In-person treatment in Aspen and teletherapy throughout Colorado for generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, phobias, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Anxiety Therapy in Aspen, Colorado
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling or a group of feelings that can be experienced both psychologically and physically, can show up in very different ways and can be incredibly debilitating. At its most basic level, anxiety is also a defense mechanism and your body’s natural response to stress that evolved millions of years ago, enabling human beings to react quickly to life threatening situations.
Although often hard to put into words, some common manifestations of anxiety include excessive worrying, fear, feeling on edge or irritable, fatigue, avoidance behaviors, shaking and sweating, obsessive thinking and behaviors, heart pounding, tense muscles or feeling paralyzed. Unfortunately, this combination of stress reactions, known as the “fight-or-flight” response, when not supported properly, can interfere with your daily activities and when they do, it may be time to reach out for help.
Common Manifestations of Anxiety Include:
- Excessive worrying
- Feeling like you can’t breath, shaking and sweating
- Irrational fears
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Fatigue
- Feeling on edge or agitated
- Avoiding social situations
- Feeling paralyzed
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feeling like you have sensory overload
- Obsessive thinking and behaviors
- Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
- Insomnia and other sleep difficulties
- Digestive issues such as IBS
How Common is Anxiety?
Anxiety Disorders are the most common and pervasive disorders in the United States, with nearly 40 million people or 18% of the population experiencing anxiety symptoms in a given year. Most people will experience some form of anxiety at some point in their life. In fact, anxiety is a very common response to stressful life events and having some healthy levels of occasional anxiety can even be motivating.
How can Holistic Mind-Body Therapy Help My Anxiety?
At Aspen Holistic Therapy, we take a holistic mind-body approach to your mental health and wellbeing. We believe that in order for real change and healing to occur, the mind, body, spirit and brain must all be attended to. Every person’s history and experience is unique, but a holistic approach tailored to your specific anxiety symptoms would likely entail a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), traditional talk therapy in order to understand the root cause of your anxiety, mindfulness based practices, somatic-based therapies in order to ground and calm the nervous system and nutrition and lifestyle coaching.
Together, we can work on:
- Harnessing neuroplasticity to interrupt and inhibit old anxious thought patterns while experimenting with new ways to focus your attention
- Understanding the root cause of your fears
- Developing compassion for all parts of yourself, especially the anxious ones
- Identifying everyday triggers that put you into a state of fight-or-flight
- Understanding how anxiety manifests in the brain and body and what purpose it may serve
- Creating your own personalized “tool kit” of resources to calm the nervous system
- Practicing your version of self-care and boundaries
- Learning how to take a pause from the internal chatter to feel more grounded and present
- Understanding the mind-body connection and what the physical symptoms associated with anxiety might be communicating
- Examining aspects of your lifestyle such as exercise, sleep, hydration and smoking that have the ability to exacerbate or reduce symptoms of anxiety
- Examining aspects of your diet that might be exacerbating anxious symptoms such as caffeine, alcohol, processed and fried foods and sugar
Schedule a Consultation
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