Specializing in trauma, anxiety and
life transitions
Specialities
TRAUMA THERAPY
ANXIETY THERAPY
GENERAL LIFE CHAOS THERAPY
Trauma Therapy
Many people experience trauma, especially women. Trauma can look like war, assault and physical hurt, but it can also look like consistently being talked down to or yelled at, unhealthy attachment as a child, or neglect. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not yet recognized in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM V), and lumped in with PTSD. C-PTSD includes prolonged exposure to traumatic events and can include even more persistent and intense symptoms. While intense, there are many ways to cope with trauma.
Common (but not exhaustive) symptoms include:
- reliving a traumatic event
- changes in beliefs about yourself or others after the event
- being easily startled (hypervigilant)
- avoidance of situations or people that remind you of the event
- dissociation or flashbacks
- feelings of being detached
- inability to experience positive emotions
- loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed
- toxic shame
- low self esteem
- intrusive emotional flashbacks
- dissociation
I’m a certified trauma specialist, trained in EMDR, and certified in DBT. I continue to advance my knowledge and skills with education, classes and seminars.
Anxiety Therapy
Anxiety, a mood disorder commonly diagnosed as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), is a condition in which each day is riddled with:
- overwhelming restlessness
- constant worry,
- inability to relax,
- difficulty concentrating
- muscle tightness
- feeling jumpy and on-edge easily fatigued
- feelings of being out of control having difficulty breathing
- irritability
Your anxiety, whether diagnosable as GAD or not, impacts your life in a variety of negative ways. Your body is constantly on edge internally. You may be easily startled, feel tight in various areas (neck, shoulders, legs, back, etc.). You may have constant racing thoughts, intrusive worries, and difficulty concentrating. It is exhausting for your body to maintain this.
Anxiety therapy can help you slow your automatic bodily responses and increase your ability to cope in the moment. Together, we will work to increase feelings of hope, connection and contentment.
Life Transitions (aka General Life Chaos) Therapy
Whether our stressors are work related, family, finances, divorce, graduation, new parenthood, or holiday related, they are stress. Stress, whether negative or positive, can affect our ability to cope and regulate our emotions. It not only affects our thought processes and general outlook. It can affect our bodies in the form of illness, pain and exhaustion.
When encountering stressors, we often end up irritable, short with others, or having feelings of depression or anxiety. We may feel lost and overwhelmed. While these feelings are a completely normal response to a variety of difficult situations, that doesn’t make living with them any less comfortable. In therapy, you will learn how to re-engage in the world around you, and with yourself, in an effective manner. This isn’t just deep breathing and meditation. Here you will practice new skills, gain new insights, learn boundaries and new ways of thinking.
In therapy for life transitions I will help you navigate the life stressors that keep you from living your best life by increasing your ability to cope, getting pent up frustrations “off your chest,” and finding ways to be mindful and present. Together, we will forge a way out of the stress that has burndened you. You will come away feeling empowered and able.