Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Seal Beach, CA.

Stress and anxiety are common feelings we experience. We often need help working through the anxiety producing events and sometimes we just avoid those events all together (which can create it's own stress and anxiety). Together we will confront the events that bring on the anxiety. Using easy to use tools from our therapeutic sessions, you can work on lowering the anxiety and stress and feel more comfortable with living your life to the fullest.

Are you worried about things going out of your control? Do you experience overwhelming anxiety and panic attacks? Are you obsessed about someone or something that is driving you crazy? I can help you find the roots of your fears, worries and anxieties, identify destructive patterns, work through inner conflicts, and move on to peace, and a calm state of mind that 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.

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.

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.

People rarely come to counseling when their anxiety first starts causing them problems. Most people try to handle it on their own and try the “white knuckle” approach until they are exhausted and overwhelmed. Often life becomes unmanageable and depression sets in when anxiety is not dealt with. Anxiety commonly focuses on illogical things that may seem foolish or kind of crazy, so you have kept these to yourself. Don’t keep struggling alone. Call me so I can help you reduce the hold anxiety has on you and restore freedom to live your life fully again. Contact me at 714-751-0888 and I promise I won't think you are crazy.

I offer a safe environment for individuals to work through their anxiety and stress through "talk therapy" in a supportive atmosphere. I will utilize cognitive-behavioral therapy and other evidence-based therapies, as well as offer tools and techniques to help you reduce your stress and anxiety. Referrals for EMDR or a psychiatric evaluation for medication will be given when indicated.

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 work with clients using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, mindfulness, Narrative Therapy, Expressive Arts, and psychoeducation to address anxiety and stress. Many folks are experiencing extreme stress as a result of all we have experienced in the last year. I'm able to work with clients experiencing burnout, increased anxiety, and higher stress relying on neuroscience as the guide.

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.

How does anxiety and stress play out in your life? It is a vital aspect of our lives, important at very specific times. Yet when anxiety is the ruler and someone is helpless it becomes a life limiting function. Anxiety might also be an avenue to avoid more intense emotional feelings and thoughts. A valuable goal might be to respect and manage one's anxiety and stress in order to live a more free and productive life.

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.

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.