Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Signal Hill, CA.

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.

Stress and anxiety are often the root causes leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as addiction and eating disorders. By evaluating triggers for stress and/or anxiety and developing healthy coping strategies (often with cognitive behavioral interventions), patients learn to self regulate and experience significant mood improvement. When necessary, referrals for medications are made as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

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.

In treating anxiety, the most impotant issues is interupting the cycle of worry, obessing over worry, fearing the return of worry, and allowing worry to spread to every aspect of your life. Discriminating realistic reasons to worry from irrational reasons can help clients with excessive stress to cope. Interupting and redirecting thoughts of anxiety to more productive thoughts and activities will interupt the cycle that creates habitual anxiety. We will look at times you may over-react to triggers (be it an upcoming social situation, or a stumbling block that creates more stress and predictions of failure). We will take this path together. You are not alone.

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 can be debilitating, especially if you have panic attacks. It can feel like and assault on your senses and makes you want to flee to safety. I liken it to feeling as if a lion had walked into the room. Your brain tells you there is danger and you must fight or flee. For those who suffer from anxiety medication can help but there are also ways that you can learn to manage and control it. I try to help my patients to understand the universalized thoughts and feelings that feed the anxious beats and to learn techniques that will improve the quality of their lives.

Stress and anxiety feel bigger in isolation. Therapy can help identify the source of stress, what triggers stress reactions, fears and worries, negative thought patterns, and how to manage and cope with stressors in positive ways. If you or your child / adolescent are overwhelmed with stress and are experiencing increased anxiety then I would like to help.

Many clients present with increasing levels of stress and anxiety in their lives. Therapy becomes centered around identifying triggers for anxiety symptoms, recent stressors in their lives, and identifying symptoms. Often times, we find together that anxiety has been in their life for a long time and that old patterns of behavior has accompanied it. We explore some of those patterns to identify the triggers and find new coping skills to practice when stress arrives. I find it helpful to collaborate with the client on setting goals and working at a speed that is comfortable to each client. This provides empowerment and confidence in working toward new ways of handling the stresses of living.

I help people overcome their fears and anxieties about taking action in their life. You can feel stuck when you have an unwanted feeling of anxiety that keeps you from your goals. The good news is that you can change how you feel by using emotion regulation skills. I can help you overcome your anxiety by using Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and help you build the strength you need to move forward with your life.

The demands placed on us to be available, in touch and productive increase with each new technology that appears on the store shelves. The pressures placed on our everyday activities has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. Anxiety arises and intensifies with each new demand and expectation whether it be self or externally induced from obligations at work or home. Managing ever increasing stress and anxiety levels is an on going challenge for each of us. In therapy we identify the sources of our stress and anxiety, set and work goals to find the balance necessary to bring sanity and peace back into our lives. Have you been abused? Have you experienced Trauma, PTSD? EMDR Trained

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.

If you suffer from anxiety and stress, we can work together to understand the triggers of your stress and identify concrete, usable strategies to take into everyday life to manage it. Ancient stoic practices can be particularly effective in dealing with anxiety and I integrate these into my therapy sessions. Together, we can work to overcome the symptoms of anxiety and improve your daily experience of the world. With the right tools and support, you can start to live your life to the fullest again.

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.

Big or small, anxiety has a way of effecting our lives. Anxiety not only effects those who struggle to do, but also, those who are already doing so much. We can minimize it, rationalize it, and tell ourselves it's circumstantial but the truth is anxiety is the very thing that keeps you from feeling connected to the moment and those around you. In our work together, I will help you cultivate techniques, strategies and mindsets unique to you that will help you to reclaim your life, allow you to be present to the moment, and create a feeling of wholeness. If you're ready to feel less stress and live in a more meaningful way I'd love to meet you and see how I can support you in your journey.

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.

Stress at work or school, relationship stress, financial stress, health issues often are precursors for people to seek psychotherapy. Disturbances in sleep and appetite and an inability to attend and concentrate can undermine one's work performance or a student's ability to successfully master the demands of school. I have experience treating teachers, nurses, doctors and lawyers with anxiety and stress and, as well, see college and graduate and law school students form universities in the Los Angeles area, including USC, UCLA and Loyola.

Anxiety is an inability to be fully relaxed. It is mental and physical tension. Many things cause it and many things perpetuate it. Not all anxiety is bad or needs to be extinguished. I work with the client to understand the meaning of their anxiety. I find sometimes people are not consciously aware of the real reasons they cannot feel relaxed. Enlisting the client's sense of curiosity about their own thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations I aim to identify their symptoms of anxiety and the origins of them. I utilize cognitive behavioral and mindfulness strategies to identify and replace unhelpful thoughts with more productive ones.

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.

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.

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.

Life can be overwhelming at times resulting in increased anxiety and stress. If you are experiencing difficulty sleeping, worrying constantly, and increased irritability, you can benefit from additional support. Talking about issues you are dealing with may be hard, but avoiding issues can be even more devastating. Lack of sleep and fearful thoughts often do not go away by themselves. Learning new techniques on how to cope with stress and anxiety can improve your relationships, your outlook on life, and your overall health and well being. Reaching out for help is not a weakness, it shows strength and willingness to learn skills to improve your life.

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.

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.

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.