Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Toronto, ON.

Everyone feels anxiety at some point in their lives but when it starts to interfere with your life, counseling can help. Although anxiety can feel debilitating, it is treatable. People with anxiety don’t always share the same symptoms, they vary from person to person. Therapy will help you to reclaim your life and function in a chronically stressful world.

Sometimes Anxiety and Worries take over our driving wheel. We will be working together on managing your stress at the level that would be tolerable and create some space within you that you could breathe again. Using different modalities including CBT, DBT and ACT…etc, we will learn to find different perspectives, be gentle with yourselves and taking back the control without feeling overwhelmed by anxious feelings. We will also work on building self-care skills so you feel calmer and safer while facing diffident challenges in life.

In many cases, an integrative approach of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychotherapy is used to help you manage stress and anxiety. Cognitive-behavioural therapy aims to help you change your emotional response and behaviour by changing your thoughts. If our thoughts happen so quickly and automatically, how can we change a stress response that is perpetuated by such challenging or negative thoughts? Using cognitive-behavioural strategies, we can slow down the thought process by creating a heightened awareness of them. As we observe them, we can make significant changes in our automatic thoughts, and subsequently, change our emotional response and the way we respond as a result.

For many of us, our stream of life is interrupted by events that are so stressful and scary that they create lasting change. This can be a single incident such as an assault or accident. Or, it could be recurring incidents that take place in the course of our work. It could also be trauma in our earliest years from our caregivers or in our first relationships. If you feel that something from your past is impacting your current life, trauma and stress focused therapy may be a good fit for you.

As a Somatic (SE) therapist- mental & emotional health follows the state of the nervous system. If it is flowing seamlessly between sympathetic and parasympathetic; arousal and settling, within a “manageable range” there’s a deep, internal sense of well-being, emotional stability, confidence, clear thinking, aliveness, trust in self and others, and mastery. With SE we will focus on: Your experiences... in the body Learn to track, observe, describe what is going on for you Regulate internal arousal states, shift locked patterns into action, increase body awareness. Encourage emotional engagement with attention to: mindfulness, sensations, movements and impulses. Here & Now find YOU!

Stress can take a toll on your mental health and trigger anxiety. In people who have an anxiety disorder, stress can make it more challenging to manage the symptoms of anxiety. Increases in this hormone are related to anxiety. Anxiety and stress can be overwhelming and sometimes entirely disabling. They interfere with our lives and prevent us from living our best version of selves. In our therapy sessions, we work together to explore the stressors and anxiety that have been impacting you and your ability to lead a healthy stress-free life. We identify options on how to manage your anxiety better using mindfulness and CBT techniques and help you build your own tools box.

[I OFFER VIDEO SESSIONS THROUGHOUT ALBERTA AND ONTARIO]. Anxiety and stress are two conditions that have treatments that work. Cognitive behaviour therapy, desensitization therapy, and hypnotherapy (all of which I practice) are often tremendously helpful. I have been a psychologist since 1986, and I can help. Set up a time to see me by visiting https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=14249112

Although some level of stress and anxiety is common to all of us, it can become challenging when it starts interfering in our lives. It can even bring on depression. Anxiety and stress can be products of many underlined life experiences including past Trauma, PTSD, other past or more current life experiences, and can also trigger Panic, overwhelming Worries, phobias, fears of Social situations, fears of expressing one's needs and more. Among others I also offer CBT, Mindfulness, CPT, PE, EMDR and other stress reduction approaches. I have effectively helped many people in therapy move past their anxiety so it no longer rules their life. Please contact me to get started at your pace

Anxiety comes from not feeling safe. I work with you to uncover the underlying factors that have led you to feeling unsafe, and look at strategies that help ensure safety. I practice Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and somatic experiencing to teach your body to calm itself using breathwork and gentle movement.

We all know the profound effect stress has on our physical and mental health, yet we all still struggle to say no to our boss, set boundaries with family and prioritize our self care above all else. It's because we live in a society that is constantly demanding us to work more, sleep less, pay more, play less. Our brains are constantly overwhelmed and overloaded, nervous systems triggered, and emotions dysregulated. Even if we think we're doing a good job at managing our stress, we're always going to experience challenges, and we all deserve to take care of ourselves. If anxiety is taking control of your life, reach out to work together and take back your power from stress and anxiety!

Everyone experiences stress, and stress can be positive motivation to get things done. But when stress escalates it can be experienced as anxiety. Anxiety can arise when we lose touch with our feelings. In an anxious state, our bodies produce cortisol, leaving us in a fight or flight state. I try to help people understand the nature of their stresses and regulate stress through meditative, mindful or breathing practices. We explore the internal experiences – the feelings and emotions that escalate stress into anxiety. Learning to address these feelings gives us tools to deal effectively with challenging feelings, thereby developing a healthy sense of inner awareness and control.

Stress and anxiety can take on many forms and manifest themselves differently in each person. However, we are here to work with you to help you overcome your unique challenges. We use various approaches to overcome stress and anxiety that are tailored towards your needs. Some examples include promoting acceptance, cognitive restructuring, interpersonal skills training, and more!

Living with anxiety or having a high stress can have an impact on every area of our lives. Emotional health, physical health, relationships and careers can all suffer as a result. I use a poly-vagal informed approach to help my clients cope with and reduce their anxiety and stress while learning to gain control over their nervous systems. This approach is both educational and practical. If you would like to improve your quality of life by reducing anxiety and stress contact me for a free consult.