Understanding and Overcoming Social Anxiety: Embrace Your True Self

Let’s delve into the topic of social anxiety—an experience that affects many individuals and can significantly impact their daily lives and overall well-being. Social anxiety is characterized by an intense fear of judgment, embarrassment, or negative evaluation in social situations. It can make even the simplest social interactions feel overwhelming, leading to avoidance and isolation. However, it’s important to remember that social anxiety is a common challenge, and with understanding and support, it can be overcome. 

Here are some key points to help us better understand social anxiety and navigate its impact on our lives:

1️⃣ Recognizing the Signs: Social anxiety can manifest in various ways, such as excessive self-consciousness, fear of scrutiny, avoidance of social situations, physical symptoms like racing heart or sweating, and a constant worry of saying or doing something embarrassing. By identifying these signs, we can begin to address them with compassion.

2️⃣ Challenging Negative Thoughts: Social anxiety often stems from negative thoughts and self-doubt. These thoughts may revolve around the fear of judgment, rejection, or being perceived as inadequate. By challenging and reframing these thoughts, we can break free from their grip and develop a more realistic and positive perspective of ourselves and social interactions.

3️⃣ Gradual Exposure and Practice: Facing our fears gradually and systematically is an effective way to overcome social anxiety. By exposing ourselves to social situations in a controlled and supportive manner, we can gradually build confidence, challenge our negative beliefs, and develop new coping strategies.

4️⃣ Seeking Support: Social anxiety can be challenging to overcome alone, so reaching out for support is crucial. Surrounding ourselves with understanding friends, family, or joining support groups can provide a sense of belonging and encouragement. Additionally, working with a therapist specializing in anxiety can offer valuable guidance and tools to manage social anxiety effectively.

5️⃣ Practicing Self-Care: Prioritizing self-care is essential when dealing with social anxiety. Engaging in activities that promote relaxation, such as exercise, mindfulness, or hobbies, can help reduce stress levels and enhance overall well-being. Taking care of our physical and mental health creates a foundation for resilience and confidence in social settings.

Remember, social anxiety does not define who you are. By understanding its roots, challenging negative thoughts, seeking support, and practicing self-care, you can gradually overcome social anxiety and embrace your authentic self. Social connections and fulfilling relationships await you on the other side of fear. You are capable of thriving in social situations, and your unique qualities are worthy of celebration. 

-Usman Sharif, MACP, R.C.C.

Seeking Healing and Growth: Understanding the Impact of Trauma on the Brain

💔 It is often said that “Time heals all wounds,” but what about the wounds we cannot see? Today, I want to shed light on how trauma can silently shape our brains, and more importantly, how healing is possible.

⚠️ Trauma, whether it be from a single event or prolonged experiences, can have a profound impact on our mental well-being. It can rewire our brains, leaving lasting imprints on our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. But here’s the important part: we don’t have to face it alone.

🌱 As a counselor dedicated to helping individuals navigate their healing journeys, I’ve witnessed firsthand the power of therapy in rewiring those neural pathways. By offering a safe and non-judgmental space, we can work together to reclaim control over our minds, rebuild resilience, and foster lasting growth.

 Whether you’ve experienced a traumatic event, struggle with unresolved past issues, or simply want to better understand the effects of trauma on your brain, I’m here to guide you towards a path of healing. Together, we can create a brighter future, free from the burdens of the past.

🙌 Let’s embark on this transformative journey together. Reach out today for a confidential consultation, and let’s rewrite the narrative of your life, one step at a time.

– Usman Sharif, MACP, R.C.C.

Registered Counselling

How Counselling Can Help

Hardship in life is unavoidable and it may come with its share of uncomfortable emotional experiences. Regardless of your reason, counselling therapy offers a broad array of benefits to clients.

Counselling encourages open and honest dialogue between the therapist and client about issues that are causing distress. Through the relationship with the therapist, clients work to identify how stressors are impacting their lives and develop goals and strategies to manage them. Clients often feel validated, heard, and understood by another person which allows them to explore their issues in a safe, trusting, and open manner. Having another person accept you fully and allow you to communicate your experiences without judgment, helps people to gain insight into their own behaviour, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.

Counselling provides opportunity for self-exploration and self-discovery, and assists in changing self-defeating behaviours and habits. Clients develop self-awareness and acceptance as they process their experiences and work to develop new and healthy ways of coping that work for them. Through an increased awareness of personal triggers and negative or unhealthy coping, clients learn to express their emotions and cope in healthier ways. Counselling supports better expression and management of emotions.

Counselling can help clients to understand patterns that keep them stuck and work to adapt to change, build better relationships, resolve conflicts, set healthy boundaries, or make the changes necessary to improve their situation. A counselling therapist can provide a safe outlet to vent about issues and guidance in finding purpose moving forward. Through exploration of values, interests, and beliefs, counselling helps clients to set goals and find passions and purpose in life. Clients may work to improve their self-esteem and feelings of worth, allowing them to explore new options, reduce stress and improve their overall health.

