Introduction
Do you feel that anxiety is hindering your quality of life?
Do you feel that anxiety is severely impacting your ability to function at work, school or in social situations?
Do you feel it is interfering with your relationships with family member and friends?
Do you feel that anxiety is interfering with different aspects of your life and is preventing you from doing things?
Do you want to learn healthy and more effective ways to cope with your anxiety?
Do you want to address the underlying patterns and experiences that produce a more anxiety prone nervous system, a system which feels dysregulated and activated?
If so, then I am here to help.
What Is Anxiety
Anxiety is a normal human reaction to stressful situations. It’s our body’s way of responding to being in danger.
It’s our alarm and survival mechanism. Everyone worries or feels nervous from time to time. But for some those fears and worries are not temporary.
The anxiety can feel constant, overwhelming, and out of proportion and can interfere with your everyday life.
What Are The Symptoms Of Anxiety
Physical symptoms can feel like
- A racing or irregular heartbeat, chest pain
- A dryness of the mouth
- Physical trembling, tingling or numbness in hands and feet
- Sweats and palpitations
- Light-headedness and dizzy
- Butterflies in your stomach
- A tightening of the muscles
- Headaches, nausea, an upset stomach
Thinking and emotional symptoms include.
- Racing thoughts which make it hard to think clearly and rationally.
- Feelings of dread and fear
- Worries about losing control.
- Constant scanning for danger
- Dissociation
- Irritability, mood swings
- A constant feeling that something bad is going to happen.
Behaviours might include.
- Avoiding people and places
- Not going out
Using coping behaviours to get you through challenging situations for example having an escape plan, making excuses to leave early, having a drink, smoking more.
These coping behaviours only help to keep your anxiety going and don’t help make your anxiety any better over time
How Can Therapy Help
Therapy can help you to understand the causes of your anxiety to be able to make the positive changes in our lives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the physical symptoms of anxiety?
Physical symptoms of anxiety can include a racing or irregular heartbeat, chest pain, a dry mouth, trembling, tingling or numbness in the hands and feet, sweats and palpitations, light-headedness, butterflies in the stomach, tightened muscles, headaches and nausea. These sensations are your body’s alarm system firing, and recognising them as anxiety – rather than a sign something is physically wrong – is often the first step towards addressing them.
How does anxiety affect my thoughts and emotions?
Anxiety commonly causes racing thoughts that make it hard to think clearly and rationally, alongside feelings of dread and fear, worries about losing control, constant scanning for danger, dissociation, irritability, mood swings and a persistent sense that something bad is about to happen. These thinking and emotional symptoms can be just as exhausting as the physical ones, and therapy addresses both together.
Why do avoidance and coping behaviours keep anxiety going?
Avoidance and short-term coping behaviours – such as staying away from certain people and places, having an escape plan, making excuses to leave early, drinking or smoking more – keep anxiety going because they only get you through the moment without addressing the anxiety itself. Over time these behaviours reinforce the fear rather than reduce it, which is why therapy focuses on the underlying causes instead.
When does normal worry become an anxiety problem?
Everyone worries or feels nervous from time to time – anxiety becomes a problem when those fears stop being temporary and instead feel constant, overwhelming and out of proportion, interfering with everyday life. If anxiety is affecting your ability to function at work or in social situations, or straining your relationships, it may be time to consider
professional therapeutic support.
How does therapy address the causes of anxiety, not just the symptoms?
Therapy helps you understand the causes of your anxiety so you can make positive, lasting changes, rather than only managing symptoms as they arise. With an integrative therapist, this means exploring the underlying patterns and experiences that drive your anxiety, developing healthier and more effective ways to cope, and gradually changing your relationship with worry itself.
Can anxiety interfere with work, studying and social situations?
Yes – anxiety can significantly impact your ability to function at work, at school or in social settings, and it can also strain relationships with family members and friends. When anxiety starts preventing you from doing things you’d otherwise want or need to do, that interference is itself a strong sign that support would help, whatever form your anxiety takes.
Is anxiety a normal human response?
Yes – anxiety is a normal human reaction to stressful situations; it’s the body’s alarm and survival mechanism, designed to respond when we’re in danger. The difficulty arises when that alarm system becomes overactive, triggering constant or disproportionate fear when no real threat exists. Understanding anxiety as a survival response gone into overdrive can itself reduce the shame surrounding it.
Can therapy help calm an anxiety-prone, dysregulated nervous system?
Yes – therapy can address the underlying patterns and experiences that produce a more anxiety-prone nervous system, one that feels dysregulated and easily activated. Rather than only teaching surface techniques, integrative therapy explores where that heightened sensitivity comes from, supporting deeper, more durable change in how your system responds to stress. Rachel explains her methods on the
Psychodynamic Therapy page.
What experience does Rachel Sher have helping people with anxiety?
Rachel is an experienced BACP-registered Integrative Therapist who works extensively with anxiety, both in her private practice in Holborn and Finchley and through her work supporting individuals with anxiety and depression at Mind in Barnet. If anxiety is hindering your quality of life, you can reach her via the
contact page or on 020 8191 2051.
