Anxiety Counselling Melbourne
Anxiety is characterised by an underlying sense that you don't feel equipped to deal with what is in front of you on any given day. 1 in 4 Australian's are currently experiencing some form of anxiety. Yet while it is common, anxiety is not something that you need to normalise as 'just part of life'. Anxiety is treatable, and support is available.
Dealing with anxiety can be a distressing experience. Often physical symptoms like sweating and an increased heart rate can accompany the anxiety. General feelings of anxiety can be persistent even when there are no immediately obvious triggers. Talking to someone can be a great first step to addressing the impacts of anxiety and supporting your settlement and wellbeing.
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Anxiety Psychologist Melbourne
Renee Melges is a Melbourne Clinical Psychologist who takes a holistic approach to anxiety counselling; A holistic approach considers the whole person – their mind, body and spiritual wellbeing, to bring a multi-faceted understanding of the effects and impacts of anxiety. Read on to learn more about Renee and how she can support or get in touch.
What is Anxiety and why are so many people experiencing it?
Anxiety appears with varying levels of intensity – it can be characterised by a low grade anxiousness that over time puts strain on the body and the mind, affecting a person's overall sense of wellbeing, or it can present as an Anxiety disorder, where debilitating dread, worry, stress and overwhelm become an all too frequent occurrence. ​​Anxiety can be present just by thinking of something that might happen in the future and is not dependent on it actually happening. Equally you may be triggered into feelings of anxiety by a traumatic event from the past.​​
A holistic understanding of anxiety
In all cases, people who experience anxiety are also very aware and sensitive to life and all that is happening in it. They might sense another's unease or emotions, be aware of family behaviours, or read a dynamic in a workplace that is going unspoken about. Understanding what you are reading, letting yourself register it and being empowered to express it, whether to someone trusted or to the people you interact with, is key to unlocking the anxiety that can result when our various sensitivities are ignored, reacted to, or buried.
If we consider the fact that as a whole person, encompassing mind, body and soul we are equipped with great insight and power, it is not a surprise that we would feel anxious if we have negated how powerful we are in any given situation. If our self-empowerment has been avoided for a long time, or if traumatic events have affected our confidence, low grade anxiety can escalate into an anxiety disorder. For many people, anxiety can seem much more familiar to them than a feeling of empowerment, because it is has been their go-to behaviour since they were young. It may even have been how your parents behaved as well. And yet, once we reconnect to our innate strengths and feel our depth of beingness again, the anxiety can dissipate and no longer has the same grip.
Your Appointment at Serenity Holistic
Ready to make an appointment? Just follow these simple steps to get started.
Step 1
Decide if you want in-person or online support.
Note: NDIS funded clients accepts. If you have a Mental Health Care Plan, you can send it via email or fax prior to your first appointment to potentially receive a Medicare rebate, but it's not required to start therapy.
Types of anxiety disorders Renee can support with:
Using a range of evidence-based approaches, Renee Melges can support you to deal with any recurring or persistent feelings of anxiety in their various presentations.
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Generalised Anxiety Disorder
People experiencing Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) find that anxiety is impacting them regularly, with feelings of dread, worry or stress permeating daily activities for at least a 6 month period or more. Running thoughts over and over in your head and catastrophising projected situations or events is also indicative of GAD. With all this heightened stress on the body sleep can be greatly disturbed, the ability to concentrate can be affected and some people experience fatigue and muscle tension, headaches, stomach aches, heart palpitations and other physical symptoms.
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Social Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder, or Social Phobia, is characterised by an intense feeling of fear or humiliation when doing anything that will draw attention to you as the focus of other people. This can be in a range of circumstances, from giving a speech at a party to even speaking to a small group of friends.
Different social situations can be classified as either:​
Performance situations - e.g speeches, public speaking, presentations
Situations involving social interactions – e.g talking to friends, eating out at a restaurant, talking to your sports team or work colleagues.
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Common intrusive thoughts, can be identified easily because they will have a flavour of berating you. This might include thoughts that you are being perceived as ‘weird’, that ‘you will stuff up what you are saying’ or that you will be humiliated or ‘found out to be stupid’. Or perhaps despite a long history of achievement or insight in a certain area, you will be found out to be incompetent in some way (imposter syndrome). It is important here to note that the nature of the thought will indicate whether it is supportive or not, and non-supportive thoughts should be recognised as symptomatic of the disorder and not that they are in any way part of who you truly are.
It is important to remember when you are feeling overwhelmed by these thoughts to come back to a connection with the body – feel your fingertips or feel your feet on the ground. This isn't meant as a distraction technique but as a grounding technique. When you are in relationship with the physical body and being present with the movement of what you are attending to, rather than emphasising thoughts or projections of 'what may happen next', you are coming back to the authority of settlement, and from there the anxiety can dissipate.
