Anxiety counselling

Anxiety counselling helps you reduce anxiety by working with your body and nervous system, not just your thoughts. I offer online anxiety counselling across Australia in English and Russian, combining nervous system regulation and ACT so anxiety doesn’t run your life.

Anxiety counselling is not about completely getting rid of anxiety. It’s about changing your relationship with it.

About this practice

Yana Madorski is a Master’s-qualified counsellor working with emotional eating, body image and anxiety online across Australia and internationally.

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Professional credentials:

Master of Counselling

Diploma of Counselling

Australian Counselling Association Level 2 Registered Counsellor

Bupa registered provider

Counselling for Eating Disorders specialised training

Eating Disorders Clinical Foundations training

Psychiatry/Mental Health for counsellors training

Trauma-informed practice

Bilingual — sessions available in English and Russian

Online via secure telehealth

Available across Australia and internationally

Therapeutic approaches I draw on:

ACT — Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

CFT — Compassion-Focused Therapy

Somatic awareness — body-based approaches to emotional regulation

Polyvagal Theory — nervous system-informed practice

Mindful Eating — non-diet, present-moment relationship with food and hunger cues

Nervous system regulation — somatic, body based practices (including breathwork) that help your body process stress and release tension

Person-centred counselling

What is anxiety

Anxiety is your nervous system’s alarm system. It’s meant to protect you, and for most of us, it also gets stuck switched on, firing at things that aren’t actually a threat, or firing too hard at things that are.

That might look like a racing mind before bed, a tight chest before a meeting that hasn’t even started, or a low, constant sense that something is about to go wrong.

Anxiety isn’t the same as normal, occasional stress or nerves before something big. It becomes a concern when it’s frequent, hard to switch off, and starts shrinking your life.

Signs of anxiety

You might recognise anxiety in yourself if:

Your mind runs through worst case scenarios even when there’s no clear reason to

You feel physical symptoms: racing heart, tight chest, shallow breathing, a knotted stomach

You avoid things, conversations, or situations because of how they might make you feel

Your sleep is affected because your mind won’t switch off

You feel on edge most of the time, even when things are objectively fine

You over plan, over prepare, or try to control outcomes to feel safe

You’re exhausted from being alert all the time, even when nothing is happening

If several of these feel true, that’s worth exploring, not with judgment, but with curiosity.

Why anxiety gets stuck

Anxiety is a prediction machine. It’s trying to keep you safe by scanning ahead for danger, and once it’s been useful even once, your nervous system holds onto that strategy.

If you grew up in an environment where things felt unpredictable or unsafe, or where you had to stay alert to keep things okay, that wiring runs deep. Over time, the alarm starts going off even when there’s no real threat in the room.

This isn’t a personality flaw. It’s a nervous system doing an old job in a new context.

The real problem is the fight, not the feeling

Most approaches to anxiety are built around control: eliminate the trigger, suppress the thought, calm down on command. The paradox is that fighting anxiety almost always makes it louder. The more you resist a feeling, the more your system insists on it.

What looks like “being anxious about everything” is often a nervous system stuck in a loop of resistance. Learning to be in contact with the feeling, instead of at war with it, is usually what actually changes the pattern.

You don’t need to control every outcome to feel safe

Anxious control often sounds like: if I plan enough, predict enough, prepare enough, I’ll be safe. It works for a while. Then it becomes exhausting, and the anxiety often gets worse, not better, because control was never actually the thing that made you safe.
Part of this work is learning to trust yourself even without guarantees, and to build a life around what matters to you, not around what might go wrong.

How counselling can help

Counselling for anxiety isn’t about eliminating every uncomfortable feeling. It works at the level of your relationship with anxiety, which is where the pattern actually lives.

Nervous system regulation

This is the core of the work. Anxiety lives in the body as much as the mind, so we work directly with your nervous system through breathwork and somatic, body based practices that help release tension your body has been holding onto. The principle behind this is simple: the more time your body spends in a state of actual safety, the more that state becomes familiar, and the easier it becomes to return to it. Regulation isn’t a one-off fix, it’s a capacity you build session by session.

Understanding the signal

We get curious about what your anxiety is trying to protect you from. What is it predicting? What does it need you to do? Once we understand the function, we can respond to it differently, instead of just reacting to it.

Values-led committed action

Using ACT, we build motivation from what actually matters to you, rather than from fear or the need for guarantees. Commitment without needing to control the outcome. Trust in yourself, even when you can’t predict what’s coming.

Reducing the fight

A lot of suffering with anxiety comes from fighting the anxiety itself, on top of whatever it’s responding to. Learning to hold both, staying in contact with the feeling and moving toward what matters anyway, is often what brings anxiety down.

Ready to understand what’s underneath?

You don’t need to have it all figured out before you reach out. That’s what this work is for.

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Who this is for

Your mind is often racing, planning, or bracing for what might go wrong

You avoid things because of how anxious they make you feel

You’ve tried to “just calm down” or “stop overthinking” and it hasn’t worked

You feel like you need to control everything to feel safe

You want to understand your anxiety, not just suppress it

You’re looking for support that works with your body, not just your thoughts

Common questions

Is anxiety a disorder?

Anxiety itself is a normal human experience, but it can become a clinical concern such as Generalised Anxiety Disorder, panic disorder, or social anxiety. You don’t need a diagnosis to seek support, if it’s affecting your life, that’s enough.

Can counselling help without medication?

For many people, yes. Counselling addresses the psychological and nervous system patterns underneath anxiety. Some people also benefit from medication alongside counselling, that’s a conversation for you and your GP or psychiatrist.

How is this different from just “thinking positive” or “calming down”?

Approaches that focus only on suppressing or arguing with anxious thoughts tend to work short term and then lose power. This work builds a different relationship with anxiety itself, alongside practical tools, which tends to be more sustainable.

Do I need a referral for counselling?

No. You can book directly, no GP referral or diagnosis required.

Is online counselling effective for anxiety?

Yes. Research consistently shows telehealth counselling achieves comparable outcomes to in-person sessions. Many clients find the privacy and comfort of their own space actually supports more honest, open sessions.

Do you offer sessions in Russian?

Yes, sessions are available in English, Russian, or a mix of both.

QUESTIONS?

If you’re feeling uncertain about beginning counselling, please get in touch. We can talk through your questions so you can decide at your own pace.

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You don’t have to keep fighting

If this resonates, book a session with me below.