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Soul Therapy in Bristol and London offers anxiety, depression and grief counselling for clients from Bristol, London, Bath, Cheltenham, Cardiff, Swindon and Reading. Click on the Book A Therapy Session button above to make an appointment with Stephen Shaw. The Sea Of Tranquillity MP3 encourages deep relaxation and focuses on reducing stress, anxiety and depression. Click here MP3 Downloads and listen to the first 60 seconds free.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a natural fear response. The animal brain (R-complex) is designed to protect you against danger via the 'flight or fight' response, which partly involves dumping adrenalin into your bloodstream, increasing your breathing, pushing blood flow to the major muscle groups and making you light-headed.
Our modern 'danger' comes in the form of visible and invisible stressors - many of which are purely psychological or emotional. Unfortunately we often have the same physiological responses which make us feel strange and sometimes overwhelmed. These physical responses often exacerbate the emotional experience, resulting in panic attacks, panic disorders, social phobias and other uncomfortable anxiety experiences.
Soul Therapy in Bristol and London aims to discover the causes of your anxiety and initiate a therapeutic strategy to help you deal with anxiety and related physiological experiences.
What can you tell me about stress?
Stress is your response to a perceived stressful event or 'stressor' and is one of the major causes of anxiety and depression. Stress can result from positive experiences (eustress), e.g. getting married. Stress often results from negative experiences (distress), frustration, pressure (self-applied or applied by others) and by conflict (internal or interpersonal).
The physical effects of stress include: fatigue, headaches, body aches and pains, upset stomach, indigestion, nausea, poor eating patterns, poor quality of sleep, breathing difficulties, high blood pressure, lowered immune function.
The psychological effects of stress include: anxiety, rapid mood changes, short temper, impatience, emotional outbursts, decreased productivity, difficulty in concentrating, detachment, disinterest, decreased motivation, apathy, depression.
Two recommended books that deal with fear, change and stress are: Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers and Who Moved My Cheese by Dr Spencer Johnson.
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Is there a stress test?
Here is a list of stress tension scores:
Death of a marriage partner___100
Divorce___73
Jail sentence___63
Personal injury or illness___53
Marriage___50
Discharge from employment___47
Reconciliation after marriage problem___45
Pregnancy___40
Change in financial position___38
Death of a good friend___37
Change in employment___36
Problems with in-laws___29
Exceptional personal achievement___28
Married woman beginning or stopping work___26
Start or finish of school career___26
Problems with employer___23
Change of residence___20
Change of school___20
Change in the number of family gatherings___15
Change in eating habits___15
Holiday___13
Minor infringements of the law___11
If you score over 300 in a 12-month period, you are in the Stress Danger Zone, and susceptible to psychological and physiological problems. You should consider seeing a therapist or counsellor.
How do I handle stress?
Soul Therapy in Bristol and London offers a range of strategies to handle stress, anxiety and panic, including counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy and energy healing.
There are also pragmatic skills that are worth considering. Learning to manage your time and structure your working day is a valuable skill. You can either attend a seminar at your workplace or employ the services of a life coach or read a couple of management books.
You also need to adopt a healthy eating and exercise lifestyle, learn to relax more, have fun and engage in self-care activities. Yoga and meditation may be helpful.
Kenneth Blanchard wrote two recommended books: The One Minute Manager is a classic managing-others book and The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey is a useful book that shares ideas about managing your time and structuring your day.
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How do I handle depression?
First of all you should consult with your doctor. Your doctor may recommend that see a psychologist, psychotherapist, counsellor, hypnotherapist or suitably qualified life coach.
We need to ascertain whether you are clinically depressed or experiencing a depressive episode. The basis for depression may lie deep inside your unconscious mind. The unconscious mind strongly influences your beliefs, feelings and behaviours. Various therapeutic approaches are available, including psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioural therapy, hypnotherapy and mindfulness techniques.
