Central London counselling for anxiety
Therapy that helps you become less anxious
Friendly and constructive support for all types of anxiety, conveniently located in Kings Cross, Oxford Circus or online. A life free of anxiety is possible - make it your reality.
We all feel anxious sometimes. It’s a natural and healthy response to triggers like exams, job interviews and health scares. Feeling anxious in those situations is different from having an anxiety disorder.
Some people suffer from high levels of anxiety which interferes with their daily life. They may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
It’s helpful to distinguish between the causes of underlying anxiety and the triggers of anxious episodes - in other words, separating what makes you prone to anxiety from what sets off an anxious episode.
The underlying causes of anxiety are complex. Mind identifies common factors including:
stressful past experiences, such as bullying or abuse
high stress in your current living situation, eg being out of work, isolated or recently bereaved
a family history of anxiety, which can be passed down through genes and parenting
significant physical or mental health issues
some prescription medications
use of recreational drugs, or withdrawal from them.
Triggers will be individual to you, but examples include:
meeting new people
speaking in meetings
going to the doctor
dating
performing in front of others.
What triggers anxiety?
At the level of the individual episode, the answer is a firm yes. Anxiety is self-limiting. A full-blown panic attack typically lasts 5-20 minutes. Less intense feelings of anxiety may hang around for longer, but they will pass with time.
If the question is “Will I ever stop being an anxious person?” then the answer is that’s is possible, but it takes some work. You can become less prone to anxiety and also better able to manage any incidents of anxiety that do still arise.
A key factor in problematic anxiety is that people become anxious about being anxious. Developing the confidence that you can tolerate and manage your anxiety makes a huge difference.
Does anxiety ever go away?
Should I push through my anxiety?
Generally, the answer to this is yes. Avoiding situations that trigger your anxiety reinforces your anxiety about them (by avoiding them you are telling yourself that they are dangerous).
However - and this is important - it should only be done in a gradual and manageable way. It’s critical to think very carefully about how much anxiety you can tolerate and to not exceed that. By going too far too fast, you can overwhelm yourself and make things worse.
I help clients to monitor their anxiety levels, so they have a good sense of what is manageable to them. Then we think together about what sensible, gradual steps they can take. Little by little, they learn that the thing made them anxious isn’t as threatening as they thought, and that they can tolerate any anxiety that does arise.
What is the 555 rule for anxiety?
555 is a technique that is taught to help people ground themselves when they feel anxious. The idea is to:
notice five things you can see (eg your colleague, a picture on the wall)
notice five things you can hear (eg traffic, birdsong)
notice (or create) five physical sensations (eg breeze in your hair, wiggling toes).
I mentioned anxiety about anxiety above - having techniques like this to tackle the symptoms of anxiety can really help reduce that. They can then go into situations thinking “I might get anxious, but if I do, I know a way to calm myself down.”
Anxiety is a normal human emotion that all of us feel. To be considered a mental health disorder (as set out in DSM-5, the manual of mental health diagnoses), it needs to be excessive, impairing your daily functioning and resulting in symptoms such as irritability or sleep disturbance most days for six months or more.
Anxiety disorders include:
generalised anxiety disorder (GAD)
panic disorder (characterised by unexpected panic attacks)
social anxiety disorder
agoraphobia and other specific phobias.
Is anxiety a mental illness?
Yes, research has shown that anxiety can be passed down in families. This may be due to particular genes (Gottschalk and Domschke, 2016) or to risk-aversion passed down in parenting (Fisak and Grills-Taquechell, 2007), or both.
There’s not a lot you can do about your genes, but in therapy we can unravel your parents’ contribution to your anxiety.
Is anxiety genetic?
Can counselling help with anxiety?
Yes, absolutely. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends counselling or therapy as the first-line treatment for anxiety, in preference to medication. Research has shown that talking therapies are effective at treating anxiety (eg Norton and Price, 2007 and Gibbard and Hanley, 2008).
Different studies have focused on different types of therapy, with some championing cognitive behavioural approaches (eg Norton and Price, 2007) and others showing person-centred therapy to be effective (eg Gibbard and Hanley, 2008), for example.
