NewAccess and me: “Learning about anxiety was incredibly powerful”

“Overwhelmed, lacking confidence, and full of self-doubt is how I’d describe what I was feeling when NewAccess first hit my radar.

“It had been a long time coming. Over a three-year-period, I’d been through a marriage breakdown (with a newborn son), workplace bullying, and an interstate move. Then I met someone new and he’s lovely, but he has kids of his own – blended families aren’t always easy and certainly that’s been true for us.

“Add to that being overworked and underappreciated at my new job, plus a house fire that caused extensive damage and meant I had to move out for months and months. I was just completely overwhelmed.

“When things escalated during the school holidays in January, I lost the plot. Worried I’d ruined my new relationship by how I’d behaved, I thought I could either walk away or I could do something.”

A new approach

“I heard about NewAccess when it was mentioned on the radio one day. Fortunately for me, it was around the same time that everything had come to a head.

“It caught my interest because it mentioned that people were assigned a ‘mental health coach’. That seemed friendly and non-confrontational and didn’t carry the same stigma as other avenues of support. I didn’t know anything about what the program involved or how it worked, but I decided to find out more.

“Within a week, Helen, my NewAccess coach, was in touch with me. Being able to access help so quickly, and for free, was incredible and by the end of my first session I knew I’d done the right thing. I’m someone who loves structure and Helen was very careful to explain how the next five or six weeks would look. I liked that.”

An ‘aha’ moment

“It was during that same first session that Helen helped me recognise that I was poentially dealing with symptoms of anxiety. As well as needing structure, I like to know what the root causes of things are, so learning about anxiety was incredibly powerful for me. It was a relief to feel like I could finally give a name to what I’d been experiencing – and in hindsight what I’ve experienced my whole life.

“It gave me an answer as to why I get so stressed and why I tend to overthink things the way I do. It also gave me a place to start working from in terms of learning how to cope better.

“Helen wasn’t interested in delving too deep into when and why my feelings of anxiety first started. What she focused on was giving me tools to cope now. That’s the beauty of NewAccess – it’s practical and realistic.

“Have I encountered triggers that cause my symptoms of anxiety to resurface since completing NewAccess? Absolutely. But now I know how to recognise the warning signs that things are escalating and understand what steps and actions I need to take to stay well. That’s been life-changing for me.”

For more information…

You can learn more about how the program works, including finding answers to frequently asked questions, by visiting the NewAccess homepage.

You can also find out whether there’s a NewAccess coaching program currently available in your area, and submit an enquiry online or make a simple phone call to start the ball rolling.