Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Mercer Island, WA.

Sometimes life can feel really overwhelming. The increasing daily stresses can grow to be a heavy weight pressing down on you. Sometimes you can't get your thoughts and worries to just shut off when you try to relax or go to sleep. For some, panic strikes with a racing heart, making it hard to even breath... Our counselors at Mill Creek Family Services specialize in helping you find the relief you're seeking. With proven strategies that dismantle the power of stress and fears, we help you create a life of increased peace and confidence you're hoping for.

Our work together will help uproot and eliminate the causes of anxiety and decrease worry in life and relationships. You will learn to transform worrisome thought patterns to positive feelings and develop the perspective to live a more meaningful and productive life. In so doing, you create a more positive environment for you and loved ones. You will feel lighter and happier. The process is available to anyone willing to invest time and energy.

You feel anxious and overwhelmed, consumed by thoughts of your body and food. You are tired and exhausted and never feel that you are able to keep up. Consuming thoughts get in the way of you being able to focus on your friendships, family, and work. You feel something has to change, but you're not sure what. You want to be able to feel less overwhelmed and enjoy your relationships more. I get how easy it is to be overwhelmed by all the responsibilities you feel and I know what it is to find a way to let go of the anxiety. Contact me now.

There are many different types of anxiety and stress. You may be having an adverse reaction to a specific incident or you may be coming to me with a lifelong struggle around generalized anxiety. I work with many clients who have experienced work life stress and trauma and help them make sense of their situations so they can make informed decisions around a course of action. I help many clients uncover lifelong anxiety that has become so normalized that it may not register as anxiety. Ways of coping with anxiety may be also be causing problems. The goal would be to discover better tools to deal with both the underlying issue and the problems that outdated coping skills may be causing.

Anxiety and stress are real problems that keep too many from living healthy, balanced lives. Whether it’s sleepless nights or full-blown panic attacks, we will explore the issues together and determine the best course of action. Current stressors such as relationship difficulties and traumatic events can cause anxiety, however, the cause can also be rooted in the past without your awareness of it. Often the help of a trained therapist can make the difference in finding and healing the source.

Does worry interfere with your responsibilities or daily life, disrupting normal activities, causing you to miss social events? Does it seem like you can’t stop your mind from racing as you worry about all kinds of things and often expect the worst? If you answered yes, you may be suffering from generalized anxiety. It may seem like your worries are coming from the outside, people and events that are causing you stress. In fact, your worrying may actually be self-generated from your own internal dialog running in the background. I will help you calm down and learn to override the negative thoughts while teaching you valuable self-soothing techniques, bringing peace back to your life.

It is an uneasy feeling when anxiousness is overflowing, especially when it starts to affect the normal life style of yours or your child’s. I provide professional training and practical relaxation skills to help you feel relief and ease again. The most important thing is that we will together build a beneficial system for you to live with stress in a healthy way instead of being controlled by anxiety.

Anxiety and stress take a hold on you and never let go, leaving you trapped and frozen. I help my clients to learn all about the magic of mindfulness practice. It's one of the most effective ways to put you in control of your emotions, rather than them controlling you. Imagine how great it would be to have an internal place of peace and serenity that you can use at any time to relax and become grounded. Mindfulness is an ancient practice that is also supported by scientific empirical studies. It's one of the best ways to change your life.

Do you sometimes feel as though life is dragging you along? Would you like to live life instead of your life living you? Anxiety happens when your thoughts are primarily concerns about the future. As a psychotherapist and yoga teacher with a long-standing commitment to my own mindfulness practice, I will guide you in learning to shift your mind from the future to the present. Mindfulness and Lifespan Integration techniques have been shown to be effective developing the present-focused awareness and emotional cohesion that can soothe anxiety and unlock freedom.

We look together at the areas of your life that are causing you stress and anxiety. For most people, this is a huge aspect of living. Finding ways to reduce such stress and anxiety becomes a major focus of our work. We will examine your work, your family life, your relationships, your ability to function day to day, and the kinds of things you already do to cope with anxiety and stress. Developing strategies to deal more effectively with anxiety and stress is a major goal in counseling.

Anxiety is rough- you likely know this. You might think "why is this happening to me? Why does this phase me like it does? This isn't anything big." You also may be under intense stress and perhaps even intensely traumatic situations and just now starting to feel the impact. I offer helpful practical tools to deal with anxiety in how you think and how you breath. But I don't stop there as those things are often un-effective, as you may have already found, if not partnered with a deep understanding of how to work with, on an emotional level, messy feelings.

Anxiety can run your life, but it doesn't have to. Together, we'll work on ways to tap into the security and strength of your body. We'll understand the anxious stories and find ways to bring supportive, soothing energy to calm those parts down. We'll listen to your body for any signs of unresolved trauma or relational wounding and work gently with the body to heal.

Anxiety and stress are a natural part of life but how do you manage it? Stress is a result of trying to deal with the pressures and changes of life. I provide clear-cut solutions to give you the relief you need from trying situations. I am a strong proponent of dialectic behavioral therapy and mindfulness which incorporates breathing, relaxation, and other physiological exercises to help reduce the anxiety from within.