Approaches and techniques unpacked with the support of a holistic psychologist can greatly support if you are experiencing Social Anxiety Disorder. This is not something that you have to live with or that is ‘part of your personality’ even if you can see it has impacted your family generationally.​​
Panic disorder and Panic attacks
​Panic disorder is diagnosed when you have a recurrence of panic attacks. Panic attacks are short but intense usually lasting between 5-20 minutes. Unlike anxiety attacks, which may be triggered by an anxiety you are aware of already having, and which may build up slowly, panic attacks are not necessarily triggered by something that you can name or trace and can come on very quickly.
Symptoms can include:
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Heart racing
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Chest pain
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Trembling and shaking
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Nausea
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Feelings of dread or like you going to die
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A feeling of choking
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Sweating
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A feeling of disassociation from your body
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Numbness in your fingers and toes
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Intense terror
Panic attacks may feel like a heart attack. It is for this reason it is important to seek medical support if you are unsure what is causing your symptoms. While panic attacks do pass, the fear of another one coming on can be very intense and can itself trigger a panic attack. The great news is there are plenty of options to treat panic attacks with psychological interventions.
Panic attacks can also be experienced alongside other Anxiety disorders including Agoraphobia.​​
Agoraphobia
Agoraphobia is a type of anxiety disorder that it associated with intense fear and anxiety around leaving the house or a familiar environment. It can be triggered by going outside, going on public transport, being confined to a small room or area and or feeling as though you will have no option to leave or escape any given situation. People who experience panic attacks are more likely to have agoraphobia, as they may be fearful that a panic attack will be triggered in a public space and they will not have the support they require.
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PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD can be characterised by intrusive thoughts or images, known as ‘flashbacks’ and is the result of sustained trauma or a singular traumatic event that you have experienced. Renee has extensive experience working with people experiencing trauma of this nature. For more information see our dedicated PTSD and Trauma Counselling services here >
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterized by recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas, or sensations (obsessions) that lead to repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions).
These obsessions (intrusive persistent thoughts etc) and compulsions (behaviours or mental acts) are time-consuming, distressing, and significantly interfere with daily life.
Key aspects of OCD:
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Obsessions:
These are intrusive and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that cause anxiety or distress.
Examples include excessive worry about germs, fear of causing harm, or unwanted sexual thoughts.
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Compulsions:
These are repetitive behaviors or mental acts that a person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession.
Examples include excessive handwashing, checking, ordering, or counting.
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is characterised by a state of anxiety and intrusive thoughts that then triggers an impulsive behaviour or activity used as means to quell the original anxiety, but which then itself becomes a repetitive obsession that greatly adds to the anxiety.
Examples of behaviours might include obsessive hand washing, checking a room for spiders, checking appliances many times to make sure they are off before leaving the house, or less obvious obsessions like writing out lists off all the things that make you a bad person. There is no limit to the amount of obsessive behaviours a person in an anxiety induced state can come up with so their is no 'typical' presentation. People experiencing OCD will often feel as though they are losing control internally and the obsessions and compulsions help them to regain a false sense of control. Having to constantly conceal the behaviours then adds to the impact of the condition. Carrying out the compulsions to attempt to quell the anxiety can also become a full time job and both mentally and physically exhausting. The great news is psychological support can greatly assist.
Common misconceptions about OCD are that it is about being a perfectionist or being tidy, and many people joke about 'being OCD' when this is not indicative of the disorder. Actual OCD is a debilitating state that is fuelled by anxiety and not the need for perfection but a sense of catastrophe if certain compulsions or behaviours aren't carried out – this may include having things tidy or it may not.
Anxiety Counselling Melbourne
What is Anxiety Counselling and how can it support to deal with the symptoms of anxiety?
Anxiety Counselling with Renee is a nurturing space to bring awareness to the underlying causes of your anxiety. Treatment can support you to deal with past events or repeated patterns that may be impacting your current sense of psychological wellbeing.
Anxiety and its impacts are exacerbated by avoiding the underlying causes and self-medicating in ways that have a compounding rather than healing effect. Because anxiety can make you feel 'highly strung' or like you can't 'switch off' many people try to use substances to cope. This can lead to alcohol dependency and elicit drug use to try to manage or find relief from symptoms. Once the substance wears off the underlying anxiety can feel intensified and this can lock you into a viscious cycle.
Counselling allows you the space to talk to someone in a trusted environment who will support you with the psychological tools to unpack the self-healing process. Renee approaches each client with the understanding that they hold the answers within themselves, and with the right support and framework, this becomes evident to them.
