Anxiety Counselling in Vernon BC

Troubling thoughts about the future and the past can take over emotions and impair daily living. You may worry constantly, feel on edge, and find it hard to make good decisions or enjoy anything.

Man sitting alone with his anxious thoughts and feelings

Solution Focused Anxiety Counselling

I am experienced in counselling clients who feel overwhelmed by anxiety or stress. I understand what it is like to feel that way too.

You can overcome anxious thinking and feelings that overwhelm or distract you from daily living. You can even learn practical ways to reduce panic attacks. In counselling, we work together on skills to manage overthinking and emotions. We can also explore how past experiences have shaped you, to gain deeper insight into the processes at work inside. Sometimes there is frustration or anger underneath the anxiety, maybe even regret or sadness. Counselling provides a safe zone to talk about things that you usually don't share with others. When we look into these topics in a non-judgemental context, it's possible to make sense of it all and make changes that are needed.

I am Dixon Zalit, a Registered Therapeutic Counsellor.

For more information about me, read the About Me page

To schedule a free consultation click here

For more information about anxiety, please read more below.

Types of Anxiety

General Anxiety

- Excessive worry that you cannot control, with feelings of constantly being on edge, feelings of tension in your body, disturbance of sleeping and difficulty focusing on what you are doing or who you are talking to.

Panic Disorder

- Sudden panic attacks with physical symptoms like sweating, pounding heart, difficulty breathing, dizziness, feelings of doom and more.

Social Anxiety Disorder

- Being very fearful of social situations, causing a person just to avoid most events and even friends.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

- Having persistent, recurring thoughts and feelings that compel you to repeat routines such as hand washing or checking for errors.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

- When some terrible experience such as an accident, crime or disaster keeps coming back in the form of flashbacks, nightmares and frightening thoughts and reactions that interfere with daily life for months or even years after the event.

Does Anxiety in Counselling in Vernon Help?

Since anxiety is the most common mental health disorder, huge efforts have been made to figure out how to help. The majority of clients who go for counselling with a qualified therapist experience a reduction or elimination of anxiety symptoms. Weekly sessions for 1 or 2 months are most common. Sometimes clients feel huge improvement after one session.

To be realistic, many of us discover we are more prone to anxiety than our seemingly relaxed friends or family. Just learning how our anxiety works, noticing the triggers, and learning calming strategies helps us to keep our natural anxiety from running away on us.

Anxiety Counselling That Works

The most tested form of anxiety counselling is CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). It involves tackling thought processes that support anxiety and making behaviour changes for the better. Here are some of the topics:

Identifying Triggers - Learning to pay attention to the event that sets off a cascade of anxious feeling
Identifying Automatic Thoughts - noticing and naming thoughts that start up and repeat whenever a trigger appears
Cognitive Restructuring - Becoming able to challenge one's own negative thinking and being able to replace it with more realistic balanced thoughts
Healthy Coping Skills - Techniques you can use to stop the racing thoughts and reset yourself.
Graduated Exposure - Deliberately exposing yourself to anxiety-inducing situations, but starting with small challenges and gradually taking on larger ones as you are ready to do so.
Lifestyle Changes - Finding activities that help regulate your anxiety levels such as exercise, good sleep, prioritizing commitments, setting boundaries in relationships, and reducing the negative effects of diet or substance use.
Mindfulness - A new and practical way to get out of your head and into the present moment.

Another effective form of therapy for anxiety is EFT (Emotion Focused Therapy). It involves paying attention to primary emotions, where they come from, then learning how to use emotions productively. In EFT you will:

Learn to notice and name emotions as they come
Gain awareness of multiple layers of emotion
Explore the connection between past experiences and emotions that happen today
Discover how emotion points towards what you really need
Learn to take care of your emotional needs so you can feel peace and resilience

These topics may not be easy to deal with. Often clients feel resistance to digging deeper. That is a normal part of the counselling experience. With help from an understanding counsellor, you can start to feel better.