If you are living with anxiety, you know it can often be difficult to find peace in your life. For many people, the constant worry and feelings of unease that accompany anxiety make it next to impossible to function and focus on a daily basis. While some individuals are able to cope with and manage their anxiety on their own, others require a greater level of assistance. If you have been unsuccessful in your attempts to regulate your anxiety independently, it may be time to consider the benefits of anxiety counseling.
A protected place
Anxiety counseling provides a safe, healthy option for people to cope with their anxiety. As you participate in counseling, you are free from the judgments or reprimanding of the world—and it is guaranteed that your anxiety will always be taken seriously. Professional counselors who are specifically trained in treating anxiety have tools and resources that may otherwise be unavailable to you, and they will be able to help target and treat your specific symptoms.
Every person’s anxiety is slightly different, and therefore each approach must be tailored to the individual. What helps reduce someone else’s anxiety may not be helpful to you, but the safe and warm environment anxiety counseling provides will allow you to test different coping mechanisms until you are comfortable fighting on your own.
Commitment and Follow-Through
Because anxiety produces such strong feelings of apprehension and nervousness, it can be incredibly stressful to leave your comfort zone or to try new things. A strong benefit of anxiety counseling is that it provides the necessary structure and accountability to keep you motivated and to keep you progressing. Seeking counseling for your anxiety is a major step, and it has the potential to change your life forever—but you will not see results without hard work.
Depending on your individual needs and unique treatment plan, your therapist or team of therapists will frequently assign original, reasonably difficult tasks for you to complete, and coping strategies for you to try. Once your specific triggers, behaviors, and coping methods have been identified, you will actively work to challenge your anxiety. Counseling equips you with the skills necessary to change your life while providing built-in accountability and a reason to follow through on assignments given to you.
Focus on the big picture
While the primary purpose of your counseling may be reducing your anxiety in the short-term, the effectiveness of therapy lies in its focus on the big picture. As you and your treatment team work toward combating your anxiety, you will simultaneously be uncovering memories and past experiences that may have triggered your anxiety in the first place. Anxiety counseling can help you get to the root of your problems more quickly, helping you achieve peace and closure sooner than if you had simply worked out your problems alone.
Anxiety counseling, along with all behavior therapy approaches, places emphasis on the long-term effects of your situation. The goal of counseling is to help you become aware of your conditions and to be able to effectively process your struggles—and to then teach you practical, sustainable strategies and techniques to use throughout your life. Counseling is temporary, and your sessions will likely end after a matter of months or years. The tools learned in therapy, however, can stay with you for a lifetime, and they can help prevent further anxiety struggles down the road. By putting time into anxiety counseling now, you allow yourself to find peace and restore your life balance down the road.
About the author
Janet Traylor earned both her MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and BS in Psychology from Regent University. She graduated cum laude from her undergraduate program and was later awarded an Academic Merit Scholarship for graduate study. She is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and has utilized sand tray therapy, expressive art therapy, play therapy and equine therapy. She’s a member of several professional organizations, including the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, California Association for Marriage and Family Therapists and the California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors. She currently works in a group practice at Caldwell-Clark in San Diego. For more information call (858) 255-0089.