therapy for individuals
therapy for anxiety
Anxiety shows up in lots of ways.
You may feel it in your body: your breathing gets shallow, your throat tightens, and your heart starts pounding.
Perhaps you become overwhelmed with thoughts that are negative, doubtful, or catastrophic.
Anxiety may show up in your relationships or have an impact on your sleep or physical health.
You may have experienced anxiety your entire life or it may be something new related to a work or relationship issue.
Perhaps you’ve always been struggling with anxiety or this might be a very new and unpleasant experience.
While you might have some ways to cope with it, it can feel overpowering and out of your control.
Your experience of anxiety is unique.
There are many common themes for people who experience anxiety but they can be differentiated by how symptoms show up and how individuals struggle with them. Some people experience a lot of worry and feelings of apprehension, restlessness, and fear (often diagnosed as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)).
Others get fearful about specific situations and experiences such as social anxiety/social phobia, agoraphobia and other phobias. They may have strong feelings of dread or find themselves avoiding situations where they might encounter anxiety such as open spaces, airplanes or large crowds of people.
Some individuals struggle with panic attacks. Panic is an overwhelming feeling of anxiety and dread and often involves extremely distressing physical symptoms as well. Panic symptoms can be extraordinarily uncomfortable and individuals who experience these often find themselves avoiding situations where they might occur.
The good news is that there are effective research-based methods to address anxiety symptoms and live a richer and fuller life.
therapy for trauma
Trauma can mean different things to different people.
There are many ways that individuals experience and reexperience traumatic incidents. Trauma can be defined as a negative event or series of events that have caused psychological injury and which still have an effect on you.
While most people think of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) when they consider trauma, trauma can include a variety of experiences that feel intrusive or overwhelming. You may have experienced a single traumatic incident like a wildfire or an auto accident or a long series of incidents like witnessing violence in combat or being bullied as a kid.
With trauma, the brain does not recover from the painful experience.
The painful memory of what may have occurred many years ago still seems vivid and scary. Trauma sufferers often describe the intrusive nature of their experiences: anxiety and panic, depression, overwhelm, physical symptoms, and nightmares that can be triggered by what goes on around them.
Trauma can have a significant impact on your life and relationships. There are a number of treatments that are effective for treating trauma and helping you to live a life with less struggle and overwhelm.
how I work
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is all about creating a life that is meaningful and rich. The acronym ACT gives a hint of what this is about: identifying what is important in life and then taking action. Taking action often brings up unpleasant stuff like fears, shame, difficult thoughts and other painful internal experiences. ACT provides methods for relating to these difficult internal experiences in a way that they have less power and influence. Ultimately, ACT isn't just about feeling better but about living better.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is the primary tool that I use with clients to heal trauma, as well as to treat anxiety and other issues. Years of research has shown it to be highly effective in dealing with traumatic events, disturbing memories, and other emotionally charged experiences. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (BLS) in the form of taps, tones or lights to stimulate your brain to reprocess traumatic memories. BLS, which happens naturally during dream sleep, speeds up your brain's ability to process and heal from troubling memories. This healing process allows you to feel more calm, integrated and to live a richer, fuller life.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Thoughts are powerful. A single problematic thought can have a big impact and when we have challenging thoughts difficult feelings aren't far behind. This unpleasant internal experience often leads to behaviors that are at best not helpful and growth oriented and at worse are destructive. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying and changing challenging thoughts and thought patterns. These changes can lead to a better mood and more positive behaviors.
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Humans are complex. Consider that while a part of you may be fully engaged at work, another part of you can feel really anxious and overwhelmed by your job. Or while you may love your partner, a part of you gets really angry really fast and that part feels hard to control.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) views humans as a complex collection of parts that make a whole, much like a family is made of individual members who interact with each other. IFS offers an evidence-based approach to understanding and healing these parts of ourselves where we struggle. You can create a life that feels more balanced, calm, and centered.
You and I will work together to identify your goals for therapy and what approach might be most meaningful and useful to you.
Become more aware of and change your relationship to thoughts and feelings that get in the way of you living the life you want.
Examine and understand the impact of significant relationships in your life and increase emotional connectivity in your current relationships.
Strategize specific behavioral changes that are consistent with your values and how you want to live your life.
get started today
Schedule a free 20 minute phone or video consultation to learn about therapy services and see if we might be a good fit to work together.