Anxiety Counseling for Women
in Benicia and Vallejo, CA
Anxiety is common for women who have experienced trauma in relationships.
In fact, anxiety is the main reason why the women I support seek therapy in the first place. They usually don't realize that anxiety can be an outcome of trauma - particularly -relationship trauma. My approach focuses on the anxious distress that women experience.
Anxiety Symptoms
Anxiety is a natural survival response when the brain detects stress or danger. When we repeatedly feel unsafe or experience chronic stress, this response can become overactive even when we're actually safe.
This can lead to anxiety disorders and the symptoms may include:
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Racing thoughts
Excessive worry
Irritability
A sense of dread or impending doom
Feeling restless, nervous, on edge
Tightness in the throat, chest, head, face
Racing heart
Shortness of breath
Stomach upset
Sleep disturbances
Muscle tension, weakness, numbness
Trouble concentrating
Dissociation
Trembling or shaking
"People pleasing" behaviors
Trauma Counseling to Manage Anxiety
Together, we'll work to support you with feeling safe inside of your own body. You'll learn about the triggers that activate your stress response and how to use your body to attend to it and eventually reduce and possibly prevent anxious distress.
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You will gain insight to recognize the cues that your body gives you, effectively attend to those signals and implement daily practices that empower and prepare you to manage stress and prevent anxiety from constricting your quality of life.
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Further, exploring and reprocessing the traumatic experiences that you and your body were exposed to can reinforce the strategies that we will use to increase your distress tolerance and restore your body's sense of safety and balance.