Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Vancouver, BC.

We cannot escape anxiety and stress as they are an inevitable part of modern life, but we can manage them within our personal tolerance thresholds. Mindfulness is the first thing that I help clients master and bring into their daily life. Mindfulness or focused attention exercises can help us get in touch with our body and monitor our own feelings; it will help us self-soothe and cope with anxiety and stress. A few additions to daily routine are enough, e.g.: taking an extra minute in the shower, listening to sounds in the environment, paying attention to physical sensations in alteration with our inner sensations; accepting any thoughts and feelings allowing them to come and pass. It works!

I will teach you how to reduce anxiety and stress response through calming your mind and body. Using Mindfulness and Mindful Self-Compassion strategies, you will be able to take control of how you respond to difficult life situations. When the mind and body are calm, we are able to expand our thinking about our problems, and solutions to challenges become more readily available.

Too much anxious stress can lead to us feeling stuck in the ‘fight-flight’ response— you may feeel buzzy and jumpy, and experience poor sleep and disorganized thinking. Anxiety and stress can also mean being locked in ‘freeze mode,’ shutting down, feeling numb, foggy, and disconnected from life. Luckily, research and practice have shown that mindfulness and cognitive-behavioural techniques with body-focused counselling can help to break free from these cycles, restoring our nervous systems to a state of ‘rest’ with calmer thoughts and being present in the moment. My approach helps you to release long-held stress patterns and remember that that you deserve feeling joy and safety.

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

According to Dr. Carl Jung, the amount of anxiety one experiences is equal to the degree of trauma one’s endured, but hasn’t processed. Anxiety is one way the unconscious gets our attention, and it’s seldom comfortable or easy. In therapy, we will explore the roots of your anxiety and work to transform your unconscious impulses into conscious awareness. People who outgrow anxiety experience an increased ability to manage stress, an expanded sense of emotional freedom, a greater sense of authenticity and cohesion, improved self-confidence, deeper and more fulfilling relationships with self and others. Call Psychotherapist Joseph Eliezer today for your no obligation phone consultation.

You might be familiar with that tense, unsettled feeling that you can't shake. The overthinking, ruminating, and worrying. It's so hard to be present and engaged when we suffer with anxiety! Anxiety is the #1 reason people seek out my services. I can help you get to the roots of your anxiety (hint: it's not ONLY about disputing your irrational thoughts) so that you feel more grounded and alive. Through their work with me, my clients have reported that they are more socially engaged, less in their heads, more in tune with their bodies, and better able to attend to the underlying emotions and needs underlying the anxiety. I look forward to supporting you in moving beyond your anxiety.

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.

Anxiety and stress can feel like a grey cloud following you around. I believe people are doing the best they can and sometimes help is needed. Through a Response-Based Approach, I would explore the conditions of why the anxiety and stress are taking up so much space in your life. My practice is also informed by Narrative Therapy and Systemic Family Therapy. Through these approaches and a safe environment to share your struggles, you can find a way to manage stress and anxiety in a way that makes you feel in control.

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.

Learning about the basic primitive function of anxiety and stress can be a very transformative and empowering experience. Without knowing about what certain problematic experiences are doing, it is challenging to be able to navigate through them. By equipping oneself with the knowledge of the "why" of it all - one adopts a new manner of moving through previously overbearing emotions. Being in tune with oneself, learning mindful strategies, and re-shaping a previously seemingly "set in stone" narrative can be a very liberating and beautiful experience. One can truly become his or her own ally, through the process of tending to his or her distress in a non-judgmental and compassionate way.

The UBC Psychology Clinic is an outpatient mental health and state-of-the-art training clinic in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. We offer comprehensive psychological services for children, adolescents, adults, and families in the Greater Vancouver community. We provide affordable, professional services using the most recent advances in mental health care. All our services are confidential and meet the ethical guidelines established by the College of Psychologists of British Columbia.

Anxiety and stress is the body’s natural response to danger, an automatic alarm that goes off when we feel threatened. But when anxiety is constant or overwhelming, when it interferes with your relationships and activities—that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders. As a product of the body’s fight-or-flight response, anxiety involves a wide range of physical symptoms. Many people experiencing anxiety benefit from supportive counselling or couples or family therapy. However, experts agree that the most effective form of treatment for the is cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

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.