Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Altadena, CA.

Are you tired of feeling anxious and fearful? Do you have too much stress in your life? I am a psychologist that specializes in helping you decrease feelings of anxiety, fear, and stress. With empathy and compassion, I work collaboratively with you to gain understanding and insight into the situations that cause you anxiety so that you can finally thrive in your life rather than survive it!

Are your worries and fears overwhelming, preventing you from living your best life? Do you feel paralyzed by panic and doubts? If this sounds like you, and you want to make some changes, I’d like to help. The good news is that excessive worrying is a habit you can learn to break. We can work together to teach your brain to stay calm and collected and to look at life from a more realistic and positive perspective. Together we will decrease your preoccupation with ‘what ifs’ and ‘worse case scenarios.’ Through tailored relaxation techniques, and VERY SLOWLY exposing you to your fears, we can reduce your anxiety to a manageable level, so your fears are no longer interfering with your life.

How can therapy help with anxiety and stress? By making sure that your life style does not fuel anxiety… determining necessary changes by implementing relaxation techniques and daily lifestyle habits... exploring past experiences, emotional needs, ways of coping that you developed early on and how they impact everyday reactions (automatic thoughts, feelings, actions)… learning various techniques to take more control of your thoughts and feelings and respond more effectively to emotional triggers.

Big or small, anxiety has a way of effecting our lives. Anxiety not only effects those who struggle to do, but also, those who are already doing so much. We can minimize it, rationalize it, and tell ourselves it's circumstantial but the truth is anxiety is the very thing that keeps you from feeling connected to the moment and those around you. In our work together, I will help you cultivate techniques, strategies and mindsets unique to you that will help you to reclaim your life, allow you to be present to the moment, and create a feeling of wholeness. If you're ready to feel less stress and live in a more meaningful way I'd love to meet you and see how I can support you in your journey.

Anxiety and Stress is often a very physical experience. It greatly affects our nervous system. I use a deep processing method called brainspotting to help regulate the nervous system and bring people their minds and bodies into the present. Often after a stimulus, a person's nervous system may still be activated or depleted after it ends instead of being at homeostasis. You can learn to regulate your body after a stimulus shows up.

Anxiety is an inability to be fully relaxed. It is mental and physical tension. Many things cause it and many things perpetuate it. Not all anxiety is bad or needs to be extinguished. I work with the client to understand the meaning of their anxiety. I find sometimes people are not consciously aware of the real reasons they cannot feel relaxed. Enlisting the client's sense of curiosity about their own thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations I aim to identify their symptoms of anxiety and the origins of them. I utilize cognitive behavioral and mindfulness strategies to identify and replace unhelpful thoughts with more productive ones.

Stress or anxiety don’t always get in the way, but sometimes they do. Learn to identify the sources, recognize how they stop you, and change the impact they have on you and your life. Learn how old patterns shape your self-image, self-esteem, and expectations, and discover new ways of dealing with that. Fear doesn’t have to stop you from having what you want in life. And, sometimes it’s a valuable asset, like knowing which is the lion and which is the lamb. Psychotherapy with me helps you to sort out when to listen to the fears and when they no longer apply. You’ll also learn coping strategies that can help when you’re caught up in the fear. Your fears don’t have to control you.

Everyone experiences stress and anxiety at one time or another in their lives. Stress interferes in peoples lives at least moderately; however, chronic stress can affect your health, causing symptoms from headaches, high blood pressure, and chest pain to heart palpitations, skin rashes, and loss of sleep. Talk therapy has been proven to alleviate stress and in my practice I also use breathing, relaxation, and meditation techniques that help clients alleviate their stress symptoms.

Life can be overwhelming at times resulting in increased anxiety and stress. If you are experiencing difficulty sleeping, worrying constantly, and increased irritability, you can benefit from additional support. Talking about issues you are dealing with may be hard, but avoiding issues can be even more devastating. Lack of sleep and fearful thoughts often do not go away by themselves. Learning new techniques on how to cope with stress and anxiety can improve your relationships, your outlook on life, and your overall health and well being. Reaching out for help is not a weakness, it shows strength and willingness to learn skills to improve your life.

Stress at work or school, relationship stress, financial stress, health issues often are precursors for people to seek psychotherapy. Disturbances in sleep and appetite and an inability to attend and concentrate can undermine one's work performance or a student's ability to successfully master the demands of school. I have experience treating teachers, nurses, doctors and lawyers with anxiety and stress and, as well, see college and graduate and law school students form universities in the Los Angeles area, including USC, UCLA and Loyola.

Stress is a part of our everyday life, so much that living a life without stress seems surreal. Anxiety can be a result of the day to day stresses that are related to personal life, work life, and school life to name a few. A minimal amount of anxiety and stress in specific situations can be the motivation needed to complete tasks, power through exams and overcome the impossible. Learn how to calm and relax your mind by using visual techniques such as creating a safe place you can visit during times of intense stress and discover healthy and effective ways in which you can help relieve your mind and body of undesired anxiety and stress.

Stress is a part of life...but ongoing anxiety can negatively impact our well-being, including our relationships, jobs, and families. If you suffer from chronic worrying and the stress is just too much, there IS a better way to live. I will not only help you develop stress management techniques that work for you, but I will also help you shift the way you have typically coped with unwanted thoughts and feelings. Moreover, we can work to build self-awareness and insight into the core reasons behind your anxiety, which typically produces longer lasting transformation.

We all have stress and anxiety; the question is how we deal with them. Past traumatic experiences may heighten levels of stress and anxiety as well. Therapy which kindly and fearlessly helps pay attention to leftover emotion that may not have been attended to can help relieve suffering, isolation, fear and anger. A therapist may provide the safest place clients have ever had within which to be heard, seen and valued.