Postgrad Diploma in Performance Psychology
Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Oregon and Washington State
Is the struggle with stress and anxiety holding you back?
Do negative thoughts and worries keep you from exploring new possibilities? Are you tired of feeling perpetually tense and anxious? Does stress keep you from enjoying life?
Or are you a performer in the performing arts or business frustrated by not being able to deliver your best when you are under pressure or reach higher performance goals? Is performance anxiety keeping you from doing what you know are capable of?
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Anxiety can leave you feeling like you’re just getting by day to day. Sometimes there are deeper issues to work through. And there are likely patterns you (like the rest of us!) fall into that keep you stuck in ways of thinking and being that aren't helpful.
You don't have to struggle with anxiety - change is possible!
Through counseling, you can discover what is keeping you from living your best life. Together we can uncover negative beliefs about yourself and thought and behavior patterns that aren't working for you. There are concrete things you can implement to make positive change happen now. One-on-one mental health therapy can provide perspective, guidance, and support to help you build small changes into new habits that create lasting change.
If you are reading this, you are already motivated to make the changes needed to move your life forward in a new direction. You deserve to thrive in doing the things that matter to you in life and performance.
What is Anxiety?
When we think of anxiety, we often use the word stress. But are stress and anxiety the same thing? Not really.
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Stress is something our body feels when we experience a difficult situation and things feel out of control, like when life gets too busy or we are doing something we don’t feel we’re good at, or that brings up difficult emotions.
Anxiety is our response to that stress. Anxiety can feel like being overwhelmed and not being able to think clearly. It's those strong emotions that can make us feel like we're losing control. Or we may simply worry too much and too often. It can cause other problems too, like fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability, restlessness, and excessive muscle tension. If this goes on too long, it can lead to an anxiety disorder.
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We may want to live stress-free but unfortunately, there's no way to get rid of stress in our lives. We can reduce stress by simplifying our lives or by using relaxation techniques or exercising, but we can't expect to live without it completely.
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Stress isn't all bad. It can be a source of energy. Instead of trying to get rid of stress, you can choose how you respond to it. And this is empowering! You can take that energy that turns into anxiety and channel it in more productive ways that help move you forward rather than hold you back or make you miserable. This process of turning stress into a tool that can work for us is useful for all of us, and it is especially powerful for performers and leaders in the arts, business, and health care who are struggling with performance anxiety.
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Sometimes there are deeper issues at play that may keep you from successfully using strategies to work with anxiety. If this is the case, and you would like to get to the root of the problem, we can work together to uncover and understand what may be feeding fear, self-doubt, and the feeling that you don't measure up.
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If anxiety is a problem in your life, mental health counseling can help you deal with it and turn your stress into fuel for growth rather than having it hold you back. If you reside in Washington State, let's have an initial 15-minute consultation to see if therapy is right for you.