Anxiety is one of the main issues that people come to therapy to deal with.

Maybe you have never gone to therapy and the thought of talking about anxiety feels hard. Perhaps you have tried to “talk” to a therapist before about your anxiety. And it didn’t go as you hoped.

Some therapies rely much less on talking, Art Therapy is one of them.

In this edition of my Helping Professionals blog series, I want to introduce you to Megan Toth, one of my San Diego Art Therapy colleagues. Megan has a heart for helping our military men and women, and their families.

Megan co-founded Draw Near Art Studio & Workshops, an Art Psychoeducational Business where she leads “Draw Near” workshops with her colleague and co-founder.

Guest Author: Irina Baechle, LCSW and licensed relationship therapist.

When you have children, you can count on a certain amount of anxiety. But worry and fear about the well-being of your children can quickly spiral out of control and impair your everyday life, relationships, and welfare.

Stress can come from external events, illnesses, injuries, and even from past experiences. How much stress can one body take? Everyone is different. Some people are more resilient in the face of certain stressors.

So how do you know if you’ve reached your limit and now may be dealing with underlying anxiety?

The most natural thing when a child is in distress is to help them, to assist them in some way. That help often comes in the form of information, advice, and solutions.  While children may need your information, they first need to feel connected to you.  I don’t know the origin of the idea, but these words have always stuck with me, “Connect before your correct”.  However, it seems for many parents and other adults it’s easier to correct or try to “fix” a child, and then try to connect with them. 

Parenting is hard, so this is definitely not a drive-by-guilting. Sometimes you feel anxious about the things your family, and ultimately your child is going through at school or at home. You wonder if your kid should see a child therapist. One thing I have witnessed over the years is that if a parent can remain relatively calm and take care of themselves, no matter what the issue, their kids cope better.

You can’t even put the past two years into words. You made it through the holidays. The disappointments, the stress, the grief. While you may or may not be looking forward to the New Year, you may be wondering if it’s time to address your anxiety. Perhaps you’ve been riding the waves up and down for a while.

You can feel the nervous energy all a buzz. It’s on the freeway, in the parking lots, and those lines at the store. You can’t avoid it online either. Anxiety around the holidays is real. As a therapist, I know that for some people, the holidays just feel overwhelming.

The thought of making friends with any kind of anxiety can feel a bit like making friends with the neighborhood bully when you were a kid. Anxiety says untrue things to you and can threaten all kinds of harm. If you struggle with anxiety and you suspect it may be impacting how you parent, you may be right.

Anxiety is a normal human experience. Perhaps that is why many people search daily for effective ways to cope with anxiety for themselves and their children.

Perhaps, you have been searching for ways to cope with your anxiety for years.

This past year can be described in many ways, but one thing that stands out is the undeniable losses. Many different types of losses. Loss of normalcy, loss of physical contact, loss of income and jobs, loss of large, gathered celebrations for weddings, anniversaries, and graduations. The loss of hopes and dreams, and the loss of many lives.