My name is Sarah and this is my story…

I am a 32 year old, mother of three. Before starting therapy, I really struggled with my anxiety. I struggled in social situations, I was always worried about saying the wrong thing and looking stupid. I was also very worried about my children’s safety. They were aged 13 and 10 at the time and I would never leave them with anyone other than my husband or my parents. If I took them to swimming or football, I would always be there to watch them. My anxiety at work also spiked when my role required me to deliver more presentations. On the surface, everything thought I was doing okay, when in fact I was not. I would be constantly anxious, worrying about everything. I would experience panic attacks and have to go to the toilet whenever this happened. I would spend a lot of time procrastinating. I would have a lot of negative thoughts. I had low self-esteem and was quite critical of myself. The reason why I contacted Zara was because I did not want my children to pick up on my anxiety and become anxious themselves.

I had never had therapy before, this was the first time. I was initially quite anxious, but Zara answered all my questions and put my mind at ease during the initial telephone call. I started weekly sessions, online as I have a busy schedule with the kids and work. For the first few sessions, Zara asked me about my life; the good, bad and ugly! We did a timeline of my life events; although this was hard at first, it became really easy. I found it easy to talk to Zara. She has a very warm and calm manner. She helped me to decide on my therapy goals and what I wanted to achieve. For me it was to reduce my anxiety so I could take my children out and enjoy our time together. It was also to get a better understanding of where the anxiety was coming from.

Therapy helped me to make links between my past experiences and how they affect me today. I had avoided thinking about a traumatic event I had experienced in my childhood. It was just too painful. As I began to feel more comfortable with the therapy process, I was able to talk about my past trauma. Zara showed me that avoiding difficult aspects of my past, actually affect me negatively in the present. For me, avoiding my past trauma, was creating anxiety in my present. By learning how to process my past trauma, I was (and am still working on) accepting what happened, expressing my feelings and learning to let go. I also learnt more about how the anxiety was affecting me; my thoughts, feelings and behaviour. I learnt effective coping strategies for the anxiety. We tried different exercises during the sessions, then I practiced them during the week. I keep using the exercises that help me. When I felt ready, I reduced my sessions to fortnightly and then to monthly. Since completing therapy, my anxiety has reduced. I still feel anxious at times, but I am able to use my anxiety-management techniques to help me take my children out and enjoy the time we spend together. I also feel less anxious at work and feel better about delivering presentations. I understand more about where my anxiety comes from. I feel that although I still need to do continue with my recovery journey, I am happy with the progress I have made so far. I am really pleased I plucked up the courage to contact Zara as I (and my children) are much happier as a result

SPECIALTIES:

Muffin candy sweet cookie apple pie sweet roll brownie shortbread gummies. Dragée lemon drops sweet roll liquorice ice cream gummi bears jelly-o danish. Muffin candy sweet cookie apple pie sweet roll brownie shortbread gummies. From hours of flipping through and dreaming. Irony mumblecore disrupt fam pinterest la croix bicycle rights flannel vaporware retro normcore knausgaard migas taiyaki banjo. Truffaut heirloom chambray adaptogen gastropub direct.

Muffin candy sweet cookie apple pie sweet roll brownie shortbread gummies. Dragée lemon drops sweet roll liquorice ice cream gummi bears jelly-o danish. Muffin candy sweet cookie apple pie sweet roll brownie shortbread gummies. From hours of flipping through and dreaming. Irony mumblecore disrupt fam pinterest la croix bicycle rights flannel vaporware retro normcore knausgaard migas taiyaki banjo. Truffaut heirloom chambray adaptogen gastropub direct.

SPECIALTIES: