ANXIETY TREATMENT
 in Brighton and Hove

When anxiety fires as a physical response, the thinking brain is largely taken offline by the nervous system’s threat response. That’s why coping strategies and tools are hardest to access in exactly the moments you need them most.
Coping strategies and tools like these work at the thinking layer of anxiety, and that is useful. It brings structure to the catastrophising, gives tools for recognising patterns, makes the moments of overwhelm more manageable with advise of what to do behaviourally to help.

What is doesn’t access so well is the nervous system level, specifically the limbic system, where much of persistent anxiety is actually generated.

When anxiety fires as a physical response, be it the racing heart, the tight chest and throat, the hypervigilance that won’t stand down, or the response that arrives before any thinking catches up with it – that’s because the nervous system is running from historic, encoded patterns.

Using more cognitive tools (trying to think your way out of it) at this moment is a bit like wadding through treacle*. By the time those responses fire, the thinking brain has largely been taken offline and the limbic system is running the show. The cognitive tools are hardest to access in exactly the moments you need them most because that apart of the brain isn’t able to function well (if at all) at that point. The limbic system needs approaching differently and the way I work addresses that level directly. We work with the encoding generating the response, in session, in real time. That works directly to stop the need for the limbic system to ‘fire’ in the first place. We get ahead of it by changing the coding, rather that trying to manage the old coding responses.

If you’re someone who knows your anxiety is irrational, have applied the tools, tried to push through against natural avoidance behaviours, and still struggle to find things that work in the moment after the anxiety has shown up, this tends to be what makes the difference.

*Other thick, syrupy liquids are also available to try walking through!)

There’s more than most people realise. Havening Techniques® and NLP work directly with past triggers that have been encoded as a perception of threat, with a strong emotional reaction attached, and recondition that response at source. Conversational hypnotherapy works differently, using language to install new pathways and new ways of responding. The change happens in session, through working with the coding itself.

For people like you who’ve been through CBT or talking therapy and still feel like something is missing or isn’t shifting, this tends to be what I find is outstanding when I work with people.

Mindfulness and meditation can make a real difference to the background noise such as rumination, the what-if loops, the anticipatory thinking that keeps high-jacking every moment. Granted, it’s not always easy to access when anxiety is running at full speed, but as a regular practice, it can be very beneficial.

Getting outside and moving, whether that’s walking, running, anything that gets you into your body and out of your head, has a surprisingly solid evidence base for anxiety. Sound baths and sound therapy are worth experiencing if you haven’t, particularly for the nervous system settling that comes with them.

And somatic therapy, which works specifically with how anxiety shows up in the body rather than through talking, is worth looking into, especially if the physical symptoms are the part that gets to you most.

Breathwork deserves a solid mention too, particularly anything working directly with the nervous system in the moment rather than just as a daily practice. EFT, or tapping, gets a raised eyebrow from some but has a growing body of research behind it and is something you can use yourself, in real time.

And if any of these feel worth exploring, go for it. They’re all things I use and point clients towards too.

Yes, anxiety can change regardless of how long it’s been there. What determines how much anxiety changes, and how fast, isn’t primarily how long it’s been present. It’s whether the approach being used reaches the level where the anxiety is actually encoded in the limbic system, or whether it’s working around it.

Anxiety that has been there for years means those patterns have had a long time to become automatic. The nervous system has run them many times over. They fire without an obvious trigger, and it can start to feel like it’s just part of who you are. The encoding itself isn’t fixed. Neuroscience now understands that encoded responses can be permanently updated regardless of how long they’ve been established, through a process called memory reconsolidation, and the nervous system retains that capacity throughout life.

In practice, longer-standing or more complex anxiety can mean there’s more to work through, and where there are significant trauma components, the work takes longer accordingly. The pace is led by where you are and what’s needed. But the fact that anxiety has persisted isn’t a sign it can’t change. More often it means the root of it simply hasn’t been reached yet or worked though sufficiently.

Once the encoding is addressed and you are given effective tools to aid forming new pathways (known as neuroplasticity), change tends to follow. The pace of that can often be a surprise to people.

You don’t need to be in crisis for anxiety to be worth working with. Anxiety that looks managed from the outside is still anxiety, and the cost of holding it together quietly accumulates. The earlier it’s addressed, the more straightforward the work tends to be.

