I specialise in Anxiety Coaching.
Anxiety – a feeling of utter dread and fear with an orientation of attention in the past, what has happened or future, what might happen. Whether it’s generalised anxiety, social anxiety or any other anxiety – it can be debilitating and detrimentally affect an individual’s quality of life.
I completely empathise and ‘get it’. This was me.
Anxiety would envelop me, there felt like no escape. After many years of this, one day I decided to sit with it and ‘meet’ it head on. I literally used a combination of journaling, dumping my thoughts about anxiety and inquiry to get to know this part of me, without repressing it or trying to numb it .
Meeting it head, on allowed me to reduce the detrimental effects of this part of being human and rather than repressing, it I was able to make friends with it, developing a set of tools that allowed me to wear long term habits that put me in the driving seat, not anxiety.
I moved from an identity of someone who was a victim of anxiety to someone managing their anxiety. From much research, reflection and direct experience I developed the anxiety detachment framework. (This is the basis of the book I am writing that I cannot wait to publish! Watch this space!)
Enter Lockdown 2020 and I was hit with a deluge of requests from previous clients, friends, colleagues who knew I had worked and researched a lot on turning anxiety around. So I created @anxietybustingwithemily www.facebook.com/anxietybustingwithemily on facebook to house all the links, tips, ideas in one place. As a qualified Coach of 16 years, I then decided to complete a diploma in anxiety management to add specific acumen to my coaching skills. From here, grew the development of the niche: anxiety coaching.
Here’s how it works: We move through the below phases at a pace to suite you. Some people find 8 sessions is enough for others 10 or 12. Whatever serves each unique individual.
- Phase 1: Get to know your anxiety: Here we acknowledge it, we use the session to let your experiences of it flow in technicolour, a gentle loosening of your history of it.
- Phase 2: Get to grips with the science and history of Anxiety: understanding what happens in your brain and body and why, in relation to anxiety can be a revelation for some people. Moving their view of anxiety and themselves from personal to ” This is so much bigger than me” phew . ( It may sound odd to say bigger, but realising that it’s something that evolved naturally to serve us, but that has just gone a bit of track, is relief beyond measure.) Equally understanding where anxiety grew from in prehistoric times and why it is misunderstood in modern days, can cause a number of ‘a’ha’ moments to result.
- Phase 3: Assimilate the facts. Simply let them sink in. So that’s what happens when I immediately attach to a thought. Understanding the dynamics shines a light on them and this understanding itself can shift self awareness to new helpful levels.
- Phase 4: Activate OBSERVER MODE this is one of the core tools involved throughout the whole anxiety detachment cycle. Step into that space between thought and you. Observing your thoughts without attaching allows for the individual to notice thoughts passing through their mind and the initial feelings about them. Like the sky (the individual) with weather (various thoughts) passing temporarily through it. This observation is so valuable within the coaching sessions and to enable the individual to heighten self awareness.
- Phase 5: Try new tools. There are a number of different tools you can use to help keep anxiety at bay and at normal healthy levels E.g. not switched ON all the time. In my cycle of detachment in this phase we look at all of them a couple at a time and the tools are tried out between sessions. The Client has a mechanism of reflecting on how each served them. This is useful for latter phases when tool kit refinement and habit formation occurs.
- Phase 6: Reflection – here we use a number of sessions to reflect on anxiety experienced and what the activated observer mode has noticed. We also review how you have found various tools introduced during sessions looking at what the habits are, why they work and often the compelling value add is heightened by understanding what it actually contributes positively to anxiety.
- Phase 7: Habit Formation – Here we take the anxiety busting tools that resonated well for the individual and look at how these can be embedded into every day life so that they become the fabric of life, a default way of being. I use James Clear’s model in his book ‘Atomic Habits’ as a guide to embedding long term habits well.
- Phase 8 : Reinforce and integrate into life – this phase looks at what can happen with habits that are worn, including falling off the ‘habit bandwagon’, moving into a state of equanimity and tackling resilience. A deeper sense of self.
If you’re interested in receiving anxiety coaching, simply drop me an email at emily.young@mylifecoaching.co.uk and let’s talk. I always insist on an initial screening conversation to ensure right fit of solution to client and Coach to client .
It it’s time to stop being a victim of anxiety and move to managing it – don’t waste time suffering.
There is something so freeing about stepping out of the shadows to face the perceived scariness. I’m here to facilitate this, let’s get started.
Do also join my facebook page for anxiety tips, support and ideas, click here: https://www.facebook.com/anxietybustingwithemily