A highly recommended book for dealing with depression is The Mindful Way Through Depression, a book by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
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Stages of Grief and Loss
The Kübler-Ross model, commonly known as the five stages of grief, was first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying. It describes a 5-stage process by which people deal with grief, trauma, terminal illness or catastrophic loss.
Denial
"I feel good" or "This is not happening to me".
Denial of reality is usually just a first-stage defense for the individual. This stage will not last long. Some people bypass this stage.
Anger
"Why me?" or "It's not fair!" or "This person/authority/God is to blame!" A variety of angry feelings may surface, including envy and rage toward many people and/or God.
Bargaining
"Just let me live to see my child marry" or "I will do anything for just a few more years of life". The individual hopes to somehow avoid the pain of loss or to postpone death.
Depression
"I am so sad ... I don't care anymore" or "I miss my lover ... why keep living?" The grieving or dying person begins to understand the certainty of loss or of impending death. The individual may withdraw, stop communicating, refuse visitors and spend much of the time crying and grieving. Grieving is a necessary and healthy process that takes its own time.
Acceptance
"It is going to be okay" or "I can't stop this, so I may as well accept it or prepare for it". In this last stage, the individual begins to accept the loss that has occurred or the loss that is about to happen. It is time to make peace and find a way to move forward.
Some people may skip a stage but everyone experiences the last two stages. Soul Therapy in Bristol and London can gently guide you through the difficult stages to reach resolution.
Dancing In The Rain
What if you pray every morning for the highest good to come across your path ... and set intentions for your highest benefit ... and life happens?
No matter how loving, kind and spiritual you are ... life happens. No matter how much you work to help others ... life happens. You are not exempt from the trials and tribulations of life just because you are a light-worker, loving humanitarian or a generous human being.
What do you do when a business setback or a recession has decimated your income? When your romantic life seems full of struggle and arguments? When you can't see the way forward in your life? When someone you love is struck down with terminal cancer? When the sun never seems to shine and dark clouds fill the sky?
The answer? You dance in the rain! Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass ... it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Viktor Frankl M.D., Ph.D. (1905-1997) was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. His wife and parents were killed in the concentration camps. Yet Viktor was able to emotionally survive and overcome because of his attitude: to find meaning in life despite suffering. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, and wrote a best-selling book called Man's Search for Meaning.
Frankl said we can discover meaning in life in three different ways:
By creating a work (e.g. writing, cooking, building) or doing a deed (e.g. job, sport, charity). By experiencing something (like a sunset) or encountering someone (e.g. love, friendship). By the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering (loving in spite of tough challenges).
Fix The System ... Not The Symptom
When an individual in a family presents a symptom (e.g. bedwetting, strong tantrums, anxiety, depression, self-harming) it is common and natural to want to analyse and treat the individual. This is usually attempted through various talk therapies, cognitive behavioural therapy or other intrapsychic therapies.
Very often, however, it is the interpersonal and family dynamics that cause the symptom to arise in the first place. Treating the individual alone will not solve the problem or fix the symptom. Systems theory and family therapies often expose the communication and psycho-emotional dynamics in the family system. Once the entire family is analysed, individually and together, and new strategies are put in place, the individual with the symptom makes a quick 'recovery'.
Many of the symptoms we experience in everyday life - anxiety, depression, hopelessness, low self-esteem, financial challenges, relationship difficulties, drug and alcohol abuse - are in fact the result of a system that is not working. Many of these 'symptoms' would rapidly disappear if our sociocultural, ecological, political and economic systems were improved.
Here are two excellent books that will challenge your thinking: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Fool's Gold by Gillian Tett.
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And remember, we can can make a difference. Millions of individuals and small groups around the world are harnessing new communication technologies, using their buying power, voting, going green and signing petitions. The movement for change is underway. Be part of it. Get some ideas from the brilliant and powerful social action website Take Part, which shows how ordinary people can make a small difference and change the world.
Click on the blue button to find your therapy available in Bristol and London
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Soul Therapy
407 Gloucester Road
Bristol
BS7 8TS
United Kingdom
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London
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