Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Lyons, IL.

Anxiety and Stress are one of my primary specialties. Anxiety and stress can affect all aspects of your life. My approach to counseling is down to earth, supportive, and informative. I will help you gain insights and teach you new coping skills. My goal is to provide you relief from your suffering. Counseling is a proven way to help manage anxiety and stress. Seeking a new therapist can be stressful and anxiety provoking. I strive to make the process as frustration free as possible. If you have any questions before making an appointment I would be more than happy to answer them.

Similar in approach to the treatment of depression, I take a holistic approach to the treatment of anxiety and stress disorders. I seek to restore function and break the momentum cause by ineffective habits that were created as a knee-jerk way of responding to anxiety symptoms. The instinct to try to control our emotional experience is strong and understandable, but often creates difficulties that make anxiety symptoms more entrenched and difficult to treat. Learning techniques of relaxation and mindfulness are instrumental in the effective treatment of anxiety symptoms and regaining the kind of balance lost in the unrestrained experience of anxiety symptoms.

Anxiety is an intruder! It interferes in an individual's daily life and interpersonal relationships. My approach to anxiety is straightforward: "Either you manage anxiety or it will manage you." The good news is that with knowledge about anxiety and the right tools you can manage this intruder. I teach my clients about the two primary responses to anxiety (one good and the other not good) and give them the strategies and management tools they need to keep this intruder from ruling their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Our best approach on anxiety and stress counseling include teaching mindfulness techniques, cognitive restructuring strategies, and relaxation practices to help individuals identify and manage their anxious thoughts and physical sensations in the present moment. We also address the underlying triggers and beliefs contributing to their anxiety which involves deep breathing exercises, grounding techniques, and exploring cognitive distortions to challenge negative thought patterns.

Anxiety is miserable but it's also one of the easier things to treat in therapy. Whether you are stressed out and worried about "everything" or if your anxiety has a compulsive side to it I can help. I enjoy working with anxious people because there is a lot of energy that can get channeled towards fast improvement. I initially approach anxiety work from a cognitive side as to how the thought processes generate the anxiety. Understanding the emotions underneath the anxiety is an important part of the process as well. I work with generalized anxiety (worriers), OCD, social anxiety, and specific anxieties. Believe it or not - anxiety work can actually be fun and there's often a lot of laughs.

Anxiety and Stress (and Phobias) are common and can be treated with many tools. We can examine the source of your stress or anxiety, determine how it plays itself out in your day-to-day life, and develop very specific, customized strategies for your unique situation and issues. For example, with Fear of Flying - we can use printed material, homework assignments, educational information/teaching approaches, hypnosis.