Anxiety, Stress & Trauma Therapy

Gold Coast, Australia

Our Clinical Psychologist in the Gold Coast, can help you to reduce stress, anxiety, fears, panic attacks  for more calm and balance.

•     Do you often feel stressed?
•     Do you often feel overwhelmed?
•     Do you worry unnecessarily?
•     Do you often feel pressured and rushed?
•     Do you feel irritable?
•     Do you feel inadequate?
•     Do you have insomnia?
•     Have you experienced some recent major changes or loss?
•     Do you suffer from anxiety attacks, fears, phobias or panic attacks?
•     Do you have unpleasant memories or flashback?
•     Do you find yourself over-reacting?

If so, it is likely that you are suffering from excessive stress, anxiety or even post-traumatic stress disorder. This may cause you to feel sometimes overwhelmed, frustrated and confused.  Anxiety is a common experience following excessive stress or trauma. No one is spared. Many situations can cause stress or trauma: overwork, lack of sleep, difficult relationships, parenting, financial hardship, loss of a loved one, looming deadlines, bullying, retrenchment, accidents, emotional or verbal abuse and other traumatic circumstances.

Unhealthy stress

Healthy stress increases our motivation and drives us to reach our goals: we become more focus and mentally alert. However, unhealthy stress is when the demanding situation is ongoing without a period of rest. Here, toxic hormone level rises, and we feel tensed, dissatisfied or even helpless. Ways of dealing with this vary from one individual to another. Level of resilience, coping skills and responses to stress depend on genetic factors as well as current and previous life experiences and situations.

The excessive amount of stress over time has a negative impact on the body and mind and can lead to generalised anxiety, phobias and panic attacks.

Here is a list of anxiety symptoms:

Physical Symptoms of anxiety:

•     Poor sleep
•     Fatigue, tiredness
•     Muscular tension as well as headaches, shoulder or back pain
•     Stomach pain, indigestion, heart burn
•     Eating more or less
•     Intestinal problems, diarrhoea
•     Exacerbate chronic pain conditions
•     Weakened immune system (frequent cold, flu)
•     Loss of libido
•     Anxiety Attacks

Mental/behavioural symptoms of anxiety

•     Mind racing, jumbled thoughts
•     Restlessness, agitation, impatience
•     Anger, irritability, defensiveness, blaming
•     Jumpy, easily startled
•     Difficulty in concentration or being focused
•     Low sense of humour
•     Low self-esteem
•     Confusion, blank mind
•     Lack of motivation
•     Pessimism and threat perception mode
•     Unhelpful thinking mode/irrational ideas
•     Withdrawing, avoiding social situation
•     Mood swing
•     Nervous habits (nail-biting, foot or finger tapping)
•     Panic Attacks
•     Phobias

Chronic experience of stress can trigger health problems such as hypertension, heart, circulation diseases including stroke, as well as migraines, ulcers, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, arthritis and sexual difficulties. Actually, most diseases have been linked to stress; either they are caused by stress or stress exacerbates the conditions.

Trauma

A traumatic experience is defined as any situation where there is a threat that leaves you feeling overwhelmed, isolated and unsafe. It could be verbal, emotional or physical. Emotional and psychological trauma can be caused by a one-time event such as a car accident, injury, violent verbal/physical attack, bushfire, flood, or it can be a consequence of ongoing relentless stress, where you feel constantly threatened such as during an ongoing illness, bullying, domestic violence, or childhood neglect/abuse. There is also vicarious trauma which affects carers who assist traumatised individuals. 

Following emotional and psychological trauma your sense of safety is shaken and you may often feel helpless in a dangerous world. You may struggle with intense emotions, memories, flashback, triggers and anxiety. There could also be feeling of numbness, disconnection, and inability to trust other people.

When unfortunate events happen, such as an accident or ongoing emotional/physical abuse,  it can take a while to get over the pain and feel safe again.

Whatever the cause of your trauma, and whether it happened years ago or yesterday, we can help you make healing changes and move on with your life for more peace and freedom.
 

If you are suffering from stress, anxiety or trauma we advise that you visit your GP for an assessment and referral

The stress and the anxiety could have developed gradually over many months but other times the anxiety could have happened more suddenly in response to pressures, demands, loss or some other changes in your life. For some, the anxiety continues for long periods of time even though, there may no longer be a good reason for feeling anxious or worrying. If you are suffering from an ongoing feeling of anxiety and continual worrying or  have unpleasant recurrent memories, you must seek help. We recommend that you visit your GP for an assessment of your condition and a possible Mental Health Care Plan to enable you to claim the Medicare rebate when you see a psychologist.

Our psychologist can help

Depending on your needs and preferences, we offer a Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Compassion-Focused Therapy or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy all of which are evidence-based approaches, to reduce fears, anxiety, panic attacks and traumatic stress.

We will listen to you, we will provide an assessment, and then we will present tools and strategies to meet your specific needs and circumstances. We will also give you handouts and access to mp3 audio to assist in the practice of the tools and strategies. Together, we will explore practical and effective ways to resolve your challenges and to help you to reach your goals. The aim is to assist you to build emotional resources to enable you to gain greater resilience, calm and well-being.

If you want to know more or to make an appointment face to face at her office in the Gold Coast or Online anywhere in Australia please contact us on 0427795721 or send us an email at marie@bloomfieldpsychology.com.au

We listen... We Care...