Dear One,

I didn’t plan to specialize in anxiety. But it turns out, anxiety wanted to specialize in me.

I think most of us know what anxiety feels like.

But sometimes, it takes time (and compassionate support) to recognize all the autopilot things we do to try to manage our anxiety—and to realize how many of those autopilot responses might create short-term reprieve, but not long-term relief. Or even ... that our short-term soothers might actually be feeding an anxiety cycle in the brain.

Put another way: short-term anxiety relievers can actually backfire and teach our brains to be anxiety believers.

No, I don’t like that concept either. It’s an annoying aspect of neuroplasticity—our brain’s continuous growth, learning, and adaptation process. The snowball effect of anxiety loops is something I’ve been exploring since specializing in OCD. The good news, though: in the same way our brains can snowball into accumulated anxiety, they can learn to reverse out of it, too.

In the past two years of working as a postgrad therapist, I’ve specialized in helping clients untangle themselves from big, tight, snowball-gathering-speed-down-the-mountain bundles of anxiety—and to stop feeding the anxiety flame with coping mechanisms that only provide more oxygen.

Some of my clients have a formal OCD diagnosis, and some are stuck in OCD-style anxiety loops. If you’re curious about the “special sauce” of the therapy journey for anxiety loops, here’s a general overview: We blend nervous system regulation with some behavioral work to uncover what fuels the anxiety flame. We use parts work to understand how current coping is rooted in old patterns of self-protection and preservation. We bring some somatic care to the original wounds that got taped up in the moment but never healed. We take a good, hard look at day-to-day autopilot mode—and the anxiety-driven, sometimes compulsive actions (internal and external) that actually bulk up anxiety instead of softening it. And then we do the painstaking work of practicing new, values-driven responses that build new possibilities, and new feelings of safety, in the ever-learning brain.

If softening anxiety is on your to-do list right now, here are several ways we could work together.

ON THE YOGA MAT

The next Befriending Stillness: Radically Restorative Yoga Workshop is Saturday 9/6 from 1-2:30pm at JP Centre Yoga.
New + returning clients can book a 1:1 virtual yoga therapy session at 50% off with a summer sale. Purchase the session online before 9/22 with coupon code SUMMERRESET, but you can book for anytime this fall!
Professionally or personally curious about yoga therapy? Join my virtual Intro to Yoga Therapy Workshop on Friday 9/19 from 1-2pm EST. Recording available, even if you can’t join live!

ON THE THERAPY FRONT

Curious about Relationship-focused OCD? Check out this intro workshop I’m facilitating on Monday 9/22 from 5-6pm EST. Open to everyone, and recording available if you can’t join live! Sign up via Authentic Self Therapy Collective.
I’m currently accepting new therapy clients (both individuals and couples) through my clinical work at Authentic Self Therapy Collective. If you’re curious about working together, fill out the online inquiry form and we can schedule a free consult!

Re-training my sweet brain alongside you,

~Alex