Navigating Anxiety
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
— ALBERT EINSTEIN
Anxiety can manifest as a racing heart, shallow breathing, or a mind spinning with what-ifs. It might appear as persistent worry that follows you through the day, sudden moments of intense fear, or a constant sense of being on edge. Perhaps you’ve noticed yourself avoiding situations that once felt manageable, or experiencing tension that seems to have taken up permanent residence in your body.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. As a counsellor in Nelson BC, I work with many individuals navigating anxiety's challenging terrain. While finding relief from immediate distress is essential, my approach also creates space to explore what your anxiety might reveal about your life and what might support deeper healing.
Understanding anxiety’s messages
Anxiety, for all its (sometimes excruciating) discomfort, carries intelligence. When we listen closely, it often reveals what matters deeply to us—relationships we value, meaningful work, our sense of safety or integrity. In our counselling sessions, we will explore these connections, helping you distinguish between anxiety’s helpful alerts and its overwhelming alarms.
Together, we can notice the spectrum between useful alertness—that focused attention that helps you prepare for an important event—and overwhelming distress that makes your world feel like a tunnel. The goal is to attune to the needs of your nervous system, acknowledging when it is activated by stress and respecting its limits. At the same time, the aim is to develop wisdom and discernment regarding the relationship between your anxiety and the current situation, cultivating freedom of choice to engage in what matters to you most even when anxiety is present.
Reconnecting with your body's knowing
Anxiety lives in our bodies as much as in our thoughts. The racing heart, shallow breathing, and muscle tension aren’t simply inconvenient symptoms but communications from an embodied intelligence that is trying to protect you against threat.
In my counselling sessions, I work with practices focused on breath, sensation, and movement that can help regulate your nervous system when anxiety feels unmanageable. You might learn to track subtle body sensations, discover your own unique anxiety activation patterns and warning signs, or develop personalized calming and centring practices for moments of overwhelm.
By developing a more spacious relationship with physical sensations, many find they’re no longer hijacked by the first flutter of anxiety and the fear of what it means. This embodied awareness doesn’t eliminate anxiety but creates more freedom to move with it rather than against it.
Navigating uncertainty with wisdom
At its core, anxiety often involves our relationship with uncertainty—that awareness of the unknown that philosopher Søren Kierkegaard called “the dizziness of freedom.” While our contemporary world often suggests we should eliminate uncertainty, a more realistic aim might be developing the capacity to stand steady within it.
In our work together, we might explore gentle experiments that gradually expand your comfort with the unknown. This isn’t about forcing exposure, but rather understanding your anxiety triggers better, and building internal resources that make uncertainty feel more manageable.
Many discover an unexpected truth: the same sensitivity that makes them vulnerable to anxiety is also the part of them that cares deeply how things turn out, that has strong values for how it wants to engage in life. Rather than eliminating this sensitivity, therapy can help you welcome it as a resource while building the resilience to navigate life’s inevitable uncertainties.
“An adventure that every human being has to live through, learning to be anxious so as not to be ruined either by never having been in anxiety or by sinking into it. Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.”
Creating space between you and your anxiety
When anxiety feels overwhelming, it can become all-consuming—as if you are your anxiety rather than a person experiencing anxiety. Our work together helps you develop what mindfulness traditions call the “observing self”—that part of you that can notice anxious thoughts and sensations without being completely identified with them.
Through mindfulness practices, cognitive explorations, and somatic awareness, you can develop the capacity to say, “I notice I'm feeling anxious” rather than “I am anxious.” Although this shift may seem subtle, it represents a very different experience of anxiety. Disidentifying oneself from the anxiety creates a moment of pause between stimulus and reaction. This space for choice enables you to take meaningful action even when anxiety is present.
As this capacity develops, many find they can hold anxiety more lightly—neither pushing it away nor being consumed by it, but allowing it to be one part of a rich inner landscape rather than the whole picture.
My approach
As a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) and Registered Craniosacral Therapist (RCST) in Nelson BC, I bring a holistic perspective to our work together. My training includes body-oriented approaches that complement traditional talk therapy, providing multiple pathways to address both the immediate experience of anxiety and its deeper dimensions.
This approach might be particularly suited for you if:
You're looking for both practical tools and deeper understanding
You sense there might be wisdom within your anxiety alongside its challenges
You're interested in incorporating body awareness into your healing process
You're open to exploring anxiety's connections to meaning, purpose, and authentic living
Anxiety can be an highly distressing experience, but with appropriate support, many discover not only relief but also an unexpected gift: a deeper understanding of themselves and what supports their genuine wellbeing.