Sheri Vincent,
B.Sc (Psych), B.H. Admin., M.A. Counselling, Counselor
Sheri Vincent has personally come
to know the overwhelming pain associated with living with anxiety
and depression. Following a rape that occurred in Guatemala,
while Sheri was undertaking volunteer work with street children
at the age of 18, Sheri was diagnosed with delayed onset Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Generalized Anxiety disorder
(GAD).
Sheri experienced many symptoms of anxiety, including gastrointestinal
distress, feelings of unreality and depersonalization, anxiety
(panic) attacks, agoraphobia, irregular heartbeats, an overwhelming
feeling of impending doom and gloom, and many others. Her condition
was a debilitating one and prevented her from participating in
her work or schooling.
For many years Sheri
tried to cope using medications and occasional counselling, but
was unable to overcome her mistrust of the world around her.
This damaged perspective led her into a highly physical and emotionally
abusive relationship, which only served to further instill the
PTSD symptoms and anxiety-skewed reality. It was not until Sheri
was able to receive consistent counselling from a violence-intervention
program, as well as guidance from her Christian community, that
she was able to break free of this painful reality and work towards
becoming symptom and medication free, which she has now been
for over six years.
Sheri’s experience of her assault and
subsequent abuse, and the overwhelming anxiety symptoms accompanying
this time in her life, has allowed her to reach a place of genuine
empathy and concern for those who suffer similarly. She is a
caring and giving individual who desires to help others overcome
the difficulties associated with existing in an anxiety-ridden
reality.
Sheri has a Masters degree in the area of Marriage and Family
Therapy (honors), and has been trained in the areas of individual,
couple, and family counselling. This degree included extensive
thesis work in the area of cross-cultural counselling. In addition,
upon her graduation, Sheri received the institution’s annual
Proficiency & Excellence
Award in Counselling Skills. Sheri is also an Associate member
of PACCC, a national counselling association.
Sheri has an international
background (lived in many countries), involving a great deal
of experience assisting individuals stemming from various cultures.
In addition, she has also spent considerable time working with
the elderly population, and has more recently worked as a counselor
with children and their families in a First Nations setting.
Sheri is comfortable working with individuals, children and youth/adolescents,
couples, and families, and is both comfortable and competent
in a cross-cultural counselling setting. She has experience in
counselling individuals suffering from various forms of anxiety,
post-traumatic stress, phobias, stress, depression, suicide,
grief, interpersonal relationship problems (including marriage/couple
counselling), self-esteem concerns, anger issues, physical/emotional/sexual
abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault.
Sheri Vincent lives in Oxbow, Saskatchewan with her husband
and four children, ranging in age from six to seventeen. Sheri
and her family attend and are very active in a local church.
Sheri has benefited greatly from her personal struggle and
eventual victory over anxiety. Consequently, she enjoys her
work as a counselor, and is passionate about assisting others
overcome anxiety, as she has.
I just wanted to write a brief message to anyone,
who is considering joining anxiety centre, info, or coaching.
I had my first panic/anxiety attack 16 years ago when I was
in my late 20’s after going through a divorce. At the
time I did not know what was happening and why. At that time
there was no internet or any info readily available. But through
my discussions with a friend, I found out she suffered also
and she was able to give me some information and somehow I
recovered, “so I thought.”
To make a long story short, last Sept, of 2007, all the symptoms
returned, after the tragic death of a friend’s son, I
thought to myself “oh I know what this is”, and
I will get through, however the symptoms persisted and the
fear cycle just got worse. I searched and searched, books,
internet, and all I could think is that this is not ANXIETY
this time, I must sure be going over the edge for real. However
one evening I was googling and found the anxiety centre website,
I read everything I could about Jim and his story, I still
was very hesitant. The next day I called and a kind man answered
the phone and all the questions I had, it was Jim himself.
After talking to him I realized I wasn’t going mad, and
there was help if I wanted it. And believe me I did. I signed
up the next day for the membership, and read everything inside
and out, including the symptoms sections, the testimonials
and all other info as it was updated daily.
