Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Monte Sereno, CA.

While most treatment approaches for anxiety and stress are effective on the surface, they don’t treat the real problem. Mantras, deep breathing, and rational dialogues about your fear being irrational rarely work---for most people don’t believe it or you! Imagine if you can trick the brain into changing without you telling your conscious mind that you are changing it? Problem with anxiety and stress is that the brain in this state knows you want to change it and it resists. Contact Kevin@kevinfleminphd.com for the ultimate stress and anxiety solution that will literally change your brain's autonomic nervous system patterns while you sit on your butt. 877-606-6161.

If you're struggling with anxious thoughts, you may find it hard to focus. The fight or flight alarm is going off in your brain, constantly sending you messages starting with "what if...." If worrying is keeping you trapped in a hamster wheel, tired, but unable to rest, you may find yourself turning to addictive substances or behaviours to cope. As an addiction counsellor, I help clients cope with the anxious thoughts keeping them trapped in addictive behaviours. By uncovering these underlying thoughts, I help you develop coping skills so you can gain a sense of focus, clarity, confidence, and freedom from constantly overthinking. Send me a message and I'll guide you through the next steps.

Anxiety and fear exist to keep us as human beings safe when life-threatening situations present themselves and we need to act quickly to survive. But when you are experiencing a level of anxiety that causes you daily suffering, that is when help is needed. I can give you many tools to help manage the ups and downs of the fear and anxiety “roller coaster”. We can also explore what beliefs and issues might be underlying the anxiety to help lessen the grip it has on you and your life. Let’s work together towards more peace and serenity in your life.

We hold our anxiety and stress in our body. We feel tension, gut problems, hot flashes, disrupted sleep and more. I work with anxiety and stress by helping individuals learn and develop tools to re-regulate their nervous system. When we have a coherent and fluid nervous system, we can do difficult things without feeling paralyzed by overwhelming fear.

We have so many demands on us these days that most people experience stress and anxiety on a daily basis. However, many don't feel there is a solution to feeling this way so the feeling of fear, worry or unease just continues. In therapy, we learn how to identify the emotions present, learn how to tolerate the emotions themselves, and begin to heal within.

Working through anxiety in therapy involves developing and using coping tools such as mindfulness, grounding, deep breathing, meditation, creative self-expression, relaxation techniques, and emotional regulation skills. Therapy can help you create a healthy work life balance to buffer stress and understand what triggers your anxiety. Relief from anxiety will allow you to navigate life’s ups and downs without becoming overwhelmed. Working through anxiety leads to feeling calm, confident, centered, and present.

Anxiety and stress come in all shapes and sizes and can be thought of as acting on different levels, including the physiological, cognitive, and behavioral levels. These levels often interact with each other and can make it difficult to function in life. I can help you gain an objective understanding of your anxiety and stress and teach you skills to help you cope more effectively with future stressful events.

In anxiety treatment sessions with me, you will learn to identify, feel, and let go of fear so that you can live more fully in the present. By better understanding your own unique anxiety process, you will feel more in control of the experience of this emotion. You will also be able to get through tense feelings more quickly. I will teach you valuable relaxation, stress management, and relapse prevention skills so that you can stay calmer in triggering situations even after completing therapy. You will enjoy the freedom of living more peacefully as well as feeling more confident in previously uncomfortable situations. Call me with any questions or to schedule an initial appointment.

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

Free 30 minute zoom call - Anxiety can arise from several places - one is the mind - people can think & imagine scenarios in their minds that create anxiety, when their thoughts and imagination may not even be true. Anxiety is also common in people who did not have a safe & secure experience with caregivers as they were growing up. The brain ends up being wired in a way that reproduces anxiety. Fortunately, due to new research in the field of neuropsychology & neuroplasticity, this can be changed!

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.

Anxiety can range from mild stress that is manageable to overwhelming stress that turns into traumatic activation. Through our somatic and relational therapies, you can feel whole again. Together, we look for what strengths and abilities you have that can be built on. Somatic resources generate an awareness of the sensations in the body that feel pleasant and grounding for the client and help them mediate the debilitating symptoms of trauma. Often clients don’t recognize the symptoms of trauma and are dealing with anxiety, fear and depression on their own. Many trauma clients do not seek therapeutic assistance right away, either because they don’t take the traumatic experience seriously or they think that “time will heal” or because of shame and...(view profile to read more)

To live in this western world is to live with distress. Some stress is actually healthy for us and should be engaged with regularly (ie., exercise or sex) but there is a boundary between healthy stress and dis-stress. Distress is not pleasurable and in fact lays the foundation towards dis-ease and possibly towards addictive behaviors. Safety and connection will ease the distress. Using a polyvagal informed approach to therapy, we will explore how you learned to deal with overwhelm and what tools might be useful for you.

