Anxiety & Worry
Your mind has been racing all day. What-if scenarios, disaster planning, to do lists - all passing through your mind like a speeding train. You forget simple tasks and stay awake all night obsessing about meaningless things. You are so distracted it's difficult to enjoy quality time with your family.
You thought you'd be able to control this on your own. That you could stop your thoughts from taking over. But you're finding it more difficult every day that passes. It seems like you have no relief from your own mind.
You have gotten a ton of unwanted advice from well-meaning friends and family, but they just don't get it. It seems like nothing is ever going to make things better.
What if you could have your thoughts under control? What if you could manage your mind instead of just treading water?
This is where we should list our fool-proof, easy, three-step fix for anxiety...but we all know that does not exist. Instead we work with you to create a plan that is tailored to you and your unique worries. While we wish that anxiety could be banished easily, we know that is not always possible.
As we work towards your solution, we will try out different techniques. Most therapy programs send clients home with homework and worksheets. They expect you to try out new skills when anxiety and worry surface, in the midst of stressful moments in your life. Sounds simple, right? We know from our own experience that trying new things out at home, work or school for the first time does not always go well. Heck, most of the time we would never remember to try it out until hours later!
If you are at all like us, we preferred to test out skills with out therapist by our side. So that's exactly what we do with you. But how? Imagine being shown a new task, let's say baking cookies. First we'd talk about what baking cookies entails, then we'd walk step-by-step through baking cookies. Next we would write, draw, create or read about baking cookies to better understand the process. After that comes trying to bake cookies, while supporting you at your side. Last comes testing out your baking skills with us hanging back while you bake. Bet those cookies would be pretty good by then, right?
Anxiety and worry skills are the same as baking cookies (but probably less delicious!). Together we would walk you through a skill while you are calm and clear-headed. Next we would think about a stressful situation and see how we could imagine that skill playing out. Now it's time to try that skill in simulated reality. We might create art, play, game or work with our horses to create a situation that feels stressful, but in reality is not. Did the skill work well enough? If not, we go back to the drawing board to shore it up or throw it out.
When we learn skill through doing we feel more empowered to try it in the real world. It already worked for us, so we have the pathway laid that it will work again. This trying, testing and doing process is gradual but profound. We can learn and grow in vivo and then feel ready to try in situ. In less fancy words, we practice and then feel comfortable doing in our real world.
At Berger Counseling Services, we offer a variety of best practice services that allow children, teens and adults to practice and grow past their anxiety and worries.
Let's meet for a complimentary 15 minute consultation. Together, we can decide if we are the right fit to help support you. Give us a call 561-866-3056.