After a couple of weeks on the site I called Jim again, about
getting some phone coaching. He said someone would call me
in a couple of hours. And guess what? That’s’ when
Sheri Vincent called me, one of the coaches. Sheri was terrific,
she let me ask any questions I had, even if I was afraid, I
just told her and she walked me through them. She was able
to share her own experience with me, regarding her own anxiety
disorder. That was very helpful and informative. We spoke weekly
for many months from November until July of this year. It was
the best phone call I ever made. She made me see I was totally
not going mad, but was just totally stressed and she explained
how this whole process of fear starts.
So, if you are deciding if you should become a member JUST
DO IT, and I totally recommend the phone coaching as it compliments
the whole program. I never thought I would feel that this whole
experience with ANXIETY has made me a better person and made
me realize, live in the moment and enjoy life and your family.
I know stress happens to everyone everyday I can deal with
that, but I know am NO longer afraid of anxiety, so guess WHAT
I will never let it spiral out of control again.
I have learned so much, and I know this program works and it
will work for you too.
Jackie, New England
A year ago today I would have never thought I would be
sitting here writing about my battles with anxiety, panic
attacks, and depression. My anxiety started 11 years ago.
I had better periods than others, but in general, I tolerated
it. I had a great social life, a great job in the beauty/fashion
industry which caused me to be in the public eye every day,
amazing friends and family, and all in all, I had many things
many people would have dreamt of having. But I was still
living within my safe zone to make sure I had as few panic
attacks as possible. I still felt so stuck and numb.
One morning in May 2006, I woke
up in tears. What I felt that morning was new to me. It
was such a great amount of fear that it came out in a huge
panic attack. This attack lasted what seemed like hours.
I had never felt so anxious in my whole life. My high level
of anxiety stayed with me for a year and a half. I quit
my job (doctor’s order),
rented out my apartment, grabbed my puppy, and moved back
in with my parents within 3 days of that morning. I felt
like a complete failure. I sat in my bed in my old room and
just thought to myself, “You’ve really done it
this time, 26 years old and back at square one, with the
parents, and jobless.”
I didn’t leave my house. I stayed mostly in my bed
for a good 10 months with the exceptions of my emergency
visits to the hospital and going to my family doctor, psychiatrists,
and many psychologists. My anxiety symptoms where flying
through the roof and so many awful thoughts I felt I had
no control over. I just had no understanding of what was
going on in my body. I honestly started believing I was on
the road to becoming majorly crazy. I developed agoraphobia,
a pretty bad depression, insomnia, BIG panic attacks, I pretty
much had every anxiety symptom, and I couldn’t be left
alone at the house for more the 30 minutes or even sleep
ALONE in my bed. The word “bad” would be a light
way of describing what I was experiencing. Doctors tried
to give me the quick fixes with feeding me anti-depressants
and benzodiazepines. Nothing, and when I say nothing, nothing
worked.
Within these 11 years, I had done
my research on this condition. I believed I knew it all.
I got every treatment I could possibly have gotten. You
name it, I did it. Name a book, I read it. I did it all.
I really had lost any hope or faith that this condition
would go away. I thought I had to live with this for the
rest of my life, but a tiny part of me just didn’t
accept it. I didn’t want to live this life, I found
a TINY bit of strength inside of me and decided to look further.
I decided to surf the web and thought to myself maybe just
maybe there are some people out there that suffer as much
as I do. Maybe there is a site out there where I could connect
or talk with someone that knew or would understand where
I was coming from. Honestly, at that point I was desperate.
This is when I landed on the Anxiety
Centre website. I couldn’t
believe what I was reading. I thought to myself, this cannot
be a scheme because they know too much about this condition,
and they seemed to have lived what I am living. But most
of all, they are saying they have healed and now anxiety
FREE! I started imagining what it would be like to live a
life without this awful condition controlling my every move,
so I joined the member area. I then emailed them and got
a quick email back saying I would start counselling with
Sheri Vincent within that week. I really didn’t know
what to expect, and honestly, it was extremely hard to believe
that this would work since nothing in the past had. But this
was my life, I needed to try, and I owed this to myself.
