Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Washington, DC.

Anxiety takes many forms in life, and many activities in life that can be rewarding or meaning can also cause anxiety. When anxiety is too high, it inhibits us from living a life that feels full and worthwhile. Therapy can help you to understand the underlying dynamics of what contributes to feeling anxious and the sense of risk in engaging in your life in a more full way.

Anxiety and stress go hand in hand. Anxiety is a customary reaction to a stressful situation. But, in some cases it becomes excessive and can cause sufferers to dread everyday situations. Stress is a reality for all of us. But, it does not have to overwhelm us. Some people may have a genetic predisposition to anxiety. Early traumatic experiences can also reset the body's normal fear-processing system so that it is hyper-reactive to stress. The goal would be to; rid the exaggerated worries and negative outcomes in unknown situations. I will counsel you on the many ways to reduce the amount of stress in your life, along with techniques to adjust your reaction to those factors.

While most treatment approaches for anxiety and stress are effective on the surface, they don’t treat the real problem. Mantras, deep breathing, and rational dialogues about your fear being irrational rarely work---for most people don’t 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@kevinfleminphd.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.

The exact methods used by your therapist in the James J. Gray Psychotherapy Training Clinic will depend on your symptoms, strengths, preferences, and goals for treatment. In general, though, our staff therapists practice Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This is an active approach in which your therapist will help you build new skills for coping with the difficult situations in your life and will ask you to practice these skills between treatment sessions.

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Children under age 18 are not treated in our clinic.

I can help you identify and address the thought and situations that are contributing to your anxiety. In a safe, supportive and nonjudgmental environment, you can work through difficult emotions and learn ways to gain more control over your thoughts and your life. In your counseling sessions, you can also develop more self-awareness, breathing techniques and other mindfulness-based stress reduction strategies to reduce anxiety and tension.As you develop more mindfulness, you can also begin to identify, examine and address any self-limiting behaviors or negative self-beliefs that keep you from coping effectively.

If you’re not stressed, you’re probably dead! Our world today seems to thrive on it; we work too much, don’t rest enough, eat poorly, and can’t find time to exercise. When we have free time, we often find ourselves staring at a little screen filled with “friends” whose lives seem perfect. This “normal” life causes us physical and emotional distress; add in a propensity for anxiety and chances are you feel really horrible sometimes! Whether you’re simply overwhelmed by life’s responsibilities or are struggling with severe anxiety, panic, and phobias, we can help!

Anxiety and stress steal our time, comfort, confidence, and energy. Whether you are a worrier (ruminating over a problem or something you said/did during the day), or someone who breaks out into a cold sweat thinking about a presentation, getting on a plane, or being exposed to COVID, therapy can help. I use cognitive therapies, behavior modification, compassion, and mindfulness to work with a variety of anxiety symptoms and disorders. I'm also interested in the origin of the anxiety and what maintains it. If you are interested in a pure behavioral approach, I am not the therapist for you. I work to help you understand yourself and lower the baseline level of anxiety in your life.

In today's world, we are stressed as never before. Multitasking has become a way of life for many people, and we are all juggling more balls than ever before.Therapy for anxiety and stress can help you to live and enjoy the life you have chosen. You will learn to be an "actor," rather than a "reactor" in your life. I will help you to discern what is within your control and what is not. Then you will be able to make changes, a step at a time, to live anxiety and stress-free.

Everyone talks about stress and anxiety, but for many of us, it gets to be too much — interfering with work, sleep, relationships, health, or just being able to enjoy life. There are many options to help reduce the ways anxiety and stress "hijack" you, and to better manage and reduce your stressors. As a psychologist and a neuropsychologist, I'll work with you using the best strategies and practical ways for you to get past the obstacles that stress and anxiety can cause, making excellent use of the ways your brain and mind can shift your response to stress, and helping you move forward in your life with greater freedom and ease.

Life can present you with difficult situations which are hard to process and move past. These challenges are not on your timeline and affect everything. Having worked in many healthcare settings, I am familiar navigating life-changing events and grief. I understand the territory of encountering loss, coping with trauma, the complexity of the medical system and living with illness. These issues can have ripple effects on your relationships, sense of self and perceptions of the world. I know how complex things can get, and I will support you during this process.

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.