ANXIETY

Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms with which I work. It manifests itself in different ways. In small doses, it can be a super-power; helping you study before a big test, or prepare for a presentation, for example. When the test or presentation is over, your anxiety lifts.

What brings people to therapy is when anxiety lingers and intensifies. Even though the anxiety-provoking event has passed, you remain on-edge. Perhaps you experience it in your mood as a constant feeling of dread, irritability or unease. Or in physical symptoms, like heart-pounding or digestive issues. You can’t stop ruminating about events you can’t control. You find yourself replaying conversations in your mind over and over again. Or maybe your anxiety becomes so extreme that you experience panic attacks. The worry of having a panic attack brings on its own anxiety and you find yourself avoiding settings or people that may bring on the panic.

There are myriad sources of anxiety. Often it starts in childhood or even infancy. Events happened that led you to develop the worldview that your environment was unsafe, or unpredictable, or your needs would not be met. Perhaps you grew up with a parent who struggled with mental illness, or a substance use disorder. Perhaps conflict in your home was repressed; people said things were okay when they weren’t. Often, the source of your anxiety started generations before you!

Here are some common sources of Anxiety:

  • A part of yourself has been abandoned or shamed

  • Experiencing ACES (Adverse Childhood Events)

  • Your world didn’t make sense when you were growing up; conflict and tension in your household was repressed.

  • Attachment disturbances; as an infant, your needs were not consistently attuned-to and your brain triggered an alarm response that altered its neurobiology and stress hormone levels.


Here are some common symptoms of Anxiety;

  • Physical - racing/pounding heart, restlessness, digestive issues, sleep disturbance, disordered eating

  • Mood - irritability, hypervigilance, dread, unease

  • Mental - rumination, catastrophization, thoughts of being a failure or letting people down, inability to stop worrying, indecisiveness

HOW I CAN HELP

While I tailor therapy to each individual client, here are some of the approaches I favor when working with anxiety:

Somatics

  • This involves paying attention to what is happening in the present. When I notice what your body is doing and reflect it back to you, you will become more aware of information your body has for you. Somatic therapy is based on the idea that your body has information for you that you can’t access from thinking alone. The goal is that through our secure, compassionate relationship, your brain will grow fibers and synaptic connections in ways that help you experience more calm, clarity and vibrancy.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • This is a process in which I help you heal by identifying and unburdening your wounded and protective parts, which paves the way for your Core Self to take charge. Everyone has a Core Self, which embodies the eight Cs - calmness, confidence, courage, compassion, clarity, connectedness, curiosity and creativity. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • This is a form of therapy that helps you reduce symptoms of anxiety by identifying and transforming unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. With CBT, I collaborate with you to understand activating events and the thoughts/beliefs they generate. Then we work together to explore those thoughts/beliefs, and the ways in which they might be transformed into something more helpful for you.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

  • This based on CBT and is tailored for those who feel emotions very intensely. “Dialectical” means combining opposite ideas. With DBT, I collaborate with you to accept who you are while also changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors that contribute to anxiety. We will work together to increase mindfulness, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness, all of which serve to reduce anxiety symptoms.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

  • This is an eight-phase process in which I use bilateral stimulation (BLS) to desensitize and reprocess body memories. In the assessment phase, we identify the negative self-beliefs that you hold from the traumatizing experience(s) and also the positive self-beliefs you would rather hold. Then I use eye-movements, sounds or tapping to desensitize the negative beliefs, reprocessing them with the positive beliefs.