Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Hancock Park, CA.

Stress related Anxiety is the most common factor affecting individual’s overall health. It can cause many health complications and emotional difficulties. Occasional anxiety and stress are part of daily life, but when anxiety interferes with relationships and pleasurable activities therapy can help to decrease the excessive worry about future events and this decrease the disruption.

Stress and Anxiety can be limiting ones potential in life as well as cause health complications in the long run. Both stress and anxiety can be managed. Together we will look at coping techniques that can work for you to help alleviate some of the anxiety and stress you are experiencing. We will then turn to the causes and find ways to navigate them.

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.

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.

I treat anxiety and stress by first helping you identify what may be causing it. Causes may include external stressors (like economic stress or marital stress), or internal stressors like being too hard on yourself, or not feeling fulfilled in life. depending on the cause, we then teach teach you find ways to perhaps think differently about the stressing situation, ways to change your life to reduce the stress, or techniques for stress inoculation such as relaxation training, meditation, or deep breathing exercises. If you have a panic disorder, we teach you specific coping techniques to deal with it in the future.

My primary area of expertise is the treatment of Anxiety Disorders. There are different anxiety disorders such as Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia, PTSD and more. My therapeutic approach for the treatment of anxiety consists of: educating my client about their specific anxiety, teaching coping mechanisms to reduce stress/anxious mood, learning to interrupt the development of anxiety that leads to unpleasant physical manifestation and confronting behaviors and thoughts that maintain ongoing anxiety. It is imperative to work on my client's issues that perpetuates anxiety and distress.

Abby provides compassionate, trauma-informed support for individuals struggling with anxiety and stress. Using evidence-based techniques such as CBT and mindfulness, she helps clients identify triggers, manage overwhelming emotions, and develop practical coping skills. Abby creates a safe, supportive space where clients can build resilience, improve emotional regulation, and regain a sense of calm and control in their daily lives.

We live in stressful times and many people struggle with anxiety that can range from simple daily worry to debilitating fear. Identifying the triggers underlying anxiety, big or small, can help you develop strategies for dealing with the thought patterns and fixed beliefs that are preventing you from living life to the fullest. As we begin to process your anxiety together, we may find that it is caused by past trauma or events in your family history. Developing skills to cope with immediate anxiety, while slowly working through past trauma or family issues can help to decrease the experience of anxiety in daily living, as well as in your life, overall.

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.

Anxiety and stress are nature made, preparing us to step up our efforts for the important and meaningful tasks which come up in our lives. Sometimes this system needlessly overreacts and responds to everyday stressors in the environment in a paralyzing way. When this happens, it feels distressing and uncomfortable. It is hard to stay focused, concentrate, and finish what we need to be doing. Often physical signs such as rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, and shortness of breath can be present as well. This is the point where many clients come to therapy. I find anxiety and stress symptoms are very well treated with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and mindfulness.

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.

I apply Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques in helping individuals suffering from Anxiety Disorders. These techniques have been shown to be highly effective in treating anxiety disorders. I help clients examine, challenge and dismiss fears and core-beliefs that underlie and fuel their anxiety symptoms. These techniques have been extremely effective with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), General Anxiety Disorder, Panic attacks, and others Phobias.

Dr. Levine is an expert in treating anxiety and stress-related disorders. Employing cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) he uses what are known as "evidence-based treatments." Dr. Levine received exceptional specialized training in this field by completing a 2-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) at Temple University Medical School in Philadelphia. He was also a clinical psychologist for the hit TV series "Hoarders" on the A&E Network. He specializes in anxiety disorders, phobias and OCD and is a clinical member of the OC Foundation. Call or write to him now for the help you deserve.