Therapy for Anxiety

Most people have experienced anxiety at some point in their lives and are able to cope effectively most of the time. Yet others find it extreme difficult to overcome the symptoms of anxiety.  If you are experiencing these symptoms and feel they are interfering with your daily life, therapy can help uncover the underlying causes of worries and fears and help you look at situations in a new, less frightening way. If you are suffering from anxiety, I invite you to contact me today.

Symptoms of anxiety include: Nervousness, restlessness or being tense • Feelings of danger, panic or dread • Rapid breathing or hyperventilation • Increased or heavy sweating. Trembling or muscle twitching. Weakness or lethargy • Difficulty focusing or thinking clearly about anything other than the thing you’re worried about • Insomnia • Obsessions about certain ideas, a sign of obsessive-compulsive disorder • Anxiety surrounding a particular life event or experience that has occurred in the past, a sign of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Depression

Depression touches people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and genders.  Depression affects how a person feels, thinks, and acts.  It usually involves feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. If you find yourself isolating or not feeling like your usual self, self-loathing, consistently crying, wanting to sleep, eat or not eat all the time, and feel a persistent deep sense of pain or sadness that others don’t understand, empty mood, or thoughts of suicide, you may be suffering from depression.

Please know you are not alone and there are ways to overcome this struggle.  If you want to regain hope and a sense of purpose for your life, I encourage you to contact me today.

Trauma

Trauma is an event or circumstance resulting in physical, emotional, or life-threatening harm.  The event can cause lasting adverse effects on a person’s mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual well-being. Some people go on living without negative lasting effects while others may struggle to recover and experience traumatic stress reactions like flashbacks, strained relationships, and physical symptoms.  If you are struggling to recover from a traumatic event, therapy can help. Contact me today if you would like help finding constructive ways to manage your emotions and cope.

Grief & Loss

“Grief is what is going on inside us while mourning is what we do on the outside.  The internal work of grief is a journey.  It does not have prescribed dimensions and it does not end on a certain date.”  (David Kessler) Working through grief is not a linear process as we revisit emotions in our loss. However, at some point we can finding meaning in our grief to move us forward. If you find yourself struggling to cope physically, emotionally, and socially with the pain from a significant loss and/or having difficulty functioning in day-to-day activities, counseling can help. I invite you to contact me today.

Life Transitions

We all can expect life challenges and transitions, yet at times, these changes can take us by surprise and be difficult to walk through.  I am here to listen, offer support, and help you become stronger and confident in working through these difficulties. Here are just a few life transitions I can help you navigate.

Going away to college • Adjusting to a new job • Getting married • Having a new baby (postpartum depression) • Parenting • Launching young adults • Empty nesting • Breakup, separation or divorce • Infidelity recovery • Retirement • Job loss or major change in career • Relocation • Financial gain/loss • Serious illness or disability • Issues pertaining to aging • Death of a loved one

I have extensive experience working with women of all ages and have a passion for helping women experience restoration, transformation and hope.  If you are struggling with friendship, purpose, identity, roles, assertiveness, faith, codependency, boundaries, parenting, marriage, work environment, abuse, menopause, or caring for aging parents, I can help.

Women’s Issues

Pre-Marital Counseling

If you are considering pre-marital counseling, I commend you.  This is an intentional step to get to know your future spouse in several key areas important to marriage relationships.  It is imperative to have agreements and frameworks on how to effectively communicate and manage differences as relational challenges arise. Through premarital counseling I help you get to know yourself and each other better.  We look at strengths and areas of growth and develop ways to appreciate and navigate differences in a healthy way.

I am a certified Prepare/Enrich facilitator and utilize this curriculum and assessments to guide us in sessions together.  We start with the assessment which is the gold standard for premarital couples. This assessment highlights areas of strength, as well as identifies areas of growth. All couples have areas of growth, and part of our sessions will be using tools to work on those specific areas.

Typically, pre-marital sessions run 1.5 hours long meeting weekly for about 8-10 weeks however each couple is unique and may need less or more time to process the topics covered in session.  I work with each couple to tailor the program to accommodate your needs.  I also recommend newly married couples participate in monthly counseling sessions through the first year of marriage for guidance and support as they adapt to life together.

Marital Counseling

Often couples experience ruptures in relationship which need repairing. Maybe there has been a breakdown in communication, or couples feel like they are growing apart. I work with couples to explore the root cause of the issues that bring them into my office.  To address areas of breakdown in the relationship and explore ways to strengthen the relationship I draw on tools and concepts like:

*Breaking negative patterns and cycles of interaction to develop better ways of communication and interaction.

*Utilizing the Intimacy Wheel to address specific areas in a couple’s relationship like finances, communication, affection, parenting, recreational companionship, sexual relationship, spiritual growth and understanding, and domestic partnership.

*Encouraging the development of a secure partnership by understanding and implementing principles of the Gottman Sound Relationship House

*Improving attachment and bonding in a couple’s relationship through Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)