As a Holistic Clinical Psychologist Renee's training is evidence-based and person-centred. She uses a strengths-based psychotherapeutic approach to support you in uncovering the patterns that may be keeping you stuck. Underlying sensitivities and insights are uncovered to empower you to re-establish a solid relationship with yourself and support you to manage anxiety and its symptoms with confidence. Where necessary you will work through memories and past events that may be contributing to any current anxiousness, anxiety or feelings of unsettlement.
Treatments can include but are not limited to:
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CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy)
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Emotional Regulation Techniques
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Psychotherapeutic Approaches
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Mindfulness
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy)
How long does it take to treat anxiety?
Length of treatment will vary depending on the person and their individual circumstances, and support is available for as long as you feel you may require it. Clients often choose to have more frequent sessions in the beginning, and once they feel more confident and more able to manage their symptoms, they often space out the sessions. In the beginning this might mean a session each week or fortnight and then a change to monthly appointments.
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FAQ
What is your experience working with people with anxiety and anxiety related disorders as a ‘Anxiety Psychologist Melbourne’?
Most people who see a Psychologist are experiencing a certain level of anxiety. Renee has developed various tools and approaches over the last 25 years in practice, to support people in a holistic way who are experiencing acute anxiety.
Most commonly people experience anxiety as a result of past patterns or experiences that have impacted them negatively, this then plays out as feelings of anxiety in the present day. Renee's warm and caring approach supports you to delicately unpack past traumas and underlying narratives which are inhibiting you in your day to day life.​
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How does counselling support with anxiety?
People who experience anxiety are often very sensitive to life and what is happening for themselves and others. Often it can feel like the line can become blurred between what is 'your stuff' and what is someone else's stuff. Learning to respond to your sensitivities in an empowered way rather than react, go into overwhelm, or deny what is being registered is key to overcoming anxiety.
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Therapy can support you to:
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Build self-confidence and self-worth
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Feel more capable
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Align to your own set of values
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Have healthy boundaries
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Make healthy decisions
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Have more clarity in your decision making
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Regulate your nervous system
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FInd techniques that support you to feel grounded
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Reconnect to an inner stillness or calm
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Feel more connected to your intuition and inner guidance
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Feel more spiritually connected
What interventions do you use in your approach to anxiety counselling Melbourne?
CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy)
Cognitive Distortions are symptomatic of people who experience anxiety. Cognitive distortions include unhelpful and unsupportive thought patterns like 'catastrophising' . CBT techniques support you to challenge distortions and reframe negative thinking to 'flip the script' on thoughts and thought patterns that are impacting you.​
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Emotional regulation strategies
Renee will support you with strategies to overcome feelings of anxiety which can be applied daily. Various approaches are explored including mindfulness, exercise relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, grounding techniques, ACT Acceptance and Commitment Therapy models and DBT models Dialectical Behavioural Therapy Models and integrating activities that bring you enjoyment and a consistency to your daily rhythm.
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Psychotherapeutic Approaches
Renee has found her clients benefit most from an in-depth psychotherapeutic approach which considers the whole person – where they have come from, the conditions and environments that have shaped or impacted them and what their sense of themselves is beyond the environmental or experiential events that may have traumatised them and are now the cause of anxiety. Supporting people to uncover how they have been impacted by events that are outside of their control and reacquainting people with their deeper sense of strength and inner-resilience is an empowering process. This allows people the space to reaffirm their strengths and discard the patterns that no longer serve with them.​
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Over a 25-year practice many have benefited from her psychotherapeutic approach to anxiety counselling in Melbourne and Australia-wide.​​
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Mindfulness
In recent times mindfulness techniques have proven a great support to people experiencing anxiety. Mindfulness techniques include bringing greater observation to your thoughts with no judgement. This observation creates distance so that the emotion stemming from the thought pattern is less likely to become all-consuming. With curiosity and compassion, you are empowered to face the feelings of anxiety without feeling overcome or overwhelmed by them.
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Mindfulness can also support you to reconnect to a sense of internal stillness, reacquaint you with your intuition and can support you to feel more meaning and purpose in your life.
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Do you need a GP referral to see a Clinical Psychologist in Australia?
In Australia, you don’t require a GP referral to see a Clinical Psychologist. However, to access a rebate for Holistic Counselling or Holistic Psychology sessions from Medicare under the Medicare Benefits Scheme, you will need your GP to provide an up-to-date Mental Health Care Plan.
Where are you based?
Clinical Psychologist Renee Melges sees people in her Ashburton, Melbourne psychology rooms and can also see you online if you prefer – for some this is convenient if travel time or distance is an issue. With video on and in a safe quiet space, a video call can be just as supportive and interactive as an in-person session.
Ready to take the next steps?
An initial call with Renee is recommended so she can learn a bit more about your circumstances and let you know if she can provide you with support. Inquire about an initial intro call here or call or text Renee on +61 414 866 330.
