Specializing in Addictions, Anxiety, Depression, Relationships, Trauma
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy, counseling, or psychotherapy involves meeting with the therapist one-on-one. Some reasons you may seek individual therapy may include feelings of being trapped or alone, constant worry, crisis/ transition, depression, anxiety, recent divorce, and lack of motivation or ability to change. If family members cannot help you find the answers or these feelings are affecting your job, relationships, sleep, or eating habits it may be time to seek help from a professional. The goal of psychotherapy is to enhance self-awareness, empower the client, work towards desired change, and work through challenging life issues.
Relationships
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Couples/ Family Therapy is a form of psychotherapy which focuses on relationship distress and growth. The purpose is to jointly identify the areas that are in need of evolution. Some distressful situations can include, but are not exclusive to: poor communication, work-life imbalance, financial distress, domestic violence, parenting, mental illness, depression and substance abuse. Shared work with the therapist will yield to development and implementation of a treatment plan that will allow your relationships to bloom again. The goal is to work towards alleviating discomfort and rebuilding a healthier level of collaboration and love.
Addictions
Continuing to binge drink or get high on drugs will continue to bring you down. Relationships will fall apart. Work will become first challenging to get there – and then if your usage continues, the job will be lost.
How many chances do you get to correct your behavior to be a valued person in your family and community?
Therapy with me will help you face your decision with open eyes and move forward productively. You will have the structure and support you need to make changes, develop other ways to cope, and feel happier living a cleaner life.
Behaviors take time to develop, and they also take time to look at when we want to change them. We change behaviors one moment at a time, thinking about ourselves, becoming more aware and less automatic.
You can feel confidence in making a healthy choice and making a healthy change! Your opportunity to feel like yourself again is waiting for you!
Anxiety
Anxiety is the body and mind’s natural reaction to unfamiliar, stressful, or dangerous situations. Before a significant event, a healthy level of uneasiness or dread can help you remain aware and alert. Brain chemistry, personality, genetics, and conditioning can all affect the way you react to distress. An excess of apprehension can feel irrational, overwhelming, and debilitating. Instant panic attacks may last for a disproportionate length of time for the situation, interfering with daily life. I will work with you to build awareness of your frequent or persistent triggers and gain control of your reactions.
Depression
Depression is extremely overwhelming and can take over your life. If you are experiencing some of the symptoms above you may be experiencing a depressive episode. Oftentimes life’s ups and downs get the best of us, but depression has the ability to bring on despair. If you are not careful, depression will pull you into its cycle very quickly.
Depression says, "Don't get out bed. Stay in. Call in sick to work; they don't need you anyway. Don't answer the phone. No one wants to talk to you when you are like this. Don't exercise or eat well. It's too much work! You don't have the energy to do that. Turn off the lights. Close the blinds. You don't deserve to see daylight today. Oh and while your at it, go ahead and rehearse in your head everything that is wrong about you, your family/ friends, and the world today. That will make you feel better."
The problem is that we tend to listen to the depression, which makes it worse and exacerbates the problem. If this sounds familiar please don't hesitate to get the support you need to break the cycle. You are not alone! Depression is the most common mental illness and it is treatable.
Trauma
Emotional or physical trauma is a complex condition. When we experience something as extremely threatening AND we feel helpless to stop the condition, often this can lead to us feel traumatized. It is an expected response to feeling terrorized and powerless. The more quickly we address the emotional and physical symptoms that result, the more likely we will return to normal functioning.
When our bodies or emotions are attacked, a natural series of events will happen to our brains, bodies and emotions in an attempt to deal with the threat. OUR BRAINS: Our amazing brains, when threatened, will signal the body to quickly release stress hormones (Cortisol) to regulate our blood pressure and how our body will use its storage of fat, sugar and carbohydrates for energy. OUR BODIES: Our pupils may dilate so we can see things more clearly, our heart will pump more quickly to make our fists and legs more powerful, we may feel nauseous or even lose control over our bladders or bowels so we won’t be weighed down with digestion and we can run faster. OUR EMOTIONS: We may emotionally “numb out” if the pain is too great, similar to how when we hit our thumb with a hammer, it temporarily loses sensation. We may feel overwhelmed. This complex reaction to acute stress is adaptive and useful to handle an immediate threat.
However, our systems are not equipped to withstand all this stress on a regular basis. It will take a negative toll on the body as if a vehicle were continually revving its engine; it would more quickly wear out the life of the vehicle. If we continue to have symptoms more than 4 weeks after exposure to a traumatic event, or are continually exposed to threatening traumatic events and unable to protect ourselves (when we are young or as adults), then there is a possibility we will develop a condition called Post Traumatic Stress. It is as if the brain gets stuck in that alert state (hyper-vigilant), tense, irritable state (hyper-aroused) or avoidant behaviors. Specialized photographs of the brain demonstrate that a person with Post Traumatic Stress is not just feeling more stressed, their brains have been injured, changed. This means their bodies, brains and emotions tend to continually overreact to any events whether they are low or high on the stress scale.