Anxiety and Depression

Trying to control your anxiety causes you anxiety.

You aren’t dealing with complicated feelings. You are dealing with difficult feelings about your feelings.

Thinking about whether the anxiety will ever disappear makes you feel more anxious. Difficulty getting out of bed in the morning makes you judgmental of yourself.

Not being able to handle those feelings seems shameful – making you feel guilty, angry, sad, and hopeless.

Anxiety becomes a layer cake nobody would ever want to eat.

Avoiding the layer cake adds more layers!

You valiantly try to control the complicated feelings but end up adding more layers.

Whether overthinking, zoning out, eating, or drinking too much, you end up with more stress, self-recrimination, and more layers.

Emotional pain and physical sensations get worse.

You are not sure what came first, the chicken or the egg, but the problems worsen.

Noticing the pain in your chest creates panic, causing you to wonder, “Is it anxiety or something worse?” Those thoughts send the pain into overdrive. When your heart races and your palms feel sweaty, you think, “Why is my heart racing?” The worry makes your heart race faster, and you begin feeling dread.

You feel exhausted thinking about addressing your lack of energy makes you feel exhausted. “How can I manage?” That question makes you crawl back into bed.

And the cake adds more layers.

The cake can become a Mud-Filled Pie.

Then, there are times when the layers seem to collapse, and you struggle to care about anything.

These times are when you feel surrounded by a mass of horrible darkness with no distinction for guilt, sadness, or anger. The darkness is too dense for that.

You go through the motions, but functioning seems typically like somebody else’s pipe dream.

Unlayer the Cake.

Although it seems impossible, it is possible to unlayer this cake, and you have taken the first step – by seeking support. We will take steps together as we open the toolbox (body-based mindfulness, radical acceptance, gestalt techniques, somatic IFS) to deconstruct this cake.

First, we will create a space to understand your experience with compassion and acceptance. Although acceptance of your feelings might seem daunting at this moment, acceptance and compassion for whatever is present will stop the layering.

Then, we will seek (and find!) the love and grace that make up your core and ask the clouds of pain to part so you can glimpse the truth – helping you to realize that you are what you seek.

Finally, we will bring that love and grace to the layers of hurt into the light and dispel the darkness. We will calm the anxiety, listen to the anger, move the mud, temper the judgment, and remove guilt by revealing the light of innocence in your heart.

Let’s address those layers now.

Removing the layers might seem like a Herculean task or even a fairy tale. But I will guide you, baby step by baby step and layer by layer, allowing you to meet whatever life offers with an open, happy, and calmly beating heart.

Let’s talk about how my guidance can make your life happier.