Ann Marie here at CP Counselling Services and welcome to my Vlog.

Have you been doing what you “should” be doing to help you to feel better over and over yet you are not feeling better and might even be feeling worse? Let’s take a closer look at that.

Humans have an incredibly useful capacity to problem-solve, analyze, categorize, predict and evaluate. It is this sort of brain power that has raised us to the top of the animal kingdom. However, when we attempt to use this problem-solving brain to fix our inner turmoil such as depression or anxiety, this can increase our suffering. How? It’s because for starters we are not problems to be solved, and if we start to focus on how to get rid of our anxiety, sadness, or other distress, this often leads us to become stuck in a type of unhelpful feedback loop where the more you try to avoid these, the more they rebound back to you. The result is a spiral of more symptoms and distress. The research is very clear: avoidance of thoughts and emotions does not work, and can wreak havoc on your mental and physical health.

One of my goals as a therapist is to help to reinforce desirable behaviours and eliminate unwanted or maladaptive ones. This includes co-creating a broader repertoire of behaviours for you to choose from when faced with any life situation. You may be living with chronic pain, you may be living with difficult life stressors, or even both.

The aim is to increase a persistence in helpful behaviour based on what you value, what gives your life meaning, even in the presence of distressing internal experiences such as sadness or anxiety and yes, even in the face of chronic pain.

This in turn will leave you with more choice and flexibility in your actions. You can actively choose behaviours that are workable and helpful in your life and essentially behave your way out of that suffering. More choices mean less stress.

Old learning led to the development of a problem and so the antidote becomes new learning!

See you next time 😊