Social Anxiety therapists in Leek, England ENG, United Kingdom GB
Social Anxiety
Audra McKellar
Counsellor/Therapist, MNCS (accred), Prof.Dip.Psy.C, SMACCPH
It is so frustrating when you want to connect to others, to enjoy social engagements that everyone else seems to find so easy and yet you feel that you just can't. You get panicky, you struggle for the right words, you go a nice beetroot colour and fear that others will think you are stupid. I can help you change how you respond so that you can engage with others in a meaningful and enjoyable way.
5 Years Experience
Social Anxiety
Lavinia May
Counsellor/Therapist, GMBPsS
Hi, I'm Lavinia and I am a Psychotherapist, working with both individuals and couples. Part of LGBTQ+ Community. I have worked in Mental Heath services for over nine years , helping people manage their emotional health and wellbeing. I offer a safe non judgemental therapeutic environment for you to process your thoughts and feelings. Our sessions will be empowering, liberating and can even be life changing, giving you the opportunity to gain the confidence to make positive changes to uncover your full potential.
My therapy style is warm and interactive and the pace will always be set by you. I am passionate about delivering exceptional care and the promotion of emotional wellbeing, with extensive experience of working in a range of various settings including NHS, Corporate, and Private Practice.
I understand each person is unique&I tailor-make sessions for each individual I am working with.I work using both time limited sessions or open ended, allowing us to work as flexibly as you require. I want to acknowledge that beginning therapy is often a supreme act of courage,strength,and self-care. I’m so glad you’re here. Please feel welcome to reach out
10 Years Experience
Social Anxiety
Tamzin Brain@HypnoChange4U
Therapist, Ad.Dip.CP, DipHyp CS, Dip CP, MNCS (Acc), MHS, Counselling Cert, CACHE3, B.A. Honours Degree PsyCrim
"Before I tried hypnotherapy I heard many stories how people lost weight without having operation, stopped smoking, got rid of different fears. My problem was I couldn’t answer the phone in the office while my colleagues were working close to my desk. I was not confident dealing with people on the phone and it was destroying me every day. This was my first experience having hypnotherapy. The session itself was very pleasant, I was so relaxed and calm like never before. After the hypnotherapy I started feeling different. It is strange, I got this confidence that I was always lacking. I couldn’t get this confidence myself and during the hypnosis session my unconscious mind was told to be confident. It is amazing how well it works! Our brain is powerful to change everything but sometimes we need a little help." (Lina)
13 Years Experience
Social Anxiety
Sara Aicart-Pendlebury
Art Therapist, Human Givens Practitioner (HG.Dip.P), Member of Human Givens Institute, IFS therapist Levels 1&2, Narm Practitioner
We all need to experience some degree of anxiety at times – it would be unnatural not to feel any of its symptoms, such as racing pulse, dry mouth, sweatiness and shallow breathing, just before a big speech or exam, for instance – as it helps get us motivated to act. But excessive anxiety causes problems. Excessive anxiety may develop gradually, starting, perhaps, with loneliness after the loss of a loved one; being too shy to make new friends when moving somewhere new; experiencing unwelcome life changes because of chronic illness and pain; or feeling loaded down with too much responsibility – all cases of unmet emotional needs.
When people worry excessively, it is in essence because important emotional needs, such as for safety, connection or status, are not being met. That’s why the human givens approach, which focuses on helping people in distress find healthy ways to meet their emotional needs, is so effective.
For some people, anxiety can develop suddenly, after they are caught up in some tragic disaster, such as a fire or a crash, or are the victims of violence, and their lives become ruled by fear. (This is known as post-traumatic stress.) Anxiety may also take the form of obsessions, compulsions, phobias or a nagging feeling of foreboding – all of which are attempts to ward off a sense of threat.
Yet, as we know, some people face such circumstances without becoming overly anxious, while others end up almost crippled by anxiety. How we explain the negative events that happen to us has a considerable bearing on whether we are likely to suffer from excessive anxiety. Three particular types of thinking are especially connected with its development and its close partner, depression: how personally people take events (they think everything is their fault or that they didn’t get the job because they weren’t good enough, rather than because the competition was particularly stiff); how pervasive they think the effects will be (if they lose their job, they think everything in their world is going wrong, even though their relationship is still strong and they have their health, good friends, etc); and how permanent(they will never get another job, partner, dream house like that one, etc).
People who suffer badly from anxiety also tend to have a lot of negative thoughts running through their minds that they don’t even notice (“I’ll never cope”; “it’s going to be awful”; “no one likes me”) and commonly catastrophise (“I’m going to be late. My boss will sack me!”) Changing negative self-talk and challenging catastrophic thinking help lower stress levels.
Another major cause of troublesome anxiety is negative over-imagination. Anxious people tend to spend a lot of time worrying “What if?”, coming up with a whole variety of dreadful outcomes for themselves or their loved ones. This keeps them in a constant state of high emotional arousal and can take the extreme forms of phobias or obsessive-compulsive disorders. Learning to use the imagination positively – by calmly rehearsing mentally tried and tested techniques (such as deep breathing and distracting thoughts) for dealing with feared or worrisome situations – is very effective. Calming ourselves down, when anxious, is extremely important because high emotional arousal makes us stupid. We literally can’t think straight and that makes the situation worse.
Human givens practitioners can show people how to relax, so that they can bring their own arousal and stress levels down, and how to use their imaginations positively, to rehearse successful outcomes instead of bad ones. They can also help people overcome phobias, panic attacks and traumatic memories quickly and painlessly. And, very importantly, they will encourage people to find ways to reduce their stress and also focus outwards on fulfilling activities (maybe involving the wellbeing of others as well as themselves) – excellent ways of getting their own needs met.
15 Years Experience
Social Anxiety
Jimi Katsis
Counsellor/Therapist, MA psych, Dip SW
Social anxiety is a common mental health disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. It is characterized by excessive fear and self-consciousness in social situations. This can lead to avoidance of social situations, difficulty making friends, and difficulty with work or school.
As a therapist, I specialize in helping individuals with social anxiety. I use evidence-based therapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) which have been proven to be effective in treating social anxiety.
CBT is a form of therapy that helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to their social anxiety. ACT, on the other hand, is a form of therapy that helps individuals accept their feelings of anxiety, rather than trying to eliminate them, and learn to engage in life in a meaningful way despite the presence of anxiety.
In therapy sessions, we will work together to understand the underlying causes of your social anxiety and develop strategies to manage your symptoms. We will also work on building self-confidence, increasing social skills and exposure to social situations, and developing a support system.
If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of social anxiety, it's important to seek help from a mental health professional. Together, we can work towards improving your mental health and overall well-being.
25 Years Experience