpful. By keeping judgment at bay, the emotional space for other insights and options that can help you manage your anxiety better and to discover what you need to do to move beyond your anxiety, will develop.

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.

Chronic stress and anxiety when untreated can make just 'regular human function' feel like an unsurmountable task. Anxiety tends to be a downstream symptom of other psychological dynamics and experiences, so understanding how we got here can help us process their impact and develop tools to increase resiliency, improve insight, and manage feelings and emotions.

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.

The source of our stresses may be numerous but a clear and unbiased awareness of the self-talk that contributes to each experience is a powerful source of change and empowerment. As I listen to each account and draw out further details that make the experience more understandable, I also map out the potential changes and outline the new self-talk that will reduce the stresses and anxiety.

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.

It’s impossible to be human without a little anxiety and stress. The problem arises when anxiety sticks around even when we’re not under threat. I believe it’s important to understand anxiety and stress in the context of your personal, family and cultural history, as well as any external stressors you may be experiencing. Secondly, anxiety and stress live in the body—locating them and applying practical tools like mindfulness, muscle relaxation and breathing techniques to help calm the nervous system can also be very helpful. It all depends on where you’re at and what you need. Ready to feel calmer and sturdier in the face of life’s challenges? Let’s get started.

Anxiety comes in many forms. From generalized anxiety to phobias to panic, I use a blended CBT and Jungian approach to understand your symptoms, why they are happening in your current life, and help you manage symptoms. Anxiety counselling is my specialization and I have worked in the area for over 10 years. You can find a video about Understanding Anxiety on my website scottkouri.com

I help people work through and overcome painful experiences of stress and anxiety. I approach my clients with kindness and understanding and let them know that they will not be judged by me. By creating an open and trusting relationship, they will not feel humiliated or shamed. Together we will examine the depth of their problem and how it affects them mentally, emotionally, behaviorally and socially. We will explore the triggers underlying their anxiety and learn new skills to reduce their reactions. Clients learn to change faulty beliefs, to relax, to feel more secure and free, and to attain a calmness that they did not experience before.

Anxiety is a very common experience for many people and can manifest within a person's life in many different ways. I provide opportunities for people to learn about anxiety, develop an awareness about their thoughts, emotions and beliefs that fuel anxiety and offer clinically proven strategies for overcoming anxiety. I work together with individuals to develop a counselling program that entails understanding where a person's anxiety may have originated, developing an awareness into the situations and relationships that trigger their anxiety and employing coping methods to help manage anxiety in daily 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.

Some amount of anxiety and stress is a normal and necessary reaction to life events and situations. Yet, too much or too little can create obstacles to living your life fully and peacefully. I can help you to learn and practice skills needed to manage anxiety and to improve interactions with people in your life. We can also work together to reduce, and in some cases, take the "charge" out of the intensity of the triggers that cause unhelpful anxious reactions. Different therapies we can use include to talk therapy, CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and/or EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).

Shelley teaches her clients how to cope with stress and anxiety through Mindfulness, Compassion, and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Understanding the underlying fears that trigger their anxiety, can help clients become more aware of their negative thought patterns. Reframing those negative thoughts and unhealthy core beliefs can help clients to feel more in charge of their life as they experience their world more realistically. Shelley teaches valuable skills to help clients regulate and calm their anxiety by relaxation and visualisation techniques. Shelley's keen ability to attune to her clients with compassion and empathy as well as teaching skills is her gift that leads to her success.

At Seasons Family Centre, we provide compassionate support for anxiety and stress across the lifespan, from young children to adults, including transitional moments such as pregnancy and parenthood. Understanding that these experiences are unique to each individual, we offer a variety of approaches to treatment and collaborate with our clients to determine the best path forward, ensuring they feel empowered as active agents in their own growth and well-being. Our culturally mindful approach prioritizes safety and trust, creating a supportive environment where individuals can explore, process, and develop strategies to navigate life’s challenges with greater ease and resilience.

Anxiety can be experienced as feelings of stress, overwhelm, overly-cautious disposition, fatigue, headaches, “churning of the stomach”, and problems sleeping. In therapy, clients can expect to explore thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, learn new ways to respond and cope with stress, and increase self-awareness. At the outcome of therapy, individuals will develop clarity around personal needs and boundaries, feel more connected, and have greater control over self and life, experience increased joy and peace-of-mind, and improved functioning in work, social life, and relationships.

Anxiety can feel overwhelming, persistent and disruptive to the life you're wanting. Gravitate Counselling Inc. has five Registered Clinical Counsellors in British Columbia who offer counselling to help ease the impact of anxiety. We can help you identify what creates anxiety, understand how it impacts you, learn new coping skills and strategies, and make changes in your life to decrease how often and how intensely you experience anxiety. We can also help with stress-related concerns, including counselling for parenting and caregiving stress, work-related stress, burnout, and health issues.

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.

Anxiety and stress can feel relentless and all consuming, racing thoughts, muscle tension, difficulty sleeping, irritability, or a constant sense of being “on edge.” Over time, anxiety and stress can impact relationships, work performance, and overall well-being. Whether anxiety shows up as perfectionism, people-pleasing, panic symptoms, or constant mental noise, Renee creates a supportive space to slow down and regain clarity. The focus is not only on symptom relief, but on building resilience, strengthening boundaries, and restoring a sense of balance and confidence in daily life.