“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety is a complex emotional response triggered by anticipation of future events, perceived threats, or stress. It encompasses both physiological and psychological components, preparing the body to respond to danger. While occasional anxiety is a normal part of life, chronic or intense anxiety can impair functioning and quality of life.
How Anxiety Presents
Future-Oriented Worry: Anxiety often arises from excessive focus on future uncertainties.
Rumination: Repetitive thinking about past events and their potential negative outcomes.
Attachment to Thoughts and Emotions: Believing that one’s thoughts are absolute truths rather than transient mental events.
Emotional Reactivity: Responding impulsively to emotions without awareness.
Self-Criticism: Harshly judging oneself for experiencing anxiety.
Perfectionism: Unrealistic expectations and fear of failure contributing to anxiety.
Symbolic Representation: Anxiety often appears in dreams as symbols or scenarios that reflect deeper unconscious conflicts.
Ancestral Messages: Dreams may also carry ancestral or collective themes that contribute to present-day anxieties.
Recurring Themes: Repetitive patterns in thoughts, behaviors, and dreams can indicate underlying archetypal influences on anxiety.
Our Approach
Working with anxiety, we focus on understanding and addressing the unique psychological experiences and needs of people from a cultural and ancestral lens. We explore the unconscious aspects of the human psyche which helps us understand why anxiety is arising, whether for personal reasons, or the result of unprocessed generational trauma. We explore the significance of the unconscious, archetypal patterns, and the integration of shadow aspects, to uncover the deeper, often hidden, dimensions of the mind in the journey towards wholeness.
Uncovering the Unconscious Roots
We utilize techniques grounded in depth, indigenous, and contemplative psychology, to explore the unconscious roots of anxiety. By accessing the deeper layers of the psyche, we can uncover hidden traumas and their manifestations in current life experiences.
Exploring Family and Cultural Narratives
Understanding the narratives and myths that shape our familial, personal, and cultural identities is important in addressing the underlying roots of anxiety. We help individuals explore these stories to gain insight into the origins and impacts of their inherited anxieties.
Healing and Integration
We support individuals in transforming their anxieties through mindfulness, exploration of the unconscious, acknowledgment, honoring, and integration. Through therapeutic processes we explore dreams and archetypal images, engage in active imagination, and delve into shadow work.
Mindfulness
Engage in mindfulness practices to increase present-moment awareness and reduce anxiety.
Practice mindful breathing to increase focus and reduce stress.
Cultivating feelings of compassion and kindness towards oneself and others through mindful practice.
Working with the Unconscious
Active Imagination to dialogue with unconscious elements to facilitate healing and integration.
Engage with Shadow by confronting and integrating repressed aspects of the self to reduce anxiety.
Exploration of dreams, symbols, and archetypes to uncover and integrate unconscious roots of anxiety.
Engaging with Archetypes
Identifying Archetypal Patterns, recognizing recurring symbols and themes that point to underlying anxieties.
Transformation through Myth, using myths and cultural narratives to reframe and understand personal anxieties.
Rituals and Symbolic Acts
Creative Expression using art, music, writing, and storytelling to process and transform anxiety.
Healing Ceremonies by engaging in rituals that honor and release anxieties.