🌿 Feeling Anxious? You’re Not Alone — And Here’s How Therapy Can Help

Anxiety isn’t just about feeling nervous before a big presentation or an important life event. It can quietly show up in your everyday life — in the racing thoughts before bedtime, the tightness in your chest during traffic, or the constant overthinking about things that haven’t even happened yet.

At Your Space Counselling Services, we meet so many clients who struggle with anxiety in different forms, and the most common thing they say is:

“I thought it was just me.”

But you’re not alone. And the good news? There are ways to manage it, heal from it, and reclaim calm in your life.

🌸 How Therapy Helps With Anxiety

1️⃣ Understanding Your Anxiety: In therapy, we help you explore where your anxiety comes from. Is it rooted in past trauma, perfectionism, fear of failure, or people-pleasing tendencies? Recognising your unique triggers is the first step towards feeling in control.

2️⃣ Practical Tools and Techniques: Using evidence-based therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), we teach you how to identify and challenge unhelpful thought patterns, replacing them with more balanced, realistic ones.

3️⃣ Learning to Sit With Discomfort: Through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), you’ll learn that it’s okay to feel anxious sometimes. We focus on accepting what’s out of your control, while still choosing actions that align with the kind of person you want to be.

4️⃣ Reconnecting With Your Emotions: Many people with anxiety have spent years pushing down difficult emotions. With Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), we create a safe space for you to express and process these feelings, helping to ease the tension they cause in your body and mind.

🌱 Quick Mental Health Tips for Managing Anxiety

While therapy is a powerful long-term solution, here are some simple tips you can start using right now:

✨ Ground Yourself: When anxiety strikes, engage your five senses. Name five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste.

✨ Breathe Deeply: Try the 4-7-8 breathing technique: Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7, and exhale slowly for 8. Repeat 4 times.

✨ Limit Caffeine: Too much coffee or energy drinks can heighten anxiety symptoms. Be mindful of how your body reacts.

✨ Set ‘Worry Time’: Give yourself 10-15 minutes a day to write down everything you’re anxious about. Once the time’s up, close the notebook and step away.

✨ Reach Out: Even if it’s a quick chat with a friend or a text to a loved one — connection reduces isolation and helps you feel supported.

🌼 Ready to Find Calm Again?

If anxiety has been holding you back, you don’t have to face it alone. Therapy provides a compassionate, structured space to understand your anxiety and build healthier coping strategies.

Contact Your Space Counsellimg Services to get started on your healing journey!

🌿 Feeling Stretched Too Thin? How to Manage Everyday Stress

In today’s world, stress has almost become a badge of honour. The constant hustle, endless to-do lists, family demands, work pressures, and digital overload can leave us feeling burnt out before the week even begins.

At Your Space Counselling Services, one of the most common concerns our clients bring to session is chronic, everyday stress — not just from life’s big crises, but from the little things that pile up over time.

🌸 Why Everyday Stress Matters

We often dismiss daily stress as “normal” or “not serious enough” to address. But over time, these small, ongoing stressors can impact your mood, sleep, relationships, and even physical health.

Left unchecked, chronic stress can lead to:

• Anxiety and irritability

• Trouble sleeping or constant fatigue

• Digestive issues and headaches

• Difficulty concentrating

• Feeling emotionally numb or overwhelmed

🧠 How Therapy Can Help

Therapy isn’t just for big life events — it’s for everyday life too. Here’s how we support clients dealing with daily stress:

1️⃣ Learn to Recognise Your Stress Triggers: In session, we work together to identify the situations, people, or habits that consistently leave you feeling overwhelmed.

2️⃣ Build Coping Strategies That Work for You: Through therapies like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), you’ll learn practical ways to manage stress, from challenging negative thought patterns to setting healthier boundaries.

3️⃣ Release Emotional Tension: With Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), we explore the deeper emotions often hiding beneath stress — like guilt, resentment, or sadness — so you can process and release them safely.

4️⃣ Reconnect With the Present Moment: I also incorporate simple mindfulness and grounding techniques into sessions, helping you pause, breathe, and reset amidst the daily rush.

🌱 Quick Tips to Manage Everyday Stress

✨ Start and End Your Day Phone-Free: Give yourself 10–15 minutes in the morning and night without screens to centre yourself.

✨ Say ‘No’ Without Guilt: Your time and energy are valuable. Set realistic limits with people and tasks.

✨ Create a Stress ‘Release Valve’: Whether it’s a 5-minute stretch, a playlist of feel-good songs, or a walk in nature — find small, regular outlets to decompress.

✨ Practice One-Minute Breathing Pauses: Close your eyes, breathe in deeply through your nose, hold for a count of 4, and slowly exhale. Repeat 4 times.

✨ Prioritise Rest, Not Just Sleep: Make time for activities that restore you — reading, a cup of tea in silence, or listening to music without multitasking.

✨ You Deserve Ease, Too

If stress has been weighing you down, you don’t have to handle it all alone. Therapy offers a gentle, supportive space to unpack life’s pressures and build sustainable, healthy coping strategies.