Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Van Nuys, CA.

Much like depression, anxiety and stress is something we all deal with at some point in our lives. Anxiety, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. In fact, some anxiety is not only healthy, but necessary for us to get things done. Without some anxiety, we lack motivation to take action. However, anxiety can become problematic when it overwhelms and paralyzes us. Therapy helps by giving us a space to learn skills to better manage the anxiety and no longer feel gripped by it. I use a holistic/mindful approach consisting of connecting the mind, body, and the environment (incorporating all 5 senses) to live fully in the present moment with respect and compassion for ourselves.

it's normal to feel anxious or feel stress out sometimes. Everyone experiences anxiety differently. Some feel it in their bodies where others feel it emotionally (hard time breathing, shortness of breath, feeling overwhelmed, sweaty hands, muscle tension (headache, neck pain, back pain ), racing thoughts, and so on. In therapy, we will work together to find triggers to your worry and find ways to decrease symptoms. ​

Are you feeling overwhelmed by constant anxiety and stress, unsure of how to break free from the cycle? You don’t have to face it alone. In my practice, I offer a safe, supportive space where we can work together to understand what’s driving your anxiety and develop practical strategies to manage it. Using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and more profound psychodynamic techniques, we’ll explore the patterns that keep you stuck and help you regain control over your thoughts and emotions. My approach is empathetic and collaborative to empower you to lead a calmer, more balanced life.

Everyone can feel some level of anxiety once in a while. But overwhelming, recurring, or "out of nowhere" fear can deeply impact people. Sometimes anxiety can cause fatigue, irritability, difficulty focusing, sleep problems and muscle tension. When anxiety interferes like this, therapy can really help. Together, we will figure out the most troublesome issues, develop a treatment plan, and tackle the goals at a comfortable pace. I utilize cognitive-behavioral therapy, but also incorporate other modalities when helpful (i.e. exposure therapy, systematic desensitization, relaxation).

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.

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@kevinflemingphd.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.

I believe anxiety can be stalled by shame, miscommunication, and hidden thoughts. I will work with you to identify how this happens through your relationships-- and this can be any type of relationship; coworker, friend, boss, sibling, partner, child, and/or spouse. What often helps in this area is to practice mindfulness and a cognitive intervention and other techniques to create self awareness and foster relationships.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It can be hard for people who experience various challenges to have the confidence or desire to approach a professional. Not only we are generally too embarrassed to ask for help in unraveling our feelings, healthy functional people suffer the double stigma. Since they are used to being highly functional in most, if not all aspects of their lives, when they face unfamiliar emotional challenges it can be hard to accept or understand it. In many occasions it is not easy to say: hey, I am dealing with something that I don’t have the tools to resolve! I truly care about them and want the best possible results.

Everyone experiences stress and anxiety but sometimes it gets to a point where it is hard to manage on our own. My job is to provide you the tools to help you decrease these feelings. Depending on the diagnosis, symptoms and severity, we will come up with a treatment plan that would be most effective for you. All treatment plans will include relaxation techniques and learning ways to manage those "what if" thoughts. Other techniques include exposure therapy, assertive skills and setting limits with others. As a team, we will get you through this together.

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 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.

I help clients navigate anxiety and stress by creating a grounding, supportive environment where they can slow down, explore the roots of their overwhelm, and reconnect with a sense of control. My approach combines practical tools, like nervous system regulation and mindfulness-based strategies, with deeper exploration of patterns and beliefs that may be fueling anxiety. I work collaboratively to help clients build resilience, set boundaries, and feel more empowered in their day-to-day lives. Relief is possible, and you don’t have to figure it out alone.

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.

Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, anxiety disorders and ongoing chronic stress can appear as repeated episodes of worry & fear, or develop into sudden feelings of intense anxiety with physical sensations, known as panic attacks. Your anxiety may feel related to an event or thought, and other times appear to occur randomly and without cause. Anxiety can develop at any age, when left untreated it may develop into depression. In therapy we will explore how anxiety is affecting your life. You will learn how your physical, emotional and mental health are connected and together create an effective treatment plan specific to your goals to improve your well-being.

It takes an act of courage for sensitive young adults to learn to trust and believe in themselves. It takes self-awareness for them to learn to speak their truth. I help sensitive young adults to develop the self-love necessary to fully accept themselves. Ultimately, the key to living a peaceful life lies in knowing who you are and what you feel. I help young people stand strong in what is true for them. I help my clients learn to not waste their time looking to others for approval. Through our work together, I help young people to discover their authentic self-expression and embark on the journey of the dream for their life.

We are all going to encounter stress in our lives. Learn how to handle stress in difficult situations and find new ways to manage your response to stress will help you enjoy your life more. I offer a whole person approach with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy skills to work on Stress and Anxiety. Create the changes that you want to better cope with Stress and Anxiety.

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.

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.

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.

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.