I instantly connected well with Sheri since she had been
where I was. She helped me understand, helped me with the
motivation I was lacking, explained to me many things I needed
to know and understand and the list could go on and on. Well
today I can happily say that it was the best move I have
ever done. I am not fully recovered yet, but I can say that
I am on the right track to recovery and I have come a long
way. I am back to living my life, but most importantly, a
better and healthier one.
This has changed me in so many ways. If I can do this, you
can. If you are in a bad place, do this for yourself.
K.D., Canada
I would like to share my experience
facing an anxiety disorder with people who are going through
this hard period of life. It was about a year ago when
my life dramatically changed – and, as I thought that time, irreversibly
for the worse. Everything started suddenly and with no warning – one
day I felt dizziness in my head, some kind of weakness in
legs and overall feeling was bad – I was sure that
I am going to pass out. First I thought it is nothing really
serious and I need just a good sleep. But the symptoms did
not go away. Even worse – they got more severe day
by day. Thus from an active, successful guy with bright future
I slowly became disabled person – even unable to leave
my apartment.
Since doctors could not find physical
health problems explaining the situation and I had a lot
of free time and while sitting at home, I started to surf
through Internet and found the name of my condition – anxiety disorder. I read many
articles and blogs about this condition but the information
didn’t help me much. Just the opposite – I found
many people saying that this illness could not be treated.
And the mere thought that I had to live the rest of my life
like this drove me to despair.
But from my own experience I can
say that it is absolutely not true, anxiety disorders are
curable. And I can say this thanks to Anxietycentre.com
and especially to Sheri Vincent. When I found homepage
of the center I thought – “even
I would not be able to describe my feelings and symptoms
more precisely. They should really understand what my anxiety
condition is.”
Weekly counseling with Sheri has
helped me enormously. I have got my life back. And what
is most surprising – this
anxiety disorder has changed my life – it has made
me a more relaxed and happy person.
Regards,
Andris K., Latvia
Friends,
I remember it vividly. I didn't know what was going on! Things
seemed very strange, my thoughts were racing, I felt foreign
all the time, panic attacks, moments of despair, and thinking
I was going to die or lose my mind, and barrage of other
symptoms and thoughts that are difficult to explain. If
you are at this point, you know what I mean!
I felt helpless, and especially being a man. Every day was
unbearable! I was seriously depressed and ready to check
out of life! I remember searching countless weeks on the
Internet for what I was feeling, and finally I figured it
out: FEAR, more commonly known as anxiety disorder. I had
an anxiety problem!
People let me assure you none of these things you are feeling
are remotely true! I've been there, lived it, and lived through
it. Everything seems bad when your mind and body is on high
alert! I'm still here, and none of the things your mind and
body are telling you are true. All it's telling you is that
there is a problem. You will see irrefutable proof of this
when you make it through this. And you will!
The key lies in your mind and your thoughts, and changing
habits that have built up over a lifetime. You will have
to make some sacrifices while going through this process
of change. This is a process and will take time. This is
a process and will take time. This is a process and it will
take time! Did you get that?
Be patient with yourselves. You will get there. Little improvements
come and you slowly get yourself back over time. You have
to pay the symptoms no attention. They are only there to
remind you that there is work to be done. Get back to living
as if there's nothing wrong, get off the Internet, stop the
anxious habit of searching and replace that attitude of fear
with confidence. Soon you will start to believe it again!
Yeah right, you say? That attitude is part of the problem,
if it weren't true I would have no story to tell and you
wouldn't be here on this site reading this. I had this as
bad as anyone, and worse in most cases!
When I found Anxietycentre, what a blessing from God, no
doubt! They had so much information on this subject in the
members area, more than any other site I had seen. And lets
face it, we are the type of people that want details!
If you reached the point of desperation
that I did, get a coach/counselor. The benefits are remarkable
and they can help you get to the bottom of the issues that
surround this condition. In my opinion, there is only one
type of person that can help someone with anxiety, and
that is someone else who has lived it also. And that's
what Anxietycentre is all about! I can't thank Anxietycentre
enough! I am currently finishing up their program, I’m
off the meds, and look forward to life again!
This is a tough journey with many ups and downs, but I can
honestly say I am a better person for the experience. Hang
in there people! It gets so much better. It really does!
God bless!
