One-in-four adults and one-in-ten children experience mental illness during their lifetime, and many more of us know and care for people who do, according to NHS England.
During difficult times, we may feel anxious, and experience symptoms of anxiety, overwhelm and stress. We are all affected by mental health in different ways and at different times in life; this can make taking care of our mental health and well-being challenging. This is when counselling and talking to a professional therapist can be beneficial to many people.
What is integrative counselling and how does it work?
In this blog, we share how therapy can help your anxiety, looking at ways Integrative Counselling can benefit you and your mental well-being.
First, let us look at what integrative counselling is. Integrative counselling is a form of Talking Therapy and is used in individual counselling sessions to support anxiety or symptoms of anxiousness.
Integrative counselling draws on techniques from different types of therapy including talking therapy to adapt an approach specifically suited for you and your current needs.
Also, integrative counselling looks at the individual person, taking into account your well-being, and mental, physical and emotional needs. For example, therapist Karin Young adapts counselling techniques and tools to tailor an individual approach to each person to support your needs.
Ways Integrative Talking Therapy can help Anxiety
Anxiety is a feeling that brings unease, worry and, fear. Anxiety can be mild, severe, short, or long-term.
As young people or adults, we experience feelings of anxiousness at points in daily life. For example, you feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam or having a medical test or job interview. During times like these, feeling anxious can be perfectly normal.
Your therapist, such as Karin Young may use psychodynamic therapy. This involves helping you to bring your subconscious - what is just below the surface of your awareness - into your conscious mind. It helps you become more aware of what’s in your subconscious, such as difficult memories and experiences, so you can understand how these deep-rooted feelings impact you in the present and how you can learn to cope with them now.
A solution focused approach (SFBT) focuses on finding solutions. Your therapist draws on your resources and strengths, including what's been done well. This approach can help you to feel more capable and that overcoming anxiety is possible.
A cognitive behavioural approach (CBT) looks at what causes and maintains the problem, for example the negative thoughts and behaviours that might be keeping anxiety going today.
Integrative therapists like Karin, look at what your priorities and goals for therapy are, together with your history and current symptoms. They then work with you to form a plan and agree on a way to tackle the anxiety worry or fear, using approaches and strategies that suit you.
Your therapy may include challenges and homework tasks to stretch you, it may also include coping strategies and skills building in sessions to help you cope when symptoms arise.
So, this is how Integrative Therapy Talking Therapy can help you manage and improve your anxiety and symptoms of anxiety levels, as it is ideal for a range of short and long-term challenges.
It is a useful method to manage the following:
• Anxiety
• Bereavement
• Low self-esteem
• Depression
• Relationships
• Trauma
• Addictions
In summary, talking therapy is a useful way to help you support and manage your mental health and well-being because you will learn how to manage anxious thoughts, and reduce the severity and frequency of these feelings.
In this article, we have seen that when you understand the causes of your distress and the triggers, you can positively set goals and work on new behaviours to improve your satisfaction with life.
We have shared with you how counselling can help you manage your anxiety and how it supports you to deal with more than just the symptoms of anxiety that you may feel – if you feel that you can benefit from counselling get in touch with Karin Young Counselling here.
Thank you for reading; we hope you found this information useful and if you believe you need urgent help please contact a support line using the details here.