It is hard to have a life that we want
when anxiety and stress make living difficult.
Welcome,
Anxiety and stress 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 face never-ending "shoulds" and "should-haves"—the demands that life throws your way that feel impossible to meet if you allow yourself even a small break. Your world may feel as though it has shrunk, defined by safe zones, danger zones, and fields of obligation.
This "stuck" pattern is often driven by what is known as cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS). CAS is a repetitive loop of worry, rumination, and threat monitoring—essentially, a habit of hypervigilance. Your brain becomes fixated on scanning for danger to keep you safe, conserving energy to fight every possible transgression.
Techniques like distraction or relaxation have their place, but without proper treatment, they can accidentally fuel the CAS loop. For example, if you have social anxiety, you might "cope" by holding a drink to keep your hands busy. If you are overwhelmed, you might force a semblance of control by creating endless to-do lists. These behaviors confirm to your brain that the threat is real and that vigilance is necessary. We end up layering temporary fixes on top of the problem without ever shifting from hypervigilance to calm alertness. Excessive use of distraction makes the brain believe that there is something so awful that it should not even be acknowledged. How can we deal with things that we are no longer able to face?
Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) targets CAS using cognitive restructuring (checking our assumptions against reality) and exposure (testing predictions in real life). Exposure is the key to proving to the amygdala that effort is not danger. When a stressed caregiver takes a small break, they realize their reality does not demand constant worry. There is still some room for a warm cup of tea and listening to a vinyl record. When a student floods with apprehension but opens the book anyway, they learn that studying is different from being ridiculed despite the noisy judgments inside their own head. When a person with a panic disorder learns to ease into a panic attack rather than fighting it, they learn they have more control than they thought.
I hope you'll spend some time browsing the site; you will find many articles as well as self-help materials. If you have questions, feel free to book a free 15-minute consultation.
Joanna
Few Words About Me
I am a Registered Social Worker (MSW, RSW) and a cognitive behaviour therapist in private practice with over 25 years of clinical experience. Prior to opening my practice, I worked as a crisis worker in the ER, a social worker with an assertive community treatment team, and a therapist with hospital-affiliated programs. I also became very involved with the hospital bioethics program, which exposed me firsthand to dilemmas related to making life-impacting decisions in less-than-optimal circumstances.
I am a Diplomate with the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and possess certification with the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies. I opened Village Centre CBT to provide high-quality therapy in a relaxed setting where we can work at a pace that feels comfortable. I specialize in CBT and have solid experience in dealing with stress, depression, and anxiety disorders, as well as OCD and PTSD. I am also very interested in life transition issues such as retirement, adjustment to serious illness, bereavement, life post-divorce, or dealing with moral residue when the choices available to us do not fully align with our own moral principles.
I chose CBT because it is honest and evidence-based. Furthermore I believe that true therapeutic expertise requires mastering one comprehensive system sufficiently to be able to address a wide spectrum of difficulties. Because different therapies often rely on contradicting core principles, the therapeutic process can become quite confusing when interventions are drawn across a spectrum of incompatible modalities. CBT allows us to navigate highly complex presentations using a large set of specialized tools that all work together harmoniously, ensuring you receive clear, cohesive treatment without the unnecessary confusion.
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.
