A Psychologist Explains: How Menopause Can Trigger Anxiety & How CBT Can Help

Let's talk about menopause, a topic that often gets reduced to hot flashes and mood swings. But there's another unwelcome guest at the menopause party: anxiety. It's a sneaky one, showing up as racing heartbeats, intrusive thoughts, and that general feeling of being on edge. And guess what? You're not alone. Anxiety during menopause is incredibly common, but unfortunately not well acknowledged by many doctors. If you’re tired of being fobbed off by your GP about all the ways menopause may be affecting your mental health, then keep reading!

Future Forecast: Cloudy with a Chance of Panic Attacks

The future. That vast, swirling vortex of possibilities that can feel both exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. For me, it often leans more towards the terrifying. My mind, a master of catastrophic thinking, paints vivid pictures of everything that could go wrong, from blanking out or stumbling through that upcoming presentation at work or being that socially awkward parent at the school gates who can’t blend in with the school mum brigade. Whatever horror movie I am playing out in my head, it’s enough to make me feel paralysed with stress and worry.

Conquering The Couch: How To Make The Most Of Your Therapy Session

Therapy can be an incredibly valuable tool for anyone seeking to improve their mental health, navigate challenging life situations, or simply gain a deeper understanding of themselves. But how do you ensure you're getting the most out of your therapy sessions given the financial and time investment you put in? Keep reading for some tips to guide you on maximising your therapy sessions as a busy, high achieving professional:

Coping with Anxiety and the Festive Season

Every year, my children’s school goes manic with Christmas activities in the last two weeks of the term. With separate events for infants and juniors, it feels like I need a full time personal assistant to keep me up to speed. With nativities, Christmas concerts, Christmas lunches, packed lunches, trips to the pantomime, non uniform days, donation days, I feel frazzled in the run up to Christmas, constantly trying to play catch up and not forget a donation or a packed lunch along the way! Then there’s the work and family parties and events- how does one stay sane, never mind ENJOY this time of year? Keep reading to find out my top tips on how I am coping with my anxiety leading up to Christmas.

Staying Busy Won't Make Trauma Go Away

Taking on more projects at work. Booking up your social calendar. Time heals all wounds. Soon this will just be a distant memory. Do you find yourself coping with traumatic experiences by staying busy and distracted? If you’ve been burning yourself out trying to do this, keep reading to find out why time and distraction don’t work when it comes to healing from traumatic experiences.

How Trauma Affects your Health: A Therapist Explains

And then it clicked. Why my successful, career driven, Oxbridge educated client's PTSD symptoms were not impacting on her day to day life. She was ticking all the boxes and acknowledging the presence of current trauma symptoms, all while living life without any apparent distress or impairment to her emotional coping. But suddenly, there it was. She had come to me because her consultant had recommended therapy to help her manage flare ups of her IBD and skin conditions to complement her medical treatment. Now it was all making sense. Perhaps her trauma symptoms were wreaking havoc on her physical health instead. To find out more about how trauma can show up in the body, keep reading...

Counsellor, Therapist, or Psychologist? How to Choose the Right Professional

You know you need help, your anxiety has been out of control and you’re finally ready to take that step of starting therapy. But what do you google? Therapist? Counsellor? Psychologist? It’s all SO confusing, and who knows the difference anyway? Your search results come back with a sea of different names, job titles, qualifications, and mysterious letters after the names that make no sense to you. To add to the confusion, the prices for sessions are wildly different! Why is a counsellor charging £50 per session, a psychotherapist charging £70, and a clinical psychologist charging double that? If finding the right therapist feels like an overwhelming task, keep reading to find out how you can choose the right professional to help you with your anxiety or trauma.

How to Stop Night Time Panic Attacks: A Therapist Explains

You wake up in terror, heart pounding, feeling like you can’t breathe, your pajamas are soaked in sweat. It’s 2 am and you’ve been sound asleep in your bed until now. Your thoughts race and you look frantically around the room. It’s hard to understand what’s going on, you’re afraid you are going crazy with all of these middle of the night episodes. Your palms go clammy and your chest feels tight- it’s hard to breathe. You get up, throw open the windows to get some cold air in the room. When that doesn’t work, you end up locking yourself in the bathroom, crying on the floor and waiting for it to pass. When it finally does, you’re terrified of going back to sleep and having another one. If this sounds like you, keep reading…

What Makes OCD Worse and How CBT Can Help

That set of rules that you need to follow so that something awful doesn't happen. The complex ritual that needs to be done a certain number of times in a specific way in order for you to feel reassured that nothing bad will happen. Asking your partner for reassurance that you washed your hands despite knowing you have washed them 3 times already. Having to say certain words and phrases out loud. All of these types of behaviours help you to feel relief from the anxiety when your OCD gets triggered. But are they really helping or making things worse long term? Keep reading to find out...

Health Anxiety: How Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Can Help

It’s 2 am and you are up again in the middle of the night, googling symptoms, after noticing some heart palpitations that you’ve never experienced before. You’re used to researching symptoms as they arise on the internet, trying to rule out anything dangerous. The more you read on Google, however, the more your anxiety rises. You feel scared by what you are reading about worst case scenarios and become convinced you have a serious heart problem. You lie sleepless for the next several hours, unable to calm down and fall asleep, watching the clock until you can ring the GP surgery in the morning. It’s a vicious cycle and you’ve become a “professional patient” of sorts where you feel like the GP no longer takes you seriously, leaving you feel more anxious and unreassured than ever. If this sounds like you, keep reading.

Social Anxiety at Work: Coping Strategies from a Psychologist

It’s bloody happened again. You’re in the middle of giving a presentation at work and you can feel yourself starting to go hot in the face as you notice everyone’s eyes on you, waiting for you to start. Your heart feels like it’s thumping out of your chest and your breathing quickens. As you notice your body reacting in this way, your anxiety and self consciousness grow and you feel mortified. You freeze and completely blank out, not remembering what you were supposed to say next and spend the next 20 minutes stuttering and stumbling your way through your presentation. If this sounds like you, you might be dealing with social anxiety…

Testimonials

“I have been able to regain confidence to face colleagues and patients, friends and family. The sessions were really helpful as it helped me to manage my stress, overthinking, confidence issues, social anxiety. These sessions help me to stay grounded. Ms. Aneesa was my life line back to work”

“Emotions were validated and listened to. Having another perspective was really useful for me. Aneesa listened and prompted questions- although uncomfortable- that made me stop and re think and gave me more insight. I hope you realise how much progress I made with your help”

“Of all the different therapy services I have tried through my GP or work, working with Aneesa has singularly been the most beneficial in helping me to recover”

“I am no longer at the mercy of my anxiety and have learnt techniques to control my stress levels at work. I have told all my junior doctor colleagues about the service”