Anxiety Treatment
- Are you spending a significant amount of your time worrying and fearful?
- Do you experience anxiety/panic attacks?
- Do you feel overwhelmed by certain aspects of your life?
While we have all experienced moments of great anxiety…anxiety can often be a normal reaction to stress and uncertainty. In such instances, anxiety can actually motivate us to be more productive. Anxiety and stress often go hand in hand, and certainly, in these challenging times, many people are experiencing an increase of anxiety symptoms associated with a health crisis, job loss, home foreclosure or economic uncertainty. To feel stress under these circumstances is normal, however, if the stress becomes anxiety, or existing anxiety signs and symptoms escalate, and become too difficult to manage on one’s own, it is time to seek
assistance.
Although anxiety can make a person feel isolated and alone, it is actually a very common condition. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, approximately 40 million adults suffer from anxiety every year.
Symptoms may include:
- Muscle tension, headaches or fatigue
- Insomnia
- Racing heart, nausea, intestinal distress
- Profuse sweating
- Feelings of apprehension or dread
- Difficulty concentrating, memory issues and difficulty making decisions
- Avoidance of people or places
- Excessive worry or rumination
- Struggling with anxiety alone can be overwhelming. However, developing coping skills helps to manage and treat anxiety. Through the use of therapeutic interventions and social support systems, learn how to take control of your life again and experience your fullest potential.
Depression Therapy
- Have you lost interest in relationships, work or activities that you once enjoyed?
- Do you feel hopeless?
- Have you experienced a deep and unrelenting sadness that does not go away?
Depression is much more than just feeling “a little sad”. It’s a state of being that fills many aspects of one’s life. Depression left untreated, can progress in severity and lead to a wide range of other emotional and physical health problems.
Men and women experience depression, although depression often manifests itself differently based on gender, culture and personality. While there is no single cause of depression, it may be impacted by biological and environmental stressors. Depression can happen at any age and effects many people.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, depression is one of the most common mental health conditions in the Unites States, with approximately 7.3 million adults suffering from it.
Symptoms may include:
- Loss of interest in daily activities or relationships
- Difficulty concentrating
- Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt
- Changes in weight
- Inability to experience joy or pleasure
- Anger and/or irritability/frustration
- Sleep disturbances: insomnia, irregular sleep patterns or excessive sleeping
- Active or passive suicidal thoughts/plans.
There are many useful therapy techniques and interventions available that make depression counseling extremely successful, and offer great hope for a return to well-being.
Grief Counseling
- Are you overwhelmed and consumed with feelings of grief?
- Do you feel isolated and alone in your grief and that no one truly understands?
Grief can be experienced as an intense, emotional response to the pain of loss. The loss does not have to be about death. You may be familiar with the “stages of grief”, yet none of us experience grief the same way. The degree of pain we feel depends on many variables.
Many believe that grief will resolve with time, the reality is that grief is ongoing and changes over time, but never ceases to be a part of who we are. We are often culturally taught to “hide” our grief or grieve in private, to “be strong”. The goal of grieving is not to “get over it”, but rather to process one’s grief, heal the deep well of sadness, and develop coping skills to manage the ongoing
emotions.
Allowing one’s grief is an important part of healing, and healing is possible. While there is no correct timeframe or way to grieve, grief shared is grief diminished. By seeking therapy as you grieve, you can develop coping skills that give yourself the gift of healing.
Chronic Illness Support
- Are you experiencing a medical diagnosis, that has caused you to feel anxious or overwhelmed?
- Have you worried about the future of your health and are anxious about upcoming tests or treatments?
Health issues impact almost everyone at some point in our lives, either through one’s own illness or injury directly, or indirectly through the experiences of illness or injury of a friend or family member. Illness can be classified as acute, chronic, and/or terminal. Medical crisis counseling and chronic pain support services are a unique area of counseling specialized to address the needs of individuals coping with an acute health crisis or injury, or a chronic illness or terminal health diagnosis.
The onset of a medical crisis, injury or health diagnosis may result in initial feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety or anger. It is normal to feel overwhelmed when faced with the vulnerability of one’s own health, and the experience is not easy to navigate alone. Therapy can be a safe and neutral place for individuals to process this and those who experience health challenges can benefit from talking about their experiences and feelings.
PTSD & Trauma Recovery
- Are you avoiding people, places and things because they may cause recurrent traumatic memories?
- Do you struggle with being able to heal your past so that you can fully engage and enjoy your present?
- Have you experienced a traumatic event that has caused you anxiety and fear?
Trauma is the experience of severe psychological distress that occurs following a traumatic event or circumstance, and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a condition that results when individuals experience trauma and demonstrate a variety of ongoing symptoms that interfere with the ability to function in one’s life.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, PTSD affects approximately 3.5% of the general population every year.
While initially identified in combat veterans, PTSD can also result from traumatic experiences such as childhood abuse, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, sexual harassment or assault, traumatic or unexpected death of a loved one, accident or injury, terrorism or even natural disasters.
Symptoms of PTSD can be categorized in the following 4 areas:
- Reliving (ie intrusive memories, flashbacks/nightmares, ruminations on details such as date, time, person and place)
- Avoidance (ie intense effort to avoid places, people or things that reactivate traumatic memories)
- Behavioral Responses (ie hypervigilance, startle responses, self-destructive or reckless, self- sabotaging behavior)
- Changes in Thoughts/Mood (ie mood swings, overwhelming repetitive thoughts of guilt or shame, feeling detached)
For many people, PTSD is the “invisible condition” that often goes undetected, or may be diagnosed and treated for the manifesting symptoms of anxiety or depression, without ever fully understanding and exploring the impact of past trauma. As a result, those with PTSD often struggle to understand why they are unable to fully heal from their traumatic experiences. However, by utilizing a variety of therapeutic interventions, there is hope and healing is possible.
Teletherapy offers an innovative and convenient way to engage in therapy services without having to physically come to an office. Using user-friendly and HIPAA compliant video and phone conferencing systems, this therapy modality has become increasingly popular for its convenience and flexibility to accommodate busy lifestyles and personal needs. This modality allows for greater access to therapy services, and is proven to be as beneficial as traditional in person therapy.
Areas of Specialization
- Anxiety Treatment
- Depression Therapy
- Grief Counseling
- Chronic Illness Support
- PTSD & Trauma