A client came to me recently convinced she was going mad. She’d been in her local supermarket, trying to choose what to have for lunch. Somewhere between the ham and cheese and the prawn mayo she’d found herself completely unable to decide, eventually becoming so overwhelmed that’s she’d run out of the shop in tears, on the verge of a panic attack.
Now, she didn’t come to me to just to help her decide on a sandwich filling: she’d been struggling at work for some time.
A toxic work environment, where she was micromanaged, with no authority or autonomy (despite being in a management position) meant that she’d entirely lost any sense of her identity. Whilst on paper, she was qualified for the position, the reality was that she was struggling to assert herself. Being undermined constantly meant that she’d become a shell of her former self and was starting to second-guess herself, terrified that whatever decision she made, in any area, would be the wrong one, constantly alternating between feeling upset and frustrated.
This was a pattern that had repeated throughout her life – albeit not so dramatically in the past – which pointed to the fact that although her current work situation was certainly a stimulus, there were deeper things at play.
As a child, she’d been constantly contradicted by her parents: every decision and opinion, if it differed from theirs, was ‘wrong’. It meant that as an adult she was fiercely protective of her autonomy, so to feel that it was being stripped away from her was unearthing those negative feelings and emotions from childhood.
Working with me allowed her to silence those inner voices telling her to question her decisions and start to thrive again at work, which meant that she was able to find balance in every other aspect of her life.
My FREE 45-minute consultation with takes a deep dive into how buried problems that you’re either not aware of (or have decided that you need to just live with) can be overcome. I’ll give you a roadmap to the steps you need to take to overcome any struggles you might have with anxiety, self-doubt and imposter syndrome… and choosing sandwich fillings.
