Anxiety therapy

Stress usually has an object and an end. Anxiety keeps going after the deadline passes, moves onto the next thing, and starts producing physical symptoms: a tight chest, a stomach that will not settle, sleep that breaks at three in the morning. The more practical test is whether it has started shrinking your life, because avoidance is what turns manageable anxiety into the kind that runs the show.

No, and you do not need a referral either. You can book directly and describe it in your own words. Advance Minds does not diagnose anxiety disorders; that sits with a GP, psychologist or psychiatrist. Counselling here works on what you are experiencing rather than on which label it belongs under.

No. Only a doctor can do that, so if medication is something you want to explore, your GP is the right first stop. If you are already taking something, counselling runs perfectly well alongside it, and plenty of people do both.

The early sessions map it: when it shows up, what sets it off, what you do to manage it, and what you have quietly stopped doing because of it. From there the work goes in two directions at once. Practical tools for the physical side, so a panic response is something you can ride out rather than fear, and slower work on what is feeding it, because tools alone tend not to hold.

They can be made much less frightening and much less frequent. Part of what keeps panic going is the fear of the next one, which quietly rearranges where you will go and what you will do. Understanding what is happening in your body during an attack, and having something to do with it, breaks that loop for most people.

Nobody can promise a number honestly. Many people notice a difference within a handful of sessions, particularly on the practical side, while anxiety that has been running for twenty years takes longer. It gets reviewed with you as you go rather than sold as a package up front.

No. Anxiety in children and teenagers is common and often shows up as stomach aches, refusing school or anger rather than as worry. Sophia works specifically with young people, so book with her rather than an adult counsellor.

Yes, by secure video anywhere in Australia. For some people with anxiety that is the difference between starting and not starting, because the trip to a waiting room is itself part of the problem. In-person sessions are available in Bankstown.