Therapist Corner






​"You unravel me, with a melody
You surround me with a song
Of deliverance, from my enemies
Till all my fears are gone

I am no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God."
-Jonathan and Melissa Helser

Anxiety a Frequent Visitor by Gregory Hasek MA/MFT 

It is probably not new information to you but anxiety is one of the most common symptoms that clients present with here at Southwest Florida Christian Counseling. In fact, anxiety is not just a problem with clients here, but it is a national problem. Emergency rooms every day see people showing up thinking that they are having a heart attack but in reality they are having a panic attack. Why are we all so stressed out? In this article I want to address this issue and offer some suggestion for you as a client that may be struggling with issues related to anxiety. 

The first thing I think about when a client presents with anxiety is whether there has been some form of trauma in their life currently or in their past. A current trauma may include a spouse's recent disclosure of pornography addiction, for example. A past trauma may be related to some form of childhood abuse. In other wards, anxiety is normally a result of a deeper level issue such as a trauma. I often give my client's an assessment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a starting point. This helps me understand what may be at the root of the anxiety or panic attack. 

The next focus area is teaching clients some coping skills in order to manage their anxiety. If a client does have a diagnosis of PTSD, often times their nervous system has been affected for years. Unfortunately they may have reinforced their symptoms at an emotional, physical, cognitive and spiritual level for years. Instead of sending the message to the limbic system of the brain that the trauma is over, they continue to send the message of high alert and the trauma may happen again. During the next several months, we will cover this topic from each of these levels. 

This month I want to talk about how anxiety and previous trauma impacts the body. When a person worries or feels anxious, especially if there has been current or previous trauma, the limbic system in the right brain is activated. You have often heard about how a person may respond to a trauma trigger by fighting, flighting or freezing.This is a survival mechanism we all have in order to stay safe in the face of threat. Unfortunately with PTSD, the brain gets hijacked into thinking the trauma is either still happening or is going to happen again. This is often seen when couples come into counseling who have had previous trauma. They can easily trigger each other and arguments can escalate quickly. One person may want to leave and act on their flight, while another person may want to stay and act on their fight. You can imagine what can happen in this scenario. In fact, if you add an abandonment issue to this dynamic this can put a couple at risk of some domestic violence. In addition, panic attacks occur when the body has too much adrenaline from being in a constant or prolonged state of stress, which in turns triggers the fight or flight response. The adrenal glands often get fatigued from years of worry. If I know a client has been stressed for a long time, I will sometimes recommend that they get their adrenal glands checked through a blood test. 

If you are a client that suffers from anxiety, you are welcome to visit the Client Tools of the Month page. Here you will find tools to help you.The tools to be added this month will be related to the body. This is always the beginning place to start in recovering from anxiety. Research shows that you have to start at a body level where anxiety is stored. The body stores trauma and until you get your body out of thinking that it needs to be in this state, it will be very difficult for you to control other areas such as your mind. Come back each month to read the new article and added tools along the way. If you struggle with anxiety, make it a commitment in the month of July to begin to take it seriously and work closely with your therapist as you learn and practice new tools.