My clients work with me to learn coping strategies and techniques to manage anxiety and stress in their daily lives. This might include relaxation techniques, deep breathing exercises, mindfulness, and progressive muscle relaxation. I utilize tapping to reduce anxiety, and use EMDR to work on the root causes of anxiety with my clients. The goal of anxiety therapy is to help clients learn to live in the present moment and to build emotional resilience and self-regulation skills. Mindfulness, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy) are particularly useful tools for for working to improve anxiety.

Your Higher Self is your wise inner nurturer who is your guiding light. Your ego on the other hand, is the part of you that gives you "monkey mind"- the thoughts that are fearful, stuck on angry, or judgmental. Neuroscience research has proven that our thoughts and assumptions actually create our reality. Anxiety is an SOS from our soul that we need to heal a core wound and a resulting negative pattern of negative thinking that is creating a negative reality for us. In spite of what appears possible, you can create anything you desire to happen in your life. This is the evolution of humanity that we are all awakening to. To learn more you can watch my YouTube video on Manifesting.

Anxiety falls along a continuum from acceptable to crippling, debilitating anxiety requiring professional intervention. The major forms that anxiety takes are: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Phobic Disorders, Social Anxiety Disorders and Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD). A variety of proven therapeutic interventions are well established now, eg., Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Yoga, Tai Chi, Breathwork. By diving into therapy clients regain a sense of optimism, courage and confidence in relationships, workplace and career, driving, aging, life transitions and more.

Anxiety is an internal alarm system that gives us information about our internal state as well as possible danger in the external world. Often, anxiety is a signal of deeper, more intense emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear. It can also be a consequence of not living authentically. Once these deeper feelings are identified and expressed, they can be readily released. For example, when we say "Yes" when we really mean "No," we will often experience anxiety. In this case, the anxiety is providing us with a warning that we are not being honest (living authentically) with ourself and/or another. Therapy is the perfect place to explore this common emotion.

At times excessive worry and difficult situations in life can make just getting through the day feel challenging. Through gaining an understanding of your relationship to stress and the causes of anxiety, I can help you recover and begin to cope. I will provide you with a safe, compassionate and non-judgmental place to explore and practice skills to approach life in a way that reduces stress and anxiety. I use an integrated approach depending on what will best support your needs, using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and DBT, as well as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) practices to support you. We can work together to help you gain the calm, clarity and peace you are seeking.

Your stress may be triggered by job loss, illness, relationships or by "positive" stressors like a new job or a baby. I provide a solution-oriented and healing environment for people who are suffering from the stress of living a "real" life. I provide a place to change the way you talk to yourself so you will stop beating yourself up and start predicting and creating positive results in your, or your family's, future. We will join together to increase your ability to cope with stress and appreciate your strengths as a human being. You can increase your tolerance for making important changes, learn to accept uncertainty, and cope with the things in life that can't be changed.

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.

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.

Recent studies show that moderate stress can actually make us more productive and successful. But when stress and anxiety become too much to handle, they can make life miserable. I use mindfulness-based therapy to help you increase your own innate ability to decrease anxiety and keep stress manageable. If your symptoms are related to past experiences such as painful or difficult childhood experiences, abuse or trauma, I offer Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. EMDR therapy is a highly effective for relieving symptoms of PTSD and improving performance. Come experience it for yourself!

Everyone feels anxiety at some point in their lives but when it starts to interfere with your life, counseling can help. Although anxiety can feel debilitating, it is treatable. People with anxiety don’t always share the same symptoms, they vary from person to person. Therapy will help you to reclaim your life and function in a chronically stressful world.

Anxiety is a debilitating disorder that deprives people of their happiness and sense of well-being. I work with children and adults to help alleviate their suffering. Together we explore their anxiety "triggers" e.g. what brings on their anxiety, and work with question those assumptions. Next I help my clients learn how to use tools to combat the thoughts that can paralyze and torment them and bring their negative thoughts back under their control, helping them to feel happy and confident once more.

I enjoy helping clients with anxiety and/or stress issues. First, we want to rule out any physical causes, so it is important to have a recent medical exam. Always remember, though, anxiety and stress are natural and in many ways beneficial feelings. They keep us motivated and productive! However, too much of a good thing is not good by any means. That's where I come in with my tools to reduce stress and/or anxiety.