Spotted Rabbit studio

Anxiety Therapy

Anxiety disorders

Do your thoughts control your life?

Do You…

struggle with intrusive thoughts or persistent worries?
avoid things that you enjoy or need to do because of worry or panic?
experience physical symptoms like stomach aches, headaches, flushing, or difficulty breathing?
have difficulty falling asleep due to racing thoughts?
feel irritable, tense or restless?
know your worries are unrealistic yet you still can’t shake them?
engage in counting, cleaning, organizing or repeat back up plans in your head?

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

W. Dyer

Learn

Anxiety Treatment

Although unpleasant, anxiety serves an important purpose for our bodies which are protected by survival instincts of fight, flight, freeze. Without anxiety we wouldn’t have the energy needed to run from the bear coming our way or to fight it if we were caught. In the modern age we rarely encounter such extreme life and death situations, however our body has not had time to adapt. Despite most of our stressors now being of a social nature our body still responds in the same extreme way. Those who have an already disregulated nervous systems due to trauma and/or neurodivergence are more susceptible and often have more intense and long lasting anxiety responses. While many people have anxiety responses in relation to specific environmental events, those with PTSD, autism, ADHD, and OCD often report having anxiety symptoms that are predominately somatic with triggers that are unknown or identified as irrational.

Here at Spotted Rabbit we find that many of our clients come to us with a diagnosis of GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), however what we often uncover is a highly activated and frequently disregulated nervous system that is directly related to ongoing or long-lasting trauma and neurodivergence. Typical treatments, like CBT and DBT aren’t always the most helpful for this type of anxiety, as clients typically already know the worry is not warranted or get stuck spiraling in search of what triggered their anxiety and not being able to find it. Our approach to treating anxiety is built on helping you develop an understanding of how your brain and body work together to respond to perceived threats so you stop blaming yourself for your biology working as it should. Using aspects of ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy), IFS (internal family systems), and various somatic practices we’ll focus on developing acceptance for emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations. Although they won’t work overnight, mindfulness and meditative practices will be an important part of our work together to feel more grounded and settled. Long-term we’ll help you exit active abuse, trauma, and sensory overload and implement self-care across a wide range of domains. A dedication to living authentically will allow you to embody your personal values without sacrificing yourself. Overall, using a trauma-informed and pro-neurodivergent lens to treat anxiety we won’t just help you find your peace, we’ll also show you how to maintain it.