Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Oakbrook Terrace, IL.

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 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.

My approach to anxiety and stress counseling focuses on providing a safe and empathetic environment where clients can explore their experiences and identify underlying patterns. I utilize a blend of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness techniques to help clients gain practical tools for managing anxious thoughts and overwhelming stress. By fostering self-awareness and developing effective coping strategies, clients learn to respond to challenges with resilience and calm. My goal is to empower clients to build confidence, improve daily functioning, and enhance overall well-being through personalized and evidence-based treatment.

Anxiety and stress counseling benefit by sorting through those parts of your life that are unsettling or overwhelming. Anxiety is based on fears, whether conscious or unconscious that counseling discusses in order to understand, problem solve and make peace with. I also teach Breathing lessons to reduce stress from my practice as a yoga teacher.

Worry is a normal reaction to everyday stress and traumatic life events. Some ways of coping will reduce your discomfort. However, you may be one of the millions who experience anxiety to such a degree that it impairs your functioning at home, work or school. Left unchecked, anxiety will affect your overall quality of life. CBT, Mindfulness, and Exposure Therapy are proven methods for dealing social or performance anxiety, nightmares and sleep fears, intrusive negative thoughts, or OCD. Kari can assist you, your child or adolescent, in controlling anxiety and achieving relief from the mental and physical symptoms that can be debilitating.

I personally have suffered from anxiety and come from a family where anxiety was a pervasive undertow. I know how anxiety can dominate a life and stress the lives of others. Medications may have been tried and and medical services utilized and proven not enough. In counseling I work with my clients individually, sometimes together with a spouse, in a conversational manner to get at the thought patterns contributing to stress and anxiety. Helping the client to get to the base of their anxiety, how they are stressing themselves out in their given life situation and how specifically to change these entrenched patterns is my goal. Referrals are made for other forms of help as necessary,

I work with anxiety and stress using a cognitive behavioral approach. The goal is to help the client learn that they can manage their anxiety and stress. This is done through gaining insight into their perception and thinking around the circumstances causing them stress. We also work to help them reduce the anxiety through physical activity including exercise and relaxation. Combining the thought process with the physical component work well in reducing anxiety and stress.

Do you long for relationships with others but are afraid to take risks because of how you might be perceived? Do you avoid people, places or experiences? Is your life feeling more constrained and difficult to enjoy things you once experienced. If so you may be dealing with something commonly known as an Anxiety Disorder. Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. It is a normal feeling that we are born with to keep us safe from danger. The problem is when anxiety levels b/c elevated it can be very debilitating and keep people from a full life. Approximately 25% of the population experiences elevated levels of anxiety and there is help. Contact us to set up a consultation.