Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in El Cajon, CA.

Anxiety and stress are part of living in our busy world. When your anxious thoughts and fears seem overwhelming and are impacting your life in negative ways, therapy can help. I create a warm, engaged, and supportive atmosphere where your experiences can be understood and accepted. Using a holistic approach that includes body-based mindfulness and stress reduction strategies, we can work together to help you get back to living a life that brings joy and meaning.

A little anxiety or stress can be good for us. It motivates us to get to our work done, to study for an exam, or to help us recognize we are overwhelmed and need to slow down. When anxiety is problematic, it creates an unhealthy sense of well-being and it interferes with daily living. Because there are different forms of anxiety, and because often anxiety can occur with depression, I work with individuals to assess what kind of anxiety they may be experiencing, and then focus holistically on not only managing the symptoms of anxiety, but also gaining a better awareness of the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of anxiety.

While mild anxiety is a normal part of our everyday lives, it can sometimes be paralyzing, and undermine your work, your relationships, and your ability to interact in the world. That's when you need help. Psychotherapy for anxiety can take a variety of forms: Psychodynamic Therapy - to vent, release, and understand the highly charged emotions that cause your suffering. Cognitive Therapy - to change irrational thoughts to calming ones. Mindful Awareness - to train you to hold calm while observing uncomfortable feelings. Physiological Interventions - to release stress by increasing serotonin levels in your body. Working together, we will choose the best approach for your situation.

Dr. Peck is trained in evidence-based models of treatment for anxiety and stress disorders. The good news about anxiety and stress is that there are treatments that have been rigorously studied and are proven to be effective! Unfortunately, not all providers treating these common issues are using the most effective treatments. Dr. Peck can provide education on how anxiety develops, and equip you with a toolbox of coping strategies that are proven to reduce anxiety and stress disorders. Treatments include: Biofeedback, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Exposure and response prevention (a component of cognitive-behavioral therapy), and Coping Cat (children and teens).

I have special expertise in working with anxiety and stress. With anxiety, it is important to find ways to calm and soothe the nervous system. I offer a wide variety of tools to help train your body to relax. Finding activities to decompress, have fun and nurture yourself are important in order to cope with a stressful environment. There is usually a good reason that the anxiety, nervousness, fear, or worry is there. Anxiety can be a result of PTSD, and I use special trauma therapies such as EMDR, EFT, and AIT that process and release the negative events and associated feelings and beliefs. It is possible to be free of your anxiety and cope better with your stress.

I specialize in helping people through anxiety and stress, whether it be related to dynamics with family, career, or related to past trauma. People often have anxiety or panic attacks and feel that it is medically related, only to arrive at the hospital ER and find out that it is emotionally related. This is common, because anxiety attacks often affect heart rate and bodily sensations. I have tools to help clients overcome severe anxiety and stress. Clients often find relief once they are able to understand the source of their anxiety and what to do about it.

Anxiety as often been referred to as worry gone out of control. When anxiety gets to high levels it can be very debilitating making it very difficult to function at home, work and interpersonal relationships. Anxiety can also result in panic attacks in which a person may feel like they are going to shut down. I assist clients in identifying triggers to their anxiety and developing strategies to successfully cope. I help the client understand how their thought patterns directly influcence their feelings of anxiety. I than assist the client in learning how to better manage thought patterns and adopt thought patterns that lead to increased feelings of calmness and self-control.

Everyone experiences anxiety at some point, but for some the anxiety is so frequent or intense that it interferes with their lives or even triggers panic attacks. I use Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to help my clients get a sense of control over their own anxiety. We collaborate to learn skills to reduce the frequency or intensity of the anxious feelings, to tolerate the anxiety when it does occur so they can still function through it, and to practice habits that reduce stress and improve general mental health.

Fear can be debilitating. It can prevent us from doing what we love. All fear is future based; fears about what may happen. Often times we fear the worst. Through identifying the fearful thoughts and learning to replace the scary thoughts with joyful truths, we can see that what may come may just be something worth living for. As we live with fear and anxiety, we tend to activate the sympathetic nervous system which is our fight or flight. I utilize therapeutic relaxation, meditation and mindfulness to help activate the parasympathetic nervous system to produces feelings of peace and rest.

Are you dealing with anxiety and stress? Are these feelings harming your ability to function at work, at home, or do they keep you from fully enjoying your life? I can help you to process and understand what is causing you this anxiety and stress and equip you with skills to learn to manage and overcome these powerful emotions. It's not an easy battle, but I will walk with you through every step of the process in a gentle and skilled manner to bring you to freedom.

If you suffer from unmanageable stress, panic attacks, obsessive thoughts, a difficulty to relax or release your worries, you may experiencing stress and anxiety. You can live free of distress, anxiety or fear. When it comes to treating anxiety disorders or stress-management, research shows that therapy is the most effective option. Therapy can help you uncover the underlying causes of your stress, worries and fears; learn how to relax; look at situations in new, less frightening ways; and develop better coping and problem-solving skills. Therapy gives you the tools to successfully manage stress, overcome anxiety and teaches you how to use them.

When circumstances and demands pile up to the point where you feel overwhelmed, your mind can become flooded with anxious and stressful thoughts and emotions making it even more challenging to manage your life. Learning to manage these thoughts and feelings as well as those stressful circumstances can bring relief and enhance your ability to be peaceful and productive. Of course this is easier said than done. My role is to provide guidance in equipping you with the skills to acquire the perspective and insight to regain control over your mind and emotions so you can focus your attention and energy back on managing the challenges of life.

Stress and anxiety, believe it or not, are a normal part of everyday life. However, for some people, they can become bigger issues. If stress and anxiety begin disrupting your daily life, it may indicate a more serious problem. For example, if you are avoiding situations due to unexplainable fears, constantly anxious, or deeply disturbed about a traumatic event weeks, months or years after it happened, it may be time to seek help. You do not have to suffer alone.