Counselling therapists support clients to heal, emotionally regulate, ease distress, meet goals, and a variety of other reasons. Learning practical tools and skills can help clients to be proactive with their mental health and wellness, and begin living the life they want to be living.

We offer counselling services in person and online. If you or someone you love needs support, our registered clinical counsellor is here to help!

Click here to book an appointment.

5 Things to Consider During Your Massage Therapy Treatment

You are booked to come in for a Massage Therapy treatment! Here are a few things to consider during your massage therapy treatment to get the most out of your visit.

  1. Remember to explain to your therapist in detail what your concern is. Your RMT may ask many questions and perform a few assessment tests, especially during your initial appointment or after not seeing you for a while. This allows us to develop a treatment plan and help you reach health goals faster.
  2. Prior to the getting on the table, your RMT will explain how much to undress, however it is completely up to your comfort level how much you undress. Your RMT will then leave the room for you to get undressed and lie on the table, covered by a sheet. During the massage, the area your RMT is working on will be undraped, but the rest of the body will be covered under the sheet. Tell us if you are cold, want to be covered, don’t want an area of your body touched, don’t like the music, or are experiencing discomfort with the technique or how it is being applied. Remember, you are in charge, and can ask for changes or stop the session at any time.
  3. As a patient, your primary job is to relax; the better you can relax, the easier it will be for the therapist to find the knots and apply pressure accordingly. So remember to take some deep breathes to help with relaxing and let the therapist move your arm or head for you. It’s natural to want to help, but it’s easier to just let them move you, of course unless they ask you to move.
  4. Everyone’s pain tolerance is different, your therapist will/should be communicating with you throughout the treatment regarding pressure, please feel free to let them know if it’s not enough pressure or too much. Throughout the treatment, pressure will feel different depending on the goal and techniques used, even a deep tissue massage should be a pressure that might feel like a “feel good pain”, and you can breathe through it without having to clench or tighten your muscle.
  5. You are welcome to chat or not talk with your therapist during your massage treatment. It’s completely up to your comfort level. Your therapist will check in with you about pressure and comfort throughout the treatment, we love hearing your stories, but we will not be offended if you don’t feel like talking that day.

Our goal is help you relax, heal, and reach your goal in your health journey! Please feel free to ask us any time if you have any questions!

 

What is Massage Therapy?

Do you feel tension in your neck and shoulders from working in front of a computer all day? Did you pull a muscle training at the gym or felt pain after playing a specific sport? Or your doctor informed you that your X-ray or MRI showed some arthritis or degenerative disc disease in your back? It might be time to consider booking an appointment to see a Registered Massage Therapist to see how we can help you. But what is Massage Therapy and how can we help?

Massage therapy is the treatment of muscles and soft tissues in the body by manual manipulation of the tissues to create change in the body, improve circulation, decrease muscle tension and pain, and improve healing to injured muscles. There are so many benefits that massage therapy offers, including:

  • Reducing or eliminating pain
  • Improving flexibility and joint range of motion
  • Reducing muscular tension
  • Stress and anxiety relief
  • Improving circulation

Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs) in British Columbia are health care professionals that are dedicated to providing the best care to help patients achieve their optimal health and wellness. RMTs undergo a rigorous course of education and training to achieve their professional designation with the College of Massage Therapists of BC(CMTBC). We are trained to assess and treat using various techniques. Depending on your needs, treatment techniques may include:

  • Deep Tissue Massage: Deep tissue massage is designed to relieve severe tension in the muscle and the connective tissue or fascia. This type of massage focuses on the muscles in the deeper layers. Deep tissue massage is often recommended for individuals who experience consistent pain, are involved in heavy physical activity, such as athletes or someone who works with repetitive movements, and patients who have sustained physical injury.
  • Swedish Massage: The most common type of massage is Swedish massage. It is often used during relaxation treatments and include techniques such as effleurage, kneading, petrissage, muscle stripping and tapotement. Swedish massage can be light to moderate pressure or deeper pressure.
  • Trigger Point Release: Trigger points are sensitive knots and when pressure is applied, it produces pain in a different part of your body. Trigger point therapy is a technique that is commonly used to help break down muscle knots and decrease pain or discomfort in the body.
  • Myofascial Release: Myofascial Release is a technique that focuses on the connective tissue covering that wraps around the muscle layers. It is usually performed without oil to properly stretch and lengthen the fascia. The techniques feel more like a stretching of the skin and muscle, as opposed to the gliding sensation you get with a traditional massage.
  • Joint Mobilization: Joint mobilization is used to assess and treat the joint capsule with the goal of increasing joint range of motion. Joint mobilization techniques performed by RMTs are very precise and specific and should not be painful when applied.
  • Home Care: Your therapist may give you some stretching and strengthening exercises do at home, and offer some education on injury prevention.

We are all Registered Massage Therapists at Fusion Health Clinic. We strive to find the root cause of your pain by performing an assessment, goal specific treatment and providing you with the home care custom designed to help achieve your goals in healing!

Online booking available at: https://fusionhealthclinic.janeapp.com/

-Fusion Health Clinic