You don’t have to live life on edge,
let us help you find the calm
Is this really anxiety?
A lot of people are stressed these days, we live in a grind it out culture that requires you to always be “on” and available. How can you decipher between the hustle and bustle of everyday life and anxiety that you may need help to manage?
You may feel overwhelmed, unorganized at best and all over the place at the worst.
It may seem like every time you turn around there is another fire for you to put out and somehow everything feels urgent and immediate, there is no off button. You may be feeling like things just keep piling up or you are losing control, no matter how hard you try somehow things seem to get worse and you can’t figure out a way to get it back on track. There’s a chance you are experiencing a panicky feeling that makes everything seem to race: your thoughts, your heart rate, your breathing. You could have a hard time falling or staying asleep. Controlling your thoughts or worries, they seem to be all you can think about and the thoughts and worries are keeping you up at night. Maybe you tend to go to worst case scenarios. Scenarios that to others seem to be illogical or irrational, but you just can’t help it- left on it’s own that’s where your brain goes. Sometimes there’s a lot of guilt. You feel like aren’t doing a good enough job, you aren’t a good enough parent, you aren’t enough period. It can be really hard to keep up with the demands and simply put there isn’t enough time in the day.
Everyone else sees an “inflated” version of you
Counseling may be for you if:
That’s what it seems like to you, however to others in your life a very different story is portrayed. You might be the high achiever that appears to have it all together to the outside world. You seem to have a great marriage, the perfect family, well behaved and adorably dressed kids. You are climbing the ladder at work, volunteering for extracurriculars (at home, work or with your kids), and are a great friend. You probably get complimented on how you are able to do all the things and you seem to do everything so well. Other people think it’s easy for you to take on the extra project, or volunteer to help with the next thing. While in spite of seeming to have it all and doing it all, behind the scenes it can feel like you are failing. Life for you may sometimes feel like it is no longer manageable. There is simply too much. It may seem like you are spinning out of control, worrying about just about anything and wondering how in the heck can you keep this all up?
Will it ever get better?
You didn’t work this hard only to feel this stressed out. Maybe you thought once you got “the thing” (the job, got married, the house) the hard work would be worth it, everything would calm down and get better, get easier. You would be able to take a breath and finally, relax. You didn’t plan for the stress, the constant worry or the nagging thoughts to stay. You didn’t foresee this impacting your relationships, life or overall wellbeing like this.
You are feeling all over the place and finding it hard to focus.
You know you are capable and doing well, but you still question if you are good enough as a parent/partner/friend/colleague or just in general
You are feeling burnt out, either at work or with life, and you feel like you need a break from it all.
You aren’t feeling like yourself. You are more irritated, frustrated or have a shorter fuse than you used to, and that might be taking a toll on other aspects of your life.
You tend to be a people pleaser. You take on more than you can handle, will do everything for everyone else leaving you feeling depleted and exhausted. Saying no, even to the people closest to you, leaves you feeling guilty and like you should be doing more.
You are experiencing physical symptoms such as racing heart rate, difficulty falling and/or staying asleep, quick or shallow breathing, feeling restless, keyed up or on edge, experiencing a heavy feeling on your chest, or tension in your shoulders or upper back.
You don’t want to keep living this way, but where do you start?
Sometimes we all need a little help, and we understand how hard it can be to start that process. We know that starting counseling can seem intimidating, overwhelming and like adding one more thing to your already full plate. To help ease that, here is what you can expect from us.
An initial short (10 minutes) phone call to discuss what’s going on and what’s bringing you to counseling. We will also talk through payment options and an appointment that best fits your schedule. We offer in-person and telehealth as well as daytime and evening appointments.
Your first session might be anxiety provoking for you. You aren’t alone in that, many people come to counseling a little on edge. It seems counterintuitive, and it might be, but that should subside start to ease after a few sessions. During your first session we will start with going over paperwork, explain how we work, payment schedules and some policies, then we will dive into what’s most pressing for you.
Talking with a stranger about all of this can seem weird at first, it’s okay to build a relationship with your counselor before diving into the hard stuff. We want to make sure this is as comfortable as possible for you, which means we will allow you to dictate our pace. We will let you decide what we talk about and how deep we go into things. We love helping clients who want to do the work and dig into some of the hard things, but we realize it can take some time to get to that point too.