Do you feel agonizing anxiety or emotional pain that you can sometimes avoid but keeps coming back? How many times have you planned to get some help but backed away from therapy? Do you avoid other situations that might trigger this intense emotion even though the things you want to do might be enriching or rewarding? You don’t have suffer any longer. You can get quick relief from this common but destructive cycle. But you need to know how to start helping yourself even to allow yourself to get professional help or you will continue the cycle.

Why is it that so many people don’t follow through by themselves and use techniques such as repeating positive affirmations that are the words of someone else? You continue suffering because you need the help of a skillful and experienced therapist to help you through the often complicated phase of facing and conquering your fears.  For example, by acknowledging your negative thoughts and emotions you won’t end up spiraling out of control and won’t validate that you really are a failure or weak. An effective therapist can help you find the inner resources that require the intermediary phase of facing your fears and combating them by proven therapist-guided skills.

An example for this avoidance while in therapy is procrastinating writing down thoughts and feelings, sometimes called ‘thought records’. The process of recording your experiences in this way often temporarily leads to heightened anxiety but as you gain skills you will pass this stage and obtain true relief. You will no longer need to continue to avoid working on your problems.