The people I work with so often describe this. They are highly capable, functional, juggling all the balls successfully. Most people wouldn’t guess what’s going on in the inside for them. Whilst they’re outwardly meeting the work targets, having the ‘present-in-the-moment time’ with their kids, showing up for everyone and taking the ‘self care’ time off and holidays to magically ‘rest up and regulate’, inside, it’s a different story.

A lot of people I work with are highly functional. They haven’t stopped working, stopped socialising, or getting on with things. They’ve been managing it, pushing onwards and managing it well in most respects. But they’ve reached a point where managing it indefinitely doesn’t seem like the best option any more.
Anxiety doesn’t have to be out of control or obvious to others to be worth addressing. Quite the opposite. The exhaustion of holding it together well is costly and can accumulate, if left unaddressed. The anxiety is there to be listened to and acted upon, and honestly, the earlier the better so you may get ahead of it. Because working with it tends to be more straightforward, results tend to come faster, and you’re doing it while there’s still something in the tank, not when you’re running on empty.
If you’ve got to a point where managing it indefinitely doesn’t feel like enough any more, firstly, kudos to you on your honesty and care towards yourself and for listening to it.

If you’re at the point of: I want to sort this properly, I’m ready to do what it takes, I just want someone to get on with it and show me the way.

Or if you want someone practical and straight-talking who will help you get to the bottom of it efficiently, without months of ongoing therapy, without being asked to keep coming back once things are moving, consider getting in touch for an initial chat. I might be exactly what you’re after.

You don’t have to lead with it. Sessions can be largely content-free, meaning we can work directly on the anxiety response without you needing to talk through the experiences connected to it or for us to talk endlessly about everything in your past.
I get how the prospect of having to sit across from someone and go back through difficult experiences is enough to put off getting help at all for some people. And how a lot of people don’t feel the need or see the value in focusing too much on the past. I share that view and want to help you change things in the now and for your future, not open up a can of unnecessary worms.
I’ll be straight-up. Because of the way anxiety can be linked back to our past experience and predictions, we do sometimes need to clear up anything that is triggering and getting in the way of that. But the approaches I use, particularly Havening Techniques® (a psychosensory method that works directly with how experiences are encoded in the nervous system), and NLP and timeline therapy (which can help alter those predictions and release old emotional responses) both allow the encoding to be changed without you having to go back through the detail of what happened. We can work content free where you don’t need to share the specifics, I’ll just need enough of the broader context to help guide you. You stay in control of what you share and when.

Sessions aren’t primarily conversational, although lots of past clients do say they feel like we’re just having a chat! Sessions start with a thorough assessment or everything we know contributes to anxiety, not just what’s on the surface. That helps us pin point what we’re dealing with, understand how your particular anxiety operates: the triggers, the patterns, what’s driving what and where changes need to occur.
The change work we do together then addresses the old encoding and patterns directly.
Depending on what’s showing up and what we’re working on, a session might include Havening Techniques® (a psychosensory method that works with how threat responses are encoded in the nervous system), NLP work that goes into the unconscious patterns running the anxiety, or conversational hypnosis working with patterns below conscious awareness.
I believe strongly in psycho-education as being fundamentally important too to help you feel better informed, more in control and capable of dealing with it and that change is possible for you. Understanding what’s actually happening when anxiety fires, and what to do about it and how, is pivotal. So expect plenty of that, but I try to keep that for between the sessions so we can get on with the most effective work together, in sessions.

Sessions are purposeful following my T.A.M.E. Anxiety Method™ and we move as quickly as your pace allows. We work directly on what’s generating the anxiety. Each session ends with a clear picture of what we worked on and what changed, and between sessions you have access to a personalised client portal so the changes bed in outside the room.

Yes. And beyond. In-person sessions take place at my practice in the Brunswick area of Brighton and Hove, with easy transport links across the city and from the whole of East Sussex. For anyone local to Hove, Shoreham, Lewes, Eastbourne, Worthing, Haywards Heath, Horsham, or elsewhere across Sussex and the wider South East, in-person is accessible. Online sessions are also available for anyone across the South East, the rest of the UK, and internationally, and they’re equally effective for most presentations of anxiety. Some people like a hybrid, where we get together in person for the first session and then, we transition to online.
If getting to a practice in person feels like one more thing to manage right now, online is a genuine option. If you’d prefer London, I also have a long-established practice in Marylebone.

Yes. Tam works with clients worldwide via video. Online sessions are as effective as in-person sessions for most people.

Tam has in-person practices in Marylebone, London and in Brighton. She also works with clients worldwide online.