Anxiety Support
Anxiety can show up in many ways. For some people it's constant worry or tension. For others it's panic, physical symptoms, or a feeling of being permanently on edge. Even when you're functioning day to day, anxiety can quietly take up a lot of mental and emotional headspace. Therapy, Counselling, Psychological Strategies or just a therapeutic chat can help you understand what's happening and reduce the impact anxiety has on your social, work and personal home life.
How anxiety commonly presents
Anxiety isn't always obvious, and it doesn't look the same for everyone. You might notice that your day could be riddled with a mix of some of the effects of living with anxiety, such as:
Ongoing worry or overthinking that feels difficult to control
Feeling intense, restless, or on edge most of the time
Panic like symptoms such as racing heart, breathlessness, or dizziness
Difficulty concentrating or sleeping or when you do sleep it is only for 2-4hours
Avoiding situations because they feel overwhelming and uncomfortable to try
Constantly preparing for things to go wrong, think worst case scenario
Common-anxiety presentations
People seek support for anxiety for different reasons. At AV Counselling, we commonly work with the following anxiety-related presentations:
Generalised Anxiety (GAD) persistent worry, mental fatigue, and difficulty switching off, often affecting multiple areas of life
Panic Disorder (PD) recurring panic attacks and fear of panic symptoms, often accompanied by avoidance of places or situations
Post-traumatic Stress responses (PTSD) anxiety symptoms linked to past traumatic experiences, including hypervigilance, avoidance, intrusive memories, or a heightened sense of threat response
Social Anxiety (SAD) fear of judgement or sruitiny in social, work or performance situations, leading to avoidance or significant distress
OCD-related difficulties intrusive thoughts, urges, or doubts, alongside compulsive behaviours such as checking, reassurance-seeking, mental reviewing or perfectionistic routines
Adjustment-related anxiety (AD) anxiety that develops in response to significant life changes, stressors, or losses, even when the change is expected or socially 'positive' except you feel the opposite to that
These experiences can overlap. Therapy, Counselling and Psychological Strategies focuses on understanding how anxiety operates for you 'your anxiety experience' first, rather than fitting you into a category.
Perfectionism, Procrastination and Anxiety
For many people, anxiety is closely linked with perfectionism and procrastination. When these become unhelpful and stressful in your daily life. You might notice:
Setting very high standards and feeling distressed when they aren't met
Delaying tasks to avoid discomfort, mistakes, or self-criticism​
Feeling stuck between wanting things to be 'just right' and feeling overwhelmed
Using over-preparation or avoidance as a way to manage anxiety without realising it in the moment
From a cognitive and behavioural therapy perspective, these patterns often make sense as attempts to reduce anxiety in the short-term, however, they can increase pressure and stress over time, sometimes instant impact, sometimes over three to six or more months.
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Therapy, Counselling, Psychological Strategies or simply a therapeutic chat helps identify these cycles and develop more flexible, sustainable ways of responding.
How anxiety is maintained
Anxiety is often kept going by a combination of:
Thought Processing Problem
Unhelpful thinking patterns, such as overestimating threat, risk or responsibility
Behaviourally Reactive Problem
Avoidance or safety behaviours that reduce anxiety briefly but reinforce it over time
Emotionally Driven Problem
A stress response that becomes easily triggered and hard to switch off
While these patterns are understandable, they can gradually narrow your life, your life choices, the opportunities you take and increase distress and sadness.
How therapy can help
The work that can assist with anxiety is practical and structured.
Understanding what contributes to your anxiety experiences AND setting an achievable goal
Learning skills to manage worry, panic, and physical symptoms
​Gradually reducing avoidance and unhelpful coping strategies​
Building confidence in your ability to cope with discomfort
The aim is to help anxiety take up less space in your life, so decisions are guided more by your values than by fear, discomfort and hidden stress response.​
What sessions are like
Sessions are collaborative and paced carefully. Together we work to develop a clear understanding of your anxiety experiences and patterns, agree on a plan that feels manageable and relevant, practice strategies that can be applied outside sessions and review progress and adjust the approach as needed. Sessions is not about forcing change, but about building understanding and practical skills over time.
When support may be helpful
You don't need to wait until anxiety becomes overwhelming.
Support maybe helpful or needed at a time when anxiety is:
Affecting your work, study, or relationships
Driving perfectionism, avoidance, or constant overthinking
Limiting what you feel able to do
Persisting despite your efforts to manage it
Is anxiety something that can improve?
Many people find that anxiety becomes more manageable with the right support and strategies. Progress looks different for everyone and is reviewed regularly. Beginning with identifying and mapping out your own anxiety experiences and setting an achievable, reasonable goal is an ideal starting place for your life and experiences can improve.
How many sessions will I need?
This varies depending on your situation and goals. Some people benefit from short-term, focused work, while others prefer a longer period of support with annual periodic check-in or review sessions.
What if my anxiety feels hard to explain?
You don't need to have the right words. Part of therapy is making sense of your experience together. Sometimes, a sound, an expression, or a list of words, even a swear word might be a good starting point.
