Anxiety and Depression

Why does anxiety in grief go together? Anxiety is a stress response and grief is certainly a stress, it makes sense that they can go together. In fact, Claire Bidwell Smith proposes in her book, Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief, that as our world is turned upside down when someone we love dies, all the feelings of fear and dread that creates anxiety is certainly present. Your loss may be recent or many years ago, but anxiety and/or depression can become a primary expression of grief that you may not realize. Plus, living through the pandemic, has impacted the general mental health of everyone.

Multiple areas of our lives lead to our mental health, so I focus holistically, where I work with your biological, psychological, social, and spiritual needs.

Some of the ways I support clients with anxiety and depression are:

• Trauma- informed care may be required if there is an underlying presence of trauma.

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), where I work with clients to learn how our thoughts influence our emotions, and further, how our emotions influence our actions.

• Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), where I focus more on mindfulness, grounding strategies, and radical acceptance.