Services
Anxiety Counselling & Panic Attacks
Anxiety can be debilitating. Anxiety counselling can help you better manage the condition.
Whether it is social anxiety, anxiety with regard to public speaking, generalised anxiety disorder, where people tend to fear the worst in a variety of situations, or avoidance of situations due to fear of failure, these conditions need resolution to better cope with day-to-day life.
There are several types of anxiety disorders which may benefit from anxiety counselling.
Stress and anxious feelings are a common response to a situation where you feel under pressure, but those feelings usually pass once the stressful situation has passed, or the ‘stressor’ is removed.
When anxious feelings don’t go away, happen without any particular reason or make it hard to cope with daily life it may be the sign of an anxiety condition.
Recognising Generalised Anxiety Disorder in Adults
Ongoing anxiety is recognised as the occurrence of anxiety on most days – worrying about various things, for a period of 6 months or longer, and would usually occur on more days than when they do not. Many people feel anxious for a short period of time, for example when facing a new challenge, or perhaps a trip to the doctor, or an exam etc., but this anxiety passes when the event finishes. People who experience Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), on the other hand, feel anxious and worried for most of the time, even when there are no particular reasons to be concerned. The worry might be about work, finances, children, sports, even going shopping or driving in traffic.
In Australia, around 1 in 7 people experience an anxiety disorder, with as many as 1 in 15 experiencing Generalised Anxiety Disorder at some point in their life. The condition is common in all age groups, appears more frequently in women than in men, and can occur at any point throughout life.
Recognising Generalised Anxiety Disorder in Children
Children who experience GAD tend to worry about school issues, sporting events, bullying etc. You might start to notice certain behaviours, such as being over-conforming, perfectionist or asking about possibilities which have not yet occurred, while over-catastrophising is common in adolescents.
Anxiety Counselling & Treatments
At Psychological Health Care we offer effective therapies to help you to learn how to control the condition, so that it has less impact on your life. Anxiety counselling methods or treatments vary, according to the type of anxiety being experienced, and can go beyond the recovery of a current anxiety attack, to being able to help prevent a recurrence.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to Treat Anxiety
One example of an anxiety counselling method or treatment therapy is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This examines the patterns of thinking, and how that affects the way you are feeling. Once the pattern is understood, your Clinical Psychologist will assist and guide you to make changes to replace your patterns with new ones – thus reducing your anxiety and improving your coping skills in the future. The main aims are to encourage you to differentiate between productive and unproductive worries, teaching you how to let go of worries and how to solve problems. Another benefit is that you can learn relaxation and breathing techniques, including muscle relaxation, as this helps to control anxiety and the physical symptoms of tension.
Behavioural Therapy to Treat Anxiety
Another example of treatment is Behavioural Therapy, which differs from CBT in that it focuses on raising the level of enjoyment in your life, by reducing anxiety. The main technique applied is progressive exposure to the fear or anxiety in order for you to learn how to control or diminish it, so that you no longer need to avoid the activities which previously caused that fear or anxiety. As you become more exposed and learn that your fears are not actually realised, so your anxiety reduces.
Panic Attacks & Anxiety
Anxiety can often manifest in the form of panic attacks. To find out more about panic attacks and how we can help to treat the condition, learn more about panic attack counselling here.
Book an Appointment
We treat patients from all over Perth at our Clinical Psychology clinic in Dianella. To make an appointment simply give us a call or fill out the contact form on our contact page with your details and we’ll call you to confirm.
You may want to ask us a question, request an appointment or find out more about the Clinical Psychologists you can see at either of our clinics. Choose the right option for you below:
