Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in La Palma, CA.

The approach that I have found most helpful in working with people with anxiety and stress issues is helping them FIRST learn to slow down and relax. I have been trained and have worked for many years with victims of trauma who experience enormous amounts of stress. First, teaching coping skills and then exploring the underlying cause for the anxiety and/or stress. People with anxiety often report various symptoms ranging from having difficulty concentrating, being afraid to do things they used to do, having headaches, sweating a lot, having hypertension, fatigue, heart palpitations, and sexual dysfunction. Often, people with anxiety have limited support because they are embarrassed or....

Anxiety and Stress are both rampant in our modern society. It is my belief that relationships are both the root cause as well as the solution to struggles with anxiety. I take a family systems approach to address these issues by raising the functioning of the relationships in my clients' lives and allowing them to regulate and feel more peace day to day.

Many people feel anxious from time to time. But when feelings of anxiety and stress occur regularly and begin to interfere with your relationships, your social life, your job or other aspects of your life, it is time to consider professional treatment. I help people better understand and manage the physical and psychological effects of stress and anxiety. We will together seek to identify, explore and understand the sources of your anxiety and the thoughts and feelings associated with it, revealing how together we can work to change and resolve the anxious feelings you are experiencing. This resolution will help you feel and function better as you move forward in life. Feel free to call.

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.

When anxiety and stress become overwhelming, it has the power to keep you from feeling like yourself. It takes away from your ability to be present in your day to day experiences, makes it difficult to enjoy your relationships, and takes your energy and time away from important things. You may not have control over stressful situations, but you can be empowered to handle them constructively and not be debilitated by anxiety. In the safety of therapy, we can explore and understand your stressors, identify constructive coping tools for you to draw on, and process through and release the burden of anxiety so that you can be free to enjoy the life you deserve.

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.

Most of us have some relationship with stress and anxiety, and it's no wonder: our society offers us daily opportunities to deepen our anxiety or increase our stress level. One or more sources of anxiety is often quite manageable, but life has a way of throwing multiple stressors at us at once. When several problems work together to conspire against us, it is often overwhelming.

Anxiety, panic, and phobia treatment are OCAC's sweet spot. This is where we do 95% of our work. The other 5% is in related disorders. If you find your thoughts controlling you or find yourself unable to step away from what you know are irrational thoughts, there are solutions. Many patients hear “Just relax" from friends and family, and while momentary exercises like breathing or meditation may help some, they really only subside surface symptoms of underlying cognitions that really need to be addressed. The inability to “just relax” will often exacerbate anxiety further, and there is a reason. If your needs are beyond common stress management, our average treatment is 14 weeks.

My approach to the treatment of anxiety is to use the most effective intervention strategies possible. My treatment for anxiety (including panic disorder and OCD) utilizes exposure therapy, which works by helping a person confront a specific fear or memory while in a safe and supportive environment. The main goals of exposure therapy are to help my clients learn that by stopping the avoidance of what they fear, they actually become MORE comfortable and can reduce their anxiety to a substantial degree - all of which opens doors of hope and increases the potential to reach your desired goals with an improved quality of life.

When teens and college students struggle with anxiety, they benefit from a peaceful presence and safe environment that helps them relax. Dr. Parke paces therapy at your level of readiness and helps you to find tools that are helpful for you. Experience more peace of mind and confidence. Rediscover your inner courage and conquer fears that have been holding you back by gradually facing them over time.

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.

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.

When working with anxiety, I create a supportive space where you can safely explore your worries, fears, and physical symptoms without judgment. We’ll look at the underlying patterns that fuel your anxiety—whether rooted in past experiences, self-criticism, or daily stressors. I help you develop calming tools, self-compassion, and a deeper understanding of yourself so anxiety feels less overwhelming. Together, we’ll build resilience and confidence, allowing you to approach life with greater ease and balance.