Mind, body and spirit in counseling for anxiety

What does mind, body and spirit mean in anxiety counseling?

It means paying attention to anxiety at every level where you feel it: the worried thoughts, the tight chest and churning stomach, and the questions of meaning, faith or purpose that anxiety can stir up. Laura Bass, a psychotherapist who works with adults, describes her approach as holistic and integrative. In her words, simply understanding why you feel or act a certain way does not always change an ingrained pattern, so she works on more than one level.

In practice, the client decides. Some people want traditional talk therapy and nothing else. Some want to learn grounding, meditation or journaling alongside it. Some want their faith to be part of the conversation. A few are curious about the energy work Laura is trained in. All of these are choices, and you can change your mind at any point.

Mind: talk therapy for anxiety

Talk therapy is the core of counseling for anxiety. The National Institute of Mental Health describes psychotherapy as a variety of treatments that aim to help a person identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts and behaviors. For generalized anxiety, NIMH names cognitive behavioral therapy as a research-supported approach commonly used, and acceptance and commitment therapy as another option. NIMH also notes that anxiety is often treated with psychotherapy, medication or both.

Approaches differ between counselors, so ask Laura how she works with anxiety specifically. How counseling helps anxiety explains the main ideas in plain language.

Body: calming a nervous system on high alert

Anxiety is physical. It speeds the heart, tightens muscles, unsettles digestion and disturbs sleep. Working with the body means learning to notice those signals early and to settle them, through slow breathing, grounding, movement or relaxation practices.

The evidence here is real but uneven, and it is worth being honest about. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes a 2018 analysis of studies in people with diagnosed anxiety or depression which found that mindfulness-based approaches did better than no treatment and about as well as established evidence-based therapies. NCCIH also cautions that much of the research on meditation has been preliminary or not scientifically rigorous. Its review of relaxation techniques reports some benefit for stress and anxiety, with study quality that is often low.

So these practices can be useful tools, and many people find them steadying. They are tools within counseling and daily life, not a replacement for it. Anxiety in the body describes the physical side of anxiety in more detail.

Spirit: faith, meaning and asking for help

For many people in the foothills, faith is part of how they understand worry and how they cope with it. Some worry that seeing a counselor means their faith has failed, or that a counselor will dismiss it. Laura's background includes Spiritual Direction studies at the Haden Institute and ordination as a minister through the Alliance of Divine Love, and she welcomes spiritual questions in counseling when a client wants them there.

Including faith is your choice, in either direction. It is just as fine to keep it out. Faith, anxiety and asking for help and faith and counseling in the foothills go further.

Where energy work fits, and where it does not

Laura is a certified Emotion Code practitioner and has trained in Reiki and other energy work, and some clients choose to include that work in their sessions. It is important to be plain about what it is and is not.

• It is not a treatment for anxiety, or for depression, trauma, pain or any illness.
• Its mechanism is not established by scientific evidence. NCCIH states that there is no scientific evidence supporting the existence of the energy field thought to play a role in Reiki, and that most Reiki research has not been of high quality.
• Discover Healing, the company that teaches the Emotion Code, describes the method in its own legal terms as experimental, with effectiveness, risks and benefits not fully known. Emotion Code practitioners describe the method as releasing what they call trapped emotions; that is the method's claim, not an established fact.
• It is not crisis care, not medical or psychiatric treatment, and not a substitute for care from a doctor or a therapist.
• Nobody should stop a medication or a treatment because of it. Decisions about medication belong with your prescriber.

Starting anxiety counseling with Laura

Laura Bass offers individual counseling for adults, and anxiety is among the concerns she lists. Her main practice is in Charlotte, and she has a part-time office at The Healing Cottage in Columbus. Call 704-706-3264 or use the contact page, and say which parts of this page interest you, if any. You do not need to decide in advance; it can be talked through in the first session.

If anxiety becomes a crisis, call or text 988 at any hour, or call Vaya Health's crisis line for Polk County at 1-800-849-6127. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Common questions