Maybe you notice it in your chest first. A tightening. Something is wrong.
Or maybe it’s your stomach. You’re queasy and flushed. Everything is not okay.
Or perhaps your thoughts take center stage first. Because what if this happens. Or this. Or that. The spiral is out of your control.
Your body and mind are designed to warn you of danger, but what do you do when it feels like danger is everywhere, and nothing that you do keeps it away?
Therapy for Anxiety
Anxiety is an adaptive trait. Our bodies are meant to warn us of danger with a quicker heartbeat and thoughts that will laser-focus on potential harm. But when these systems are thrown off balance, they can take over your life.
If you are burnt out from the stress of constantly thinking about everything that could go wrong and the pressure of making sure everything goes right, please consider reaching out.
Therapy for anxiety can help you stop and separate yourself from the anxious thoughts running through your head. We’ll work together to identify the strategies that work best for you to let these these thoughts exist without overwhelming you. We’ll work with your body to notice, observe, and practice controlling the warnings it’s giving you. We’ll help you get control of your life again.
Freezing up because it feels like everyone’s eyes are on you, panic attacks that feel like you are drowning, worries that keep spinning and spinning and spinning…
However anxiety shows up in your life, we will make a plan to take back control.
Treatment for OCD
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder disrupts the normal ways that we manage anxiety. Our brains and bodies were built to learn from our environment. When something is scary or dangerous, we should think about it and feel anxious. But when we are not harmed by it, we learn that we don’t need to think about it as much or feel scared when we see it next. Compulsions undermine this natural process and hijack the brain in an unhealthy feedback loop. Because, yes, you may have gotten good feedback on your work…but it was probably because you checked it all over twice and triple-checked each night that the email was sent. And maybe next time you should go ahead and have someone else check just to make sure.
Exposure and Response Prevention is an evidence-based treatment method that interrupts your cycle of obsessions and compulsions, to show you that you can manage your anxiety.
We will work together to identify all of the thoughts and rituals that take away so much of your time. Then, gradually, one by one, we will face the thoughts together without your compulsions. Our goal is for you to notice, feel, and face the anxiety that your obsessions bring - and see that you can manage it. Repeated exposures without compulsions is hard, but it works with the body’s natural way of learning. Your mind will calm down, see that you are safe, and be a little less anxious (and maybe even bored eventually!) when the thoughts and triggers hit again.
Facing your anxiety is hard, but I know that you can handle it.
What is OCD?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety based disorder that hijacks your thoughts and steals away your time and control. People with OCD experience…
Obsessions - recurrent, unwanted thoughts. These thoughts run on loop in your head, overwhelming you with their persistence. Often these thoughts focus on things and people you care about. For example, you need to be successful at work or school, so you keep thinking about everything that you need to do and the work that you’ve done, and was it done correctly, and was there something you missed, and also was it done well enough, and wait you did actually send that email, right? These thoughts can be fixate on any topic, from concern about work or academic success to health, needing order and symmetry, and even worry about how you might or have already caused harm to others. To temporarily quiet these thoughts, you may have developed…
Compulsions - repetitive, ritual behaviors. These rituals help you momentarily relieve the stress from your compulsions, but can become a significant barrier to your everyday life. Concern about your work may lead to checking to make sure you sent your work in, then checking again just to make sure, then going ahead and reading it over one more time, then another time, then checking again to make sure you did hit send on that email, then asking someone else to also check and make sure it was sent…all of which still never seems to satisfy your OCD. You may have noticed other common compulsions like rituals around hygiene, arranging and re-arranging your environment, or repeatedly asking for others for reassurance.
Support for Parents & Caregivers
OCD likes to reach out to everyone in the family, so if your child has OCD, it’s likely that you’ve already been drawn in - asked to check and check again, wash your hands then wash them again, or not touch certain things in the house that have to be just right. This situation can seem like an impossible lose-lose for you; do you give in and be nice and do it (but is that just feeding into their anxiety??) or refuse and watch your child struggle (…and then maybe end up giving in later anyways!). You also have your own work and family and life responsibilities, and can’t give up all of your time and energy and sleep to OCD.
OCD likes to involve the whole family, so we will too! I will work with you in parent consultations and family sessions, so that you know and understand your role in and after treatment.
When possible and practical, we will work with your child or teen to involve them in the process of their treatment planning. I am happy to work in session with older children and teens, going through the Exposure and Response Prevention treatment model with them. When children are younger or more resistant, I can work with you directly to implement changes in your home that can have similiar treatment effects.
Are we a good fit?
I offer a free 20-minute phone consultation for you to ask questions and get a better feel for my approaches. I’ll help you find the right support for your family (even if it’s not with me!)