Anxiety is a natural response to something that might harm us in the future. Feeling low levels of anxiety from time to time is healthy and normal. However, many of our clients frequently experience extended periods of high anxiety. They also feel helpless trying to lower how much they worry and how anxious they feel. One of the main goals of therapy is to help you find better ways to manage and reduce your anxiety to a normal level.

Depression is what happens to us when we cannot cope with our strong emotions. To stop this painful emotional experience, we disconnect from ourselves and others, which leads to depression. Therapy can help you to accept and live with this emotional pain, so you can stay connected and keep living a healthy life.

The one thing that is constant in life is change. We are constantly having to adjust and find new ways to live. But change is hard to accept and to do. In therapy, we help you accept the changes in your life, and assist you in finding new ways to adapt and thrive.

Scientists tell us stress is good for us, in small doses over short periods of time. Low-level stress can lead to strength and growth. However, if we are overwhelmed with long periods of stress or high doses of stress, it can damage our health, relationships, and quality of life. In therapy, we help you to identify how you can better respond to stress, and avoid creating additional stress in your life.

Death and loss are inevitable. The healthy response is grief. However, grief can be emotionally overwhelming, and we will unconsciously seek to avoid it. In therapy, we can help you to face your grief and accept what is very painful to accept.

We are experiencing emotions (feelings) all our lives. However, in our childhood, we are often forced to hide and repress particular emotions to keep parents, teachers, older siblings, and coaches happy and connected with us. This habit of hiding and repressing emotions can become a lifelong habit that is hard to break. Many of our clients have said “I know what I am thinking, but I have no idea how I feel right now”. Therapy can help you identify what emotions you are feeling and break this pattern of repression.

If you experienced trauma or relationship breakdowns when you were a child, it is possible that when you feel either an intense emotional reaction or when you feel numb, something has reminded you of your trauma. In therapy, we can help you separate your past trauma from your present life.

Sometimes our responses to a problem or difficult situation are ‘way over the top’. We will blow up over small things, and our explosive response will make things worse. Therapy can help you identify the cause of your over-reactions and help you start a new pattern of reacting to situations in a way that helps solve the problem.

Person A thinks they ‘totally suck’ (low self-esteem). Person B thinks they are ‘f#$king amazing’ (high self-esteem). In reality, both of these perspectives come from a lack of self-acceptance. Low and high self-esteem are both protective walls that will isolate you from others and disconnect you from your true self. Therapy can help you accept both sides of you, the side that does well and the other side that makes mistakes, so you pull down the esteem wall.

Most of us find it hard to know what is ‘our task/role’, and what is not ‘our task/role’. If we are not sure, we will develop unhealthy boundaries. At times we will do and care too much for others, and not do or care enough for ourselves. In therapy, we help you adopt healthy boundaries in relationships to find a better balance between self-care and care for others.

Healthy relationships are based on both sides being heard and respected. If you win an argument, you will often lose a friend. Healthy relationships don’t have winners and losers. In therapy, we can help you to find balance in your approach to resolving conflict in a relationship, through assertive communication and co-operation.