Alberta Allergy Therapy
Providing Allergy Informed Mental Health to Adults and Parents of Children with Allergies
Allergies bring a whole other mental load to your life personally or to parenthood. The anxiety of eating out, having someone else watch your kiddo, always bringing special food, informing and educating others about the allergies, worried if they are informed enough, the trauma of a reaction for yourself or your child, the toll that seasonal allergies take, and navigating so many doctors, health care professionals and constant advocacy work. I know this because I have dealt with my own allergies and multiple allergies for my child.
When I went searching for supports in Calgary and more broadly in Alberta I came up with very few options.
This is why I offer support that is allergy informed as part of my therapy practice. I have started to offer allergy informed therapy to support adults with their mental health related to their allergies and/or support for parents of children with allergies. I am particularly passionate about supporting parents with infant allergies as I personally experienced what it is like to feel so incredibly desperate.
MY STORY
After the birth of my second child things felt great at first. We were doing well and so many things were more familiar and different than the first time around. That was until I realized we were starting to have some major sleep issues a couple months postpartum. It was the start of our sleep challenges that were about to get WAY worse.
It started out with what we thought was cradle cap, but turned into severe eczema. We saw so many different medical professionals, but it took a TON of advocating to get to the supports we needed. The incredible sleep deprivation took a huge toll on mental health and the desperation of cutting out multiple foods and trying to find any relief became overwhelming.
Thankfully, we now have the right medical professionals on board and proper diagnosis of the allergies that we are dealing with. Seeing the way that this impacted my mental health has now made me so incredibly passionate about others that are walking through allergies so that you no longer need to feel alone like I did.
How can a therapist help you or your kids mental health related to allergies?
Discovering the things that are in your control and not in your control.
Developing regulation skills to better manage your allergy anxiety triggers.
How to live an engaged life with allergies and not avoiding social events.
Utilizing EMDR therapy to reduce the distress caused by an allergy reaction.
Finding other triggers that are influencing your allergy anxiety hanging around in your past history.
Equipping you with resources that can help you feel confident to educate others about your/your child’s allergies.
Exploring if there is a people pleaser part of you that could be getting in the way of you advocating or feeling bad about “putting others out”.
Equipping you with regulation skills to support your kids with appointments or their own anxiety around their allergies and where they could come in contact with the allergens.