Hello, my name is Hong Jeong, therapist in Downtown Los Angeles. Today we’re talking about mental health, especially how to deal with anxiety and overcome anxiety. Anxiety of one of the biggest reasons for people to seek therapy. If you watch it until the end, you are going to get a great understanding of how you deal with anxiety and tools to reduce anxiety. So you can stay calm. Let’s dive in.
I’d welcome every self-healer out there to our channel. This is our virtual therapy session on how to deal with anxiety. Through our session today, you will get an idea of what’s like to be in a therapy session and to learn tools to reduce your anxiety. Here is how we are going to have a therapy session together. We are having a session here as if we’re exchanging ideas. I’m going to ask you a set of questions related to your anxiety and give you time or you can pause the video to think about and process your feelings and thoughts. It’d be a good idea to have a pen and paper handy so you can write down your answers. Or you can say it out loud. It’s your choice. You know you can do whatever floats your boat here.
Alright, I’d like to talk to you about your anxiety.
1. What brought you here? In other words, what do you wish to get out of therapy?
2. Have you ever been diagnosed with anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, or other specific phobia?
Let’s talk about your goals. Anxiety feels different depending on the person experiencing it. If you have a particular anxiety disorder, It would be a good idea to make your goals in relation to your symptoms.
3. Can you tell me about 3 therapy goals?
For example, you can say improving relationships with others, decreasing performance anxiety, or decreasing the frequency of panic attacks.
4. For each of the goals you mentioned, can you describe specifically how your life will be different if you were to achieve those goals?
For example, you can say, “I will assert myself at my work...I will be able to socialize with my friends without having a panic attack...I will be able to use my tools to manage my anxiety at work.”
I’d like to use an inventory for anxiety so we can have a measurable outcome here. The inventory I use is called GAD (General Anxiety Disorder)-7. GAD-7 measures the severity of signs of anxiety such as breathing rapidly, difficulty controlling worry, feeling tense or restless, trouble concentration, etc. I want you to fill out this inventory once a week or at least every other week. By filling this inventory, you will get an idea of which anxiety symptoms you experience. In order to feel stable, it is important to manage your symptoms.
Here is a link to GAD-7: https://www.integration.samhsa.gov/clinical-practice/gad708.19.08cartwright.pdf
Let’s get further into your anxiety.
5. How long have you been suffering from anxiety?
6. When was the very first time you felt anxious?
7. What are the triggers for your anxiety? (e.g. medical issues, social situations, work, relationship issues, financial concerns, lack of safety, trauma)
Let’s talk about your coping skills for anxiety.
8. What do you do to deal with anxiety? In other words, What do you do to relax in a moment of anxiety?
To help you identify your coping skills, I’d like to point out that there are generally two techniques in terms of coping with emotions. One is behavioral techniques such as walking away from the problems or situations, listening to music, laying in bed, playing video games, deep breathing, etc. The other one is cognitive/thinking techniques such as thinking about positive things, braining storming about possible solutions, saying positive self affirmation, making a to-do list, praying, etc.
I will give you time to think about your coping skills behaviorally and cognitively.
We need to have actionable strategies and skills, in order to move towards our goals.
Working with clients with various anxiety related issues in my career, one thing I noticed is that having physical and somatic/body awareness is one of the key elements in healing. We describe our emotions in reference to our physical sensations.
I believe that we need to regulate our body first then regulate our mind (thinking process). This is the order I’d suggest you. Because we spend a lot of time to analyze our situation or think about positive things while our body is not ready to cooperate with our mind. Our body and mind co-exist together. We can’t not negate one over the other.
So I’d like to present to you a self-regulation exercise so you can enhance your mind-body or body-mind connection. I’d like to call it self-holding exercise.
This self-holding exercise is to help you scan your body and give your body time to regulate itself. This self-regulation exercise is developed by Dr. Peter Levine who is the founder of somatic experiencing.
The goal of this exercise is to calm down the nervous system and to raise your body awareness. Using this tool, you can train your body as a container to hold emotions and physical sensations instead of pushing away anxiety. You can see this exercise as self-regulation. This is important to regulate your body first and then regulate your mind. Our body and Mind co-exist together. We can’t feel relaxed when our whole body is all tensed up. I’d like to say that our body gives us factual information such as shaking hands, pounding heart, and headache. Whereas, our mind can sometimes send false information because our mind is often operated by our imagination which is rooted in our subconsciousness
-Let’s practice together.
You may close your eyes partially or fully
You can into a comfortable position. You can either lie down or sit down.
Place one hand on the forehead and the other hand on your heart.
Pay attention to what is going between your hands and your body. You’re just observing your body.
Allow your body to let whatever happens happen. because your body has its own organic capacity to regulate itself.
When you place your attention on specific areas, it brings more perception of sensations in those areas.
Remain that way until you feel a shift. You will be able to notice an energy flow or a change in temperature or a feeling. Please give your body 5 or 10 minutes or longer until you notice some kind of shift.
Let’s be patient with our body here.
Again, Pay attention to the hand that is on your forehead. Notice any sensations on the hand. Is it relaxed, tense, warm, cool, heavy or tingling?
Bring your attention to the other hand on your heart. Notice any sensations on the hand without trying to change or judge it.
Now Let’s switch and go inside the body between your hands.
Notice any sensations on your forehead, face, neck, shoulders, and chest. Does it feel tensed, soft, fidgety, or comfort?
Be with those sensations as they shift and change for a while.
Take the hand from your forehead and place it onto your belly.
Notice your hands or sensations where the hands are placed.
is it relaxed, tense, warm, cool, heavy or tingling?
Again, wait until there is a shift.
Bring your attention to what is going on inside your body between your hands.
Notice any sensations on your whole upper body (chest, belly, arms, and back).
Now take your both hands and place them on both sides of your thighs
Notice your hands and sensations where the hands are placed.
Bring your attention to sensations in your lower body.
again, wait until there is a shift.
Take a deep breath and count to 3.
Slowly open your eyes and bring your attention back to the room.
Great! You have completed this exercise!
-How does your body feel now?
-Are you physically and emotionally feeling better or worse?
-What specific body parts were able to regulate tension or discomfort?
-If you still notice tension or discomfort, what got in the way of releasing it?
-Is your mind with your body? In other words, do you feel safe in your body and environment now?
Self-regulation is about buying time to shift your attention to your body and environment. Through this simple exercise, you can build a better relationship with yourself and approach your body and mind with 2 Cs: curiosity and caring.
I’d like to give you a homework. I’d encourage you to practice this self-regulation exercise 2-3 times a day in a neutral setting and describe your mood 2-3 times a day on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being physically and emotionally stable and 10 being the most anxious you can feel).
Again, It is important to set aside some time to check in with yourself every day and practice your coping skills for anxiety. So you will be able to overcome fear and anxiety and develop new healthy habits. In our next session, we are going to review your progress and will be talking about mindfulness.
Take care of yourself and do your healing every day.
If you need assistance with dealing with anxiety, please schedule a 20 minute free consultation with me.