- Do you wish your life were different?
- Would you like to learn tools to help alleviate stress and anxiety
- Do you suffer from low self-esteem or depression?
- Do you feel disconnected from your life, as if you are stuck in the passenger’s seat and want to figure out how to get back into the driver’s seat?
You may have a vision of how you want your life to be and reality just isn’t measuring up. Whether it’s unsatisfying relationships, feeling stuck in negative thought patterns or just the desire to experience more joy in life, impasses can get in the way of realizing life’s potential. People come to my practice for many different reasons including general anxiety/stress, relationship struggles, low self-esteem, problematic family interactions (past or present), depression and life transitions.
Anxiety
In today’s world, stressors constantly confront us. Designed to protect us from predators, now our fight/flight/freeze response is activated by meetings with the boss or Los Angeles traffic. With 24 hour emails and smart phones that wont stop buzzing, we don’t receive much of a break. Our brains, with an inherent negativity bias, have trouble differentiating between perceived and real threats. Perceived threats keep our system on high alert and set up a cycle where our brains become trained to overreact and catastrophize. Anxiety can have a devastating impact from panic attacks to difficulty socializing or leaving the house. As a result some people self medicate with alcohol or drugs or other maladaptive behaviors to try to calm their anxious brain.
Providing a safe and calming environment, I help clients identify anxious thoughts and gain a better understanding of anxiety’s patterns so that they can slow down their racing thoughts. Using Mindfulness, T.R.M., and other modalities, I assist clients in changing their relationship with anxiety so that they are no longer constantly activated and controlled by it.
Depression
Depression creates feelings of sadness, hopelessness and loss of enjoyment in life. Like a fog it can descend and block out all other experiences so that the dominant framework is one of depression. In the throes of depression it can be difficult to remember anything positive about one’s self or life.
In treating depression, I look at the whole client and explore values and experiences that are lost in the temporary fog. Sadness can be real, but how we engage it and make meaning of it makes a real difference. I engage clients in a safe and personable exploration of negative patterns and problematic dynamics in order to create healthy patterns and more satisfying relationship with one’s self and life.
If have additional questions about how I might help you with your particular concerns, please call me for a phone consultation.