Your Therapy Space

Accredited CBT and counselling Leamington Spa, Warwickshire and online

Generalised Anxiety

CBT therapist in Leamington Spa: How Cognitive Behavioural Therapy may help with anxiety

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Finding a CBT Therapist in Leamington Spa for Anxiety

If you are experiencing anxiety, you are not alone.  Anxiety is a significant problem which causes many people to seek therapy.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is recommended by the NHS and NICE guidelines as being effective in helping people overcome anxiety.

CBT is a practical, collaborative and evidence-based approach to therapy and it may help you to understand how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours maintain anxiety.  CBT may help you to learn about alternative ways of thinking and responding.  It may help you to understand yourself and your triggers and learn how to reduce worry, panic, and avoidance so that you could start feeling more in control of your life.  Anxiety can make your life feel very small.  CBT may help you to live in a more fulfilled way.

How CBT Works for Anxiety

Anxiety can feel overwhelming and unpleasant.  You may experience racing thoughts, a pounding heart, muscle tension, or a sense of dread that something terrible will happen.

CBT may help by:

  • Identifying anxious thought patterns and thinking styles (e.g. “I can’t do this,” “Something terrible will happen”).
  • Challenging unhelpful beliefs that make you feel anxious.
  • Gradually face fears in a safe, structured way if relevant so that you can learn to handle situations.
  • Introducing relaxation and grounding techniques to help to calm the nervous system.
  • Developing a relapse prevention plan to help you after therapy has ended.

Common Anxiety Problems Treated with CBT

  • Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Persistent worry; muscle tension; difficulty relaxing; “what if” thinking.
  • Panic Disorder: Repeated panic attacks; fear of losing control; avoidance of situations.
  • Social Anxiety: Fear of being judged negatively, blushing, being embarrassed or public speaking.
  • Phobias: Intense fear of specific things (e.g. small spaces, spiders, heights).
  • Health Anxiety: Worrying constantly about illness or physical symptoms.
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Unwanted intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviours.

What to Expect in CBT Sessions

  • Assessment — Explore anxiety triggers & patterns and goals.
  • Formulation — Build a “picture” of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours (identify how anxiety is maintained) including how early experiences inform this map if relevant.
  • Skill Building — Learn tools to challenge thoughts & reduce avoidance
  • Practice — Apply CBT skills in between sessions (complete homework tasks).
  • Review — Consolidate gains and develop a relapse prevention plan.

Practical CBT Tools for Anxiety

Therapy may include the following:

  • Thought Records: Record thoughts, examine evidence for/against, and reframe them.
  • Behavioural Experiments: Test fears and beliefs in real life (e.g. going to a crowded place) to see if worst-case scenarios happen.
  • Exposure Therapy: Gradually face feared situations in a structured way with the aim of reducing avoidance and generating new learning.
  • Breathing & Grounding Techniques: To help to calm your body’s stress response when you feel overwhelmed.
  • Problem-Solving Skills: Break challenges into manageable steps.

Take the Next Step

If anxiety is affecting your life, CBT may help you to overcome your anxiety. If you are searching for a qualified and experienced and fully accredited CBT therapist in Leamington Spa.  I would be happy to talk with you about how CBT might help your situation.  I offer online sessions which can be arranged at a mutually convenient time to fit in with your schedule.  Please contact me by emailing info@yourtherapyspace.co.uk or ringing 07950064086.  I look forward to helping you.

Being wrong again

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“I feel like I never get things right.  I’ll do my best but I’m always left with the feeling that I did something wrong or that I should have kept quiet or that people don’t like me.  It’s always there.  I can go for a walk and that’s the thing that swirls around the whole time.  I can go to a social situation and see how happy other people seem to be and, again, those thoughts are there.  I can be at a meeting at work and the thoughts pop up again.  The idea that other people are better than me.  The idea that everyone else knows how to ‘win’ at life and I don’t.  I do my best to disguise this and it sometimes works but it’s not working for me.  I feel sad and anxious and that I can’t tell anyone about how I feel because they would really think I’m just a loser.”

If the above resonates with you, then I am really sorry to hear this.  It sounds very painful and lonely to live this way.  It can lead to symptoms and feelings associated with depression and anxiety and create a vicious cycle which seems impossible to break.  It would be understandable that you would not want to talk about this with other people.  Imagine that you did talk to others about these thoughts and feelings.  Imagine how you would feel to discover that others sometimes feel like this too.  Imagine that you could find ways to challenge some of your thoughts and behaviours and feel more accepting and at ease with yourself.

For those who do not want to talk to family and friends about how they feel, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be helpful to understand what is maintaining your emotional states by developing a clear understanding of the problems you are facing and increasing your self-awareness.  This enables you to consider the choices you are making and the changes you could make to live a more fulfilled life.  If this sounds like something you would like to do, please get in touch.  Learn how to enjoy your walks, social gatherings and meetings.  Learn to value yourself.

Feeling lost

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It is so easy to feel lost at times in life.  You might feel like everyone else seems to know what they are doing.  Other people may seem to be busy with interesting jobs or hobbies or travels or family and friends or all of these things.  And you might feel as though you are making it all up as you go along.  You might be wearing a mask and pretending everything is fine while wondering if you are messing up one thing after another at times.  You might tell yourself that you can’t speak to anyone about how you feel because you don’t want to worry anyone.  You might be the one who makes sure everyone else is ok and you might think that you don’t want to be a burden or to come across as self-absorbed.

It can feel very lonely when you are being self-critical or when you are comparing yourself to others in a negative way.  It can lead to sleepless nights, anxiety and low mood and depression.  It can lead to finding unhelpful coping strategies and you might even notice that you are eating more or drinking more.  You might have stopped doing the very things that might help you to feel better and have started to withdraw from others and/or your hobbies.

We can all feel lost at times.  Hopefully, it will pass soon.  If it doesn’t, it may be useful to reach out for some help to try and work out what you would like your life to look like and how you could make some changes to move towards this.  CBT and counselling can help you to do this.

Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash

What if something wonderful happens?

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If you suffer from anxiety, it can be hard to believe that some people rarely worry.  When faced with an uncertain or new situation, the automatic thoughts for people who don’t worry are along the lines of ‘what if something wonderful happens’ or ‘I can’t wait to see what happens’.  People who don’t worry are often excited about novelty.

Do you find yourself thinking that you wish you thought like that and that every ‘what if’ you have seems to be about something terrible happening.  Worry creates anxiety and is very exhausting.  It can ruin our days, our ability to be fully present and then it can ruin our sleep and keep us wake at night.

I have worked with many clients who worry and find their days full of dread.  It is so rewarding to help clients to realise that life does not have to be like this and to discover that there are other ways of showing up in the world.  Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has a significant evidence base for anxiety presentations.  If you think that it’s time to find a way to stop excessive worrying, please get in touch.

Image: Photo by Teodor Drobota on Unsplash