How do you feel?
There are times when the challenges of life can make us feel overwhelmed and isolated. It may feel difficult to talk about how we feel to those closest to us.
“My childhood was unpredictable and inconsistent. I often felt powerless and unsafe. As an adult, I manage my anxiety and create a sense of stability by controlling myself, environment and those around me.”
— @holistic
Therapy can help you to develop ways of coping better and overcoming issues you may feel are holding you back. It’s about being able to move forward to help you live the life you want to live. Therapy can be for individuals and couples.
These are examples, please ask if there is something else distressing you - we can always just talk and see where we go.
Anxiety & Stress
Described as wound tight, worry and fear dominate your decisions, a knot in your stomach that won’t go away. You’ve started to avoid going places you used to go. Maybe the same thoughts are dominating all of your time, repetitive tasks or thoughts are starting to consume you… what is your anxiety trying to tell you?
Depression
Unable to motivate yourself when you could before? Left feeling lethargic and lost? Struggling to sleep or sleeping too much? Irritable and angry over simple things? Anxious for no apparent reason?
Cultural Adjustment
Learning to navigate a new culture is not without challenges. Your resilience skills are challenged like never before. Relocation or retirement, a lifelong dream, but what if it’s not what you thought it would be... maybe belonging and meaning have gone?
Grief
Grief isn't just death, it's loss. A loved one's dementia diagnosis. Transitioning into a caregiver role. Leaving behind a comforting community. Retiring from a fulfilling career. A divorce or relationship breakdown, the things and the people you have given up. It may be coming to terms with your own terminal illness diagnosis. All these things and more cause people to grieve the loss of what was and what they thought would be.
Self Esteem
Saying sorry all the time when it’s not your fault... you think your successes aren’t due to your abilities more like luck. You may be feeling a burden on those around you. It may be that you don’t feel good enough for your partner and friends and find you are always the person doing everything for everyone.
Family or teenager concerns
Maybe your teenager is struggling with a change of schools, or has withdrawn. Are exams causing stress that means they are acting out or pushing boundaries? Life changes fast for your children and tensions run high…
Relationships
As a couple, something has caused a rupture to the smooth running of things and it is not healing. Pulling away or growing apart but don’t know why? Retirement has arrived and you now have your wish... all your time together... but it’s just not working how you planned? Family, siblings, parents, children, historic tensions won’t go away? Always reappear causing friction - why? Can you move forward?
Compassion Fatigue
When you continually see and experience things that take an emotional toll on you. Being a full time carer can be all consuming and how this impacts you can be exhausting...
Executives & Entrepreneurs
The stresses and pressure of manoeuvring the corporate and entrepreneurial world can be unique. Life can feel out of control. Busy travel schedules, family responsibilities, difficult superiors and clients. Competition to always be ahead. High functioning anxiety is a reality that can manifest in many ways.
Trauma
You may have experienced something awful in the past or recently or even small things but over a long period of time. If not dealt with, and without realising it, these can manifest themselves in many ways - both physically and mentally. Everyone’s resilience is different and should never be overlooked.
Disordered Eating & Addictions
Do you crave something, find relief and pleasure in the short term, and negative outcomes in the long term, along with an inability to give it up - this is a dependency or even an addiction. You find yourself in a cycle of binge eating or restricting food and it’s always on your mind? Do you drink more than those around you or find it’s increased and now you can’t stop for longer than a few days or week?