Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Brentwood, CA.

I begin by understanding how you experience anxiety/stress because how you experience them is unique for you. Then we begin to increase your tolerance for how you experience anxious/stressful thoughts, feelings, memories, and/or situations. This is necessary so the anxiety/stress stops being an overwhelming experience that interferes and gets in the way of your life. It's crucial to be able to become more comfortable when you experience anxiety/stress because they're a part life. The problem is the distressing and limiting to debilitating effect they have on you. As you learn to be able to do this, you will begin to experience more peacefulness, calm, hope, self-confidence and self-esteem.

Much of anxiety and stress are related to the negative messages we send ourselves. We worry about what others think of us, what may happen in the future, and how we acted in the past; just to name a few. Because much of anxiety is based in our thoughts; a large portion of the work we do in this therapy is to challenge our thinking. By challenging our negative thoughts, we can experience a more positive shift in emotions and behaviors. We will also discuss and practice mindfulness strategies as a way to work on being more present in the moment and decrease the focus on negative repetitive thinking. Relief from anxiety is possible with effective skills.

Anxiety and stress are the symptoms I treat most often in my practice. Some people are not aware, but trauma is deep-rooted anxiety that is held within our body. We can feel anxious about work, children, relationships, or family. We can feel stressed about work or relationships and friendships. A highly effective tool for treating these symptoms is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a way that you can learn to relax the anxiety that is held within your body and your mind. I love this technique because it is not only highly effective, but it is very easy to learn. You can walk away from your first therapy session with a start to your mindfulness journey and have real tools at your disposal.

I take a practical approach to treating anxiety and stress. I help you identify the sources of anxiety if you do not already know them. I support you in learning skills to regulate your emotions and increase awareness of body sensations and experiences in order to help you be able to control and reduce feelings of anxiety. I also use a combination of exposure therapy, if appropriate, and adjustment to lifestyle to help you reduce or eliminate sources of anxiety or stress. I know that every experience of anxiety or stress is unique and I will work with you to develop a plan of support tailored to your needs. I will provide a safe environment for you to challenge and overcome your fear/stress

In addition to being a licensed Marriage Family Therapist, I am also a ceritified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner as developed by Dr. Peter Levine, and a certified Structural Integration Practitioner as developed by Dr. Ida Rolf. Using these body-based technologies in what we call a "bottom up" approach to anxiety and stress is a lot more effective than the "top down" approach of traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. That's because anxiety and stress are artifacts of the reptillian brain and limbic system not the neocortex where CBT works.

Anxiety can feel overwhelming and at times debilitating. Stress can increase this anxiety to even more unmanageable levels. Learning ways to manage stress can help reduce the anxious feelings. I can work with to learn tools and skills to help calm you and ground you when you begin to feel overwhelmed. The goal is for you to feel like you can manage the anxiety that starts rattling you and to have some tools that you can pull out to calm you down enough to be more effective in that moment. Together we can work to find ways for you to feel calmer, more grounded and more like yourself.

Anxiety takes so many forms. The root is basically fear that manifests in so many symptoms. I help adults and children that suffer from this debilitating condition by giving them simple tools to practice as soon as they feel anxiety coming on. As they practice and use the tools to help them in their everyday activities, we work on processing where that anxiety originated from - with that the healing begins.

Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, anxiety disorders and ongoing chronic stress can appear as repeated episodes of worry & fear, or develop into sudden feelings of intense anxiety with physical sensations, known as panic attacks. Your anxiety may feel related to an event or thought, and other times appear to occur randomly and without cause. Anxiety can develop at any age, when left untreated it may develop into depression. In therapy we will explore how anxiety is affecting your life. You will learn how your physical, emotional and mental health are connected and together create an effective treatment plan specific to your goals to improve your well-being.

Anxiety and stress are actually two different things. Where stress usually comes from actual and identifiable challenges, anxiety tends to be more arbitrary in that there isn't necessarily one specific cause. However, both anxiety and stress tend to develop based on one's specific context--that is what one has experienced through their lifetime. While some anxiety and stress is actually good for us (i.e. propels us toward action), excessive amounts can create both emotional and physical challenges. I work with clients from a top-down/bottom-up approach, working to help the brain to better control the bodily effects of stress and anxiety and the body to control the brain.

Anxiety and stress are like an evil and corrosive thread that work their way through every aspect of a life. It can rob the joy that can make life worth living. I know from both personal and professional experience how anxiety and stress can take the joy out of life and also how to overcome these issues and put them in your past. With the aid of tools like EMDR CBT and guided visualizations I can help you overcome this issue and heal from the issues that drive it. Additionally, I can provide tools, coping skills, and other resources to help you manage this particular issue, and experience increased relief from these symptoms with each session.

Living with stress and anxiety will rob you of joy, being present and out of control. While this can feel difficult to manage, you are not alone! I use cognitive behavioral therapy to help you address the thoughts that lead to anxiousness and stress. We will implement practical tools and strategies to work through some of these feeling and thoughts together.