Easing the pain associated with Depression or Anxiety

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Dennis Carroll, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Usually by the time a client comes to me for life coaching he/she is already suffering. In fact, most often it is the pain of living in a near constant state of depression or anxiety that drives them to me.
Many have been to doctors and/or therapists but have not found the relief they seek. So out of desperation they come to me, often with apprehension and skepticism. “What can a life coach do for me?”, they may think to themselves.
Well, as incredulous as it may sound, it takes me an average of four sessions of working with them for them to completely stop doing depression or anxiety. Four one hour sessions to create life long sustainable results.

How is it possible to end depression and/or anxiety so quickly? It is really very simple.

There are two primary drivers in life: our need to avoid pain and our desire to gain pleasure. Many people fear the uncertainty of letting go of old patterns in fear of the unknown more then the pain of living with depression/anxiety. Whichever of these two is the greater pain will be the one you choose. So step #1 is to get clear on the real cost of this unwanted behavior on your life, also known as ‘getting leverage on yourself’.

Next, I educate my clients on emotional needs and show them how they are actually meeting their needs through depression/anxiety. I sometimes get resistance at this point. People who have been suffering for so long often do not want to believe that they are creating these feelings in their bodies in order to meet needs. But once I show them exactly how they are meeting their needs we are halfway done. Next I will show them another way to meet ALL their needs so that they can move away from the old behavioral pattern(s).

The next step is to get them off of auto pilot to become aware of the triggers so they can redirect their focus in the moments before they actually create the unwanted emotional state.

Finally, we condition the new behavioral patterns to the clients true identity so it becomes ‘the norm’ for them

That’s it. It is truly that easy. But (and this is a BIG but) you must want to change. I, nor anyone else, can want the change more for you then you want it for yourself.