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

Anxiety can take many forms, including excessive stress, low self-esteem, panic attacks, phobias and compulsions. When fear or anxiety is experienced on a daily basis it can become so familiar that it goes un-noticed until problems arise that grab our attention. These can include health problems, insomnia or feeling stuck in bad relationships. Addressing anxiety can free up your energy and enjoyment, and give you back your life.

Anxiety therapy is the first line of treatment for unhealthy anxiety. Your therapist can support you to put your mind at ease, recognize and address the patterns that may contribute to your symptoms. Anxiety therapy sessions can also help you identify coping mechanisms to manage anxiety and reclaim your life. You may feel uncomfortable or even anxious about going to therapy. You may think, “this will probably pass… maybe I should just push through it, and things will get better.” Rest assured that you are not alone. Many people have been there. But you don’t have to wait for your anxiety symptoms to get worse or to affect other areas of your life to seek help. We are here to help.

We embrace an expansive view of the individual and collaborate with clients to explore how their sense of self, past experiences, environment, and culture, impacts their current moods, relationships, experiences, and self-beliefs. We will work together in identifying what areas of life you would like to further explore to best reach your goals/growth in this process of self-discovery.

Stress is not only an internal problem but is evoked by environmental impingement such as family, business, and political currents. All individuals have varying levels of stress in their lives. One of the focuses of psychotherapy is to help with increasing a capacity to move through it. An enhanced capacity for imagination and creativity can be a result.

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.

Many people have anxiety. Anxiety is the most common problem that clients bring into psychotherapy. Anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness, and dread. Sometimes you can say what it is bothering you. Your job or relationship may be causing you stress and you want to solve the problems. You don’t know how to deal with the mounting pressures. Friends will often say “don’t worry about it” but that doesn’t help. Sometimes you don’t really know what is bothering you it just is. I can show you how spot these feelings before they overwhelm you and what you can do about it. We’ll get clear on what has been difficult for you and how have you been feeling.

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.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is a highly effective treatment for anxiety disorders, particularly OCD. It involves gradually exposing individuals to feared stimuli or situations while preventing the typical compulsive response. Through repeated exposure to these anxiety-provoking triggers, clients learn to tolerate distress without engaging in compulsive behaviors. ERP therapy is based on the principle of habituation, where anxiety decreases over time with repeated exposure. Therapists work collaboratively with clients to develop personalized exposure hierarchies and teach coping skills to manage anxiety. ERP has been shown to significantly reduce symptoms.

We’ll start by getting on the same page: what is bringing you to therapy, what are our goals for incorporating medication, and what would it look like to truly feel “better?” We’ll discuss your past history with both psychotherapy and medication, the current challenges you’re facing, and what you hope to get out of this process. You and I will collaborate on a treatment plan that maps out how we’re going to get there.

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.

Most of us experience anxiety and/or stress at some point. However, when it persists and reaches a heightened level of intensity, therapy may be needed and can have a powerful impact on reducing these symptoms. Talk therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are two approaches shown to have success in treating anxiety. Talk therapy allows for my clients to open up and unburden themselves from the weight of what they may be carrying and validating their experience and emotions. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps address and shift any unhealthy thinking or behaviors associated with the anxiety. This can significantly improve ones ability to manage their anxiety.

While most treatment approaches for anxiety and stress are effective on the surface, they dont treat the real problem. Mantras, deep breathing, and rational dialogues about your fear being irrational rarely work---for most people dont 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

Many individuals have anxiety and stress in their lives. Chris has treated clients for stress and anxiety through effective counseling and psychotherapy in Westchester and Putnam County. As a therapist, I partner with clients to offer techniques such as cognitive behavior therapy and solutions oriented counseling yielding good results. Many clients have generalized anxiety, panic attacks, or phobias that Chris has experience in treating these types of anxiety. Stress can impact clients in many ways where depression and anxiety effect your quality of life. With proper stress management counseling, clients can go back to normal functioning and enjoy life again.