Don’t get hung up on the type of counselling though. Studies have shown that the approach is less important than how comfortable you feel with the therapist (Hubble and Miller, 2022). What’s more, you don’t need to choose between approaches, because you can opt for an integrative therapist. My integrative style incorporates cognitive behavioural, person-centred and psychodynamic approaches. I use whichever approaches I think are going to be most effective for each individual client.
What type of counselling is best for anxiety?
Should I see a counsellor or a psychiatrist for anxiety?
That depends on whether you want to take medication for your anxiety. If you do, you will need to see either a psychiatrist or your GP to get a prescription. If you want to focus on talking therapy, either alongside or instead of medication, a counsellor or psychotherapist is what you need.
Does anxiety go away without medication?
Yes, anxiety can be effectively treated without medication. Many people prefer not to take psychiatric medications, or find that they don’t like the side effects of anti-anxiety medication. Depending on the drug, common side effects include:
drowsiness
nausea
loss of libido
mood swings.
Some of my clients have found medication really helpful. In reducing the intensity of the anxiety, the medication creates a bit more headspace for working through the underlying issues. But it’s a matter of personal preference and therapy is the preferred treatment for anxiety, whether you are also taking medication or not.
How many counselling sessions do I need for anxiety?
Without knowing more about you, it’s impossible to say, I’m afraid. There are just too many factors involved - how bad your anxiety is, how long you’ve had it for, what the underlying causes are, etc. What I can say, though, is that most clients start to feel some improvement within the first few weeks.
Is my anxiety bad enough for therapy?
If it’s bothering you then yes, it is. There’s no threshold you need to meet and I’m not going to turn you away for not being anxious enough!
How do therapists treat anxiety?
Some therapists focus on ways to manage your anxiety - breathing techniques, distraction, the 555 method, etc. In other words, they tackle the symptoms of anxiety. That’s important, but it’s only part of the picture.
My approach incorporates:
understanding where your anxious thinking comes from
challenging and changing the cognitive patterns that underpin your anxiety
noticing different levels of anxiety and identifying how much you can tolerate
learning how your body responds to anxiety and appreciating that that’s all those physiological changes are
developing strategies to gradually
empathising with your lived experience of anxiety and having compassion for how debilitating it can be.
What happens in an anxiety counselling session?
I appreciate that if you’re prone to anxiety, the thought of talking to a stranger about yourself could in itself be anxiety-provoking! Let me put your mind at ease as much as I can.
I never push you to talk about anything you don’t want to talk about.
Sessions last 50 minutes, but if it’s getting too much, you can always end early - I will understand and I won’t mind.
I’m friendly and easy to talk to.
If you don’t know what to say, I’ll ask questions to make it easier.
Nothing happens in the session other than talking.
We go at your pace and you don’t have to face any fears unless you want to.
We don’t have to talk about your anxiety every time. It might be our main focus or it might be just one of a number of things you want to discuss. Whatever you want to talk about is fine.
If it would help you to have a phone call before we meet, I’m more than happy to do that - just book a free introductory chat.
If you prefer to have your first session (and/or any subsequent sessions) online, that’s absolutely fine.
There’s no obligation to continue after the initial consultation - it’s completely up to you and I won’t pressure you.
If understanding more about the early stages of therapy would help you feel less anxious about it, you might like to read Starting therapy: everything you need to know.
Why choose me?
I’ve been successfully helping clients with their anxiety for over 15 years. Anxious clients tend to feel comfortable with me because I’m easy going, warm and friendly. I won’t judge you or put you on the spot.
My therapy practices are conveniently located near Oxford Circus and Kings Cross, and I also offer online therapy. I offer free introductory chats and half price initial consultations so that you don’t have to spend a lot to get a feel for whether I’m a good fit for you.
Most clients who come for an initial consultation with me choose to continue with me, but if I’m not the right fit for you I will be happy to refer you to a colleague. I manage a large team of therapists so if I’m not the perfect fit for you there’s a good chance I know someone who is!
Next steps
If that sounds good to you, it’s easy to book an initial consultation or a free introductory phone call here…
If you want to find out more first, feel free to contact me and I’ll get back to you promptly.