It is hard to have a life that we want
when anxiety and stress make living difficult.
Welcome,
Anxiety can be all consuming. You may feel depleted by the constant noise of "what if?" or the relentless urge to check, fix, or avoid. You might feel as though your world has shrunk, defined by safe zones and danger zones, with the latter growing larger every day.
I would like you to know two things. First, you are not permanently broken; you are stuck in a pattern that your brain learned to keep you safe, but which has now backfired. Second, there is a way out—not through wishful thinking or temporary fixes, but through scientifically grounded, evidence-based treatment.
We need to move beyond coping skills. Coping skills — like deep breathing, distraction or relaxation training —have their place. We all want to feel less pain. Yet, coping skills alone are not the answer. Without proper treatment, coping skills can accidentally fuel the very problem that we seek to remedy. For example, if you have social anxiety, you might "cope" by always holding a drink at a party to keep your hands busy. If you have OCD, you might "cope" with intrusive thoughts by neutralizing them with a specific phrase. The problem is that these behaviours confirm to your brain that there was a real danger and that you only survived because you used your coping skill. This keeps the disorder alive. We end up by layering a stack of temporary fixes on top of the problem without ever resolving the root issue.
Cognitive behaviour therapy is the most recommended treatment for anxiety, OCD and PTSD. It has two active ingredients: cognitive restructuring (ensuring that our thoughts reflect our lived reality and not faulty assumptions) and exposure (testing our predictions in real life). Surveys show that while many therapists claim to do CBT, a much smaller percentage adhere to the exposure protocols that actually change the brain's response to fear. Yet exposure is often the key.
I hope you'll spend some time browsing the site- you'll find a lot of articles as well as self help materials. If you have questions, feel free to book a 15-min free consultation.
Joanna Szczeskiewicz
Worth Considering
You might have heard that you need to learn to live with anxiety. That is actually quite true but it probably means something quite different than you thought.
Many persons affected by anxiety try to fight the feeling and avoid stress. Others try relaxation strategies. These strategies work only to a point. Imagine that you have given your best shot at visualization or a breathing technique before your exam, a date, driving or, heck, walking on the glass floor at the CN Tower. You calmed down enough to approach your trigger and then: anxiety. Relaxation strategies often help us calm down in absence of triggers. Yet triggers are everywhere.
Let's stay with glass floor as an example. The first time you walk across it, your legs might give up. The second time you manage to wabble across. Few more times and you can walk across without problems. You have "learned to live with anxiety". You realized that anxiety is part of the process but it goes away once you have the opportunity to learn that the dreaded thing is actually quite safe or that you have the ability to overcome it. Learning to live with anxiety allows you to expand your life and that is the key to reducing the overall anxiety. This principle, called inhibitory learning, is the core premise of modern exposure-based interventions.
Few Words About Me
I am a Registered Social Worker (MSW, RWS) and a cognitive behaviour therapist in private practice with over 25 years of clinical experience. I am a Diplomate with the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and possess certification with the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies. These credentials represent years of specialized training, conference presentations, and work at hospital based clinics. I opened Village Centre CBT to be able to provide high quality therapy in a relaxed setting where we can work at a pace that feels comfortable.
I specialize in treatment of anxiety disorders as well as OCD and PTSD. This site offers a lot of technical information as I want you to be an informed consumer of therapeutic services. Actual therapy is in plain language and usually comes with a warm cup of tea or coffee. Therapy is hard work, so we might as well make ourselves as comfortable as possible.
