Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Mount Vernon, NY.

Stress and anxiety are grounded in fear of an anticipated future. The mind makes up a scenario, suggests that it may be true and an anxiety and stress are born. Nothing has actually happened other than the mental event, yet this phenomenon accounts for the bulk of human suffering. As a therapist it is my job to help clients who tend to be anxious recognize the endless stream of stress producing conjecture as a mental phenomenon unrelated to reality. Working together we can often trace their tendency to anxiety to earlier life experiences and have them begin to see the automatic nature of their anxiety's generation - this helps them interrupt the process.

The modern world we live in is full of amazing technological advancements and organizational wonders, but it is also more complex and demanding than ever before. The myriad competing demands of our lives, how busy we are, the continual pressure to do and be more creates enormous stress for all of us. This stress can escalate into anxiety and the added strain of these issues easily begins to short-circuit our ability to function at our best, to feel good, to maintain relationships and responsibilities. I can help you understand the internal and external forces creating these negative feelings, and together we can find strategies for minimizing stress and anxiety so you can feel better.

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.

Anxiety is a feeling that we experience at some point in our life. It’s that feeling of intense nervousness and fear that translate into physical symptoms. For some, the experience occurs more frequently with more severity and can go from occurring periodically to an everyday feeling. It can take a toll on your daily life ranging from your health, outlook on life to how you function socially. You will learn where your feelings of anxiety are stemming from and why they are so persistent. You will also become aware of how your physical and emotional symptoms not only connect, but how they trigger one another. Becoming complacent with anxiety shouldn't be a norm. Let's find your happiness.

Living with excessive worry and uncontrollable negative thoughts may impede your functioning during the day and keep you up at night. When anxiety impacts your ability to live comfortably, therapy can help. Using CBT and concrete coping skills I’m able to help clients to cope with stress, address specific fears, and alter negative self-talk. I also incorporate psychodynamic insight-oriented interventions, to help clients dive deeper to explore and work through the root of their anxiety. Although anxiety can be overwhelming and debilitating, it’s highly treatable. Together, we can help you work through your worries, and find strategies that help you feel calmer, more at peace, and fulfilled.

Dr. Joel and Dr. Sara work supportively and educatively to help you gain a sense of mastery with respect to your anxiety and stress. For over 40 years, we have helped the victims of abusive relationships, work stress, emotional burnout, identity concerns, & perfectionsitic personalities who partake in unhealthy habits. Clients have often reported a sense of relief and appreciation over being well-understood and accepted by Dr. Joel and Dr. Sara. Our practical and reasonable therapeutic approaches build your healthy self-esteem and provide you with the tools for enhanced growth and effectiveness while facing life's challenges. Often within a few sessions, clients feel better.

We live in a stressful world. Often the complexities of our lives can become ovewhelming and they can cause great anxiety. Through good psychotherapy, together we can break down your seemingly unmanagable oppressive thoughts, this can help you cope with your life's circumstances in a productive manor and by eliminating the unhealthy anxiety you will be able to see stress as is, just one more challenge in your life.

Anxiety arises due to one's own natural energies being turned back on oneself. That is caused by lack of clarity on how to advance in life's many often complex situations. In therapy I help you uncover the root causes of anxiety, and to find the way to transcend specific current issues. This relieves the underlying anxieties that seem to arise from nowhere. I will help you see that the anxiety and circular, repeated thinking are due to deeply-held messages. These restrictive messages make it difficult to see the path forward, and can cause you to feel that authentic self-expression is dangerous, not wanted, and unhealthy.

Anxiety is excessive worry about negative events that you expect to happen, but are not necessarily in the cards. The worry is enough to bring on dread, panic, obsessions, compulsions, and phobias. Usually, early life experiences – perhaps forgotten or suppressed -- taught you to anticipate the worst. Together, we will bring these memories into consciousness so you can consider if they still apply to you in your current life as an adult. This will help you stay more grounded in the reality of the here and now, which can significantly reduce anxious symptoms. I will also teach you calming techniques, including mindfulness practices and self-compassion to counter anxiety when it arises.

I will show you how you make yourself anxious about the things you find threatening and challenging. Anxiety and stress are largely self-created by the beliefs we tacitly hold about adversity or potential adversity. I will show you your self-defeating beliefs and teach you how to think so you feel sensible concern and do what you can do to avoid danger and threats. I will show you how to philosophically accept what cannot be avoided and thereby minimize the stress you feel about what cannot be changed or avoided. Using the power of your own ability to think in a self-helping way I will help you to change your feelings of anxiety.

Clients can navigate stressful and distressing events in the present by healing from past painful or traumatic life experiences. Processing the events can decrease emotional response and increase cognitive flexibility. Clients struggling from feeling emotionally hurt, isolated, selfish, helpless, or hopeless can gain insight into symptoms and treatment of depression. Clients can learn emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal relationship skills and heal from past painful experiences that may influence current thoughts and belief systems in an unhealthy way.

We have all had moments of anxiety and we remain anxious due to the beliefs we hold about our reality and the thoughts we have about our situation. An individual becomes anxious when they overestimate the negative aspects of their situation and underestimate their ability to cope and function in problem situations. The anxious individual will imagine and create even more negative consequences than are actually present. I guide my clients to a more rational approach of focusing on the task at hand, not engaging in or imagining negative outcomes, and not engaging in or exaggerating possible negative outcomes. We focus together on ways that enable coping, behavioral change and flourishing in that situation.

Anxiety and stress are interrelated. Generally people with anxiety disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, tend to internalize conflicts that cause them to always be stressed out, which affects their thinking and behavior. Through an eclectic psychotherapy approach that includes psychodynamic, cognitive and behavioral work, I help them release the fears and angers that underlie the build-up of stress. In time they learn to moderate their feelings, cope better with stressful situations and live a calmer life.