After healing from trauma, anxiety and/or depression, I help you pursue your personal vision of the life you want to lead and the person you want to be.
I focus on helping you heal the injuries, losses, anxiety and depression that result from trauma. We will develop a relationship that makes you feel safe, comfortable with being open, hopeful and excited by the possibilities before you.
Anxiety and depressive disorders continue to skyrocket from childhood, through adolescence, college years, and adulthood. Depending on the specific demographic the prevalence of anxiety and depression are both at approximately 40%. According to the American Psychological Association, 27% of US adults are so impaired they can not function effectively on a daily basis.
Despite the prevalence of trauma, anxiety and depression, many of us feel alone in our struggle with these. We are not alone.
Following 9/11 and volunteering at Ground Zero, I was diagnosed with PTSD. After almost 20 years, I have healed from this injury through the use of new treatment approaches. Treatment approaches I now provide to others.
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event like abuse, an accident, crime, or natural disaster. Trauma can also be caused by witnessing one or more of the above. Trauma occurs when the body’s natural reactions to the event are blocked. These reactions become physically stored in your body until they can be released.
Trauma is an injury. It is not an inherent part of you and can be healed.
PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is a misnomer. A disorder is something that is part of us. Inherent in who we are. PTSD is the product of an injury. Like a sprained ankle, the injury can be healed.
We should think of it as Post-Traumatic Stress Injury or PTSI.
Anxiety consists of fear, worry and feeling overwhelmed. Often, we have these feelings without being able to pinpoint a cause. Treating anxiety does not require identifying a cause.
Treatment can focus on techniques such as mindfulness and reframing to reduce or eliminate anxiety. Treatment often involves identifying daily activities that can replace anxiety with feelings such as accomplishment, worthiness, and gratitude.
There is also a tremendous amount of research on medications and techniques such as mindfulness to relieve depression.
In the majority of cases, psychotherapy is an adjunct to other treatments.
Major depression is no longer necessarily a lifelong disability.
Loneliness is not the same as being alone. Being alone can be desired and satisfying. Loneliness is when you experience a lack of social connection to others that leads to feelings of isolation, sadness, and/or being excluded from social relationships. You can be surrounded by people and still experience loneliness. Social media can actually increase the feelings of loneliness and not belonging.
Myself and my colleague have developed an intervention to significantly reduce burnout. It consists of practicing five sets of behaviors for 70 days. The behavior sets are: Pragmatic Optimism; Focus; Compassion; Fact-Based Decision-Making; and Agility. Practicing these behavior sets can significantly reduce overall burnout as well as each of its three components: emotional exhaustion; cynicism; and lack of sense of accomplishment. The intervention requires only five hours of facilitation. Facilitators do not need to be mental health professionals.
Grief is the emotional response to loss. It is a feeling of deep sorrow. The loss can be the death of someone, a break-up of an important relationship; the loss of a career; the onset of a disability; or a terminal diagnosis of yourself or someone close to you.
Grief is a natural process unless it is prolonged and continues to interfere with daily living.
You can begin reducing your anxiety today. Start by reviewing the ten ways you can reduce your anxiety. Then pick two or three to begin using today. After a week or so, add another way. Keep going until you are using all ten ways.
After you contact me I will send you an Intake Form to describe your current and past challenges, strengths and needs. Once you’ve completed that, we will have a 30-minute Zoom call.
Based on your Intake Form and our 30-minute call I will draft some recommendations. Recommendations may or may not include psychotherapy. Assuming you agree with the recommendations we will begin sessions.
Each session is 45 minutes in length. We will conduct our sessions using the healthcare version of Zoom. I will send out the invites to the sessions. You can participate by smartphone, tablet, or computer.
No. I’m an out-of-network provider. While I don’t accept insurance, with your permission I will give you a statement you can submit to your insurance company. It will show a diagnosis (required by the insurance company), the treatment provided, and my fee. If you have questions about your coverage or want to know how much your insurance will reimburse you, it is best to call your insurance carrier directly. You will want to ask the reimbursement rate for out-of-network psychotherapy.
All sessions are held virtually using Zoom. Zoom is HIPPA compliant. That means it will keep all of your information secure and confidential.
Holding sessions virtually means that you don’t have to add traveling to my office in addition to the 45 minutes you actually spend in a session. You have the flexibility of being at home or at work to have a session. Whatever location is the most convenient for you. Also, virtual sessions increase privacy as there is no waiting room.
That’s a really important question. There has been a dramatic rise in the number of people in need of mental health treatment for well over a decade. In particular, burnout, anxiety, and depression continue to increase at alarming rates across all ages, ethnicities, races, and identities.
The American Psychological Association did a study with over 15,000 participants that identified the top ten issues contributing to stress – and therefore anxiety and depression. The issues are:
Inflation ¨ The Future of Our Nation ¨ Violence and Crimes ¨ Mass Shootings ¨ General Gun Violence ¨ Healthcare ¨ Increased global tension/conflict ¨ The current political climate ¨ The coronavirus pandemic ¨ The racial climate in the US
The stress caused by these issues surrounds us all day and every day. They make us hyper aroused feeling like we need to take flight or fight.
YES! Without doubt social media is toxic. Social media platforms and smart phones are designed to be highly addictive. They expose us to harassment, bullying, and negative social comparison.
A number of Principals and other education leaders in the U.S. have begun forbidding smart phones inside school buildings.
Are they met with student outrage?
Initially students report having much better social lives. Becoming friends with students they ride the bus, eat, and hang out with. The evidence suggests they are less stressed, happier, more creative, and more successful academically.
Not at all. You can develop a mindfulness practice or take up yoga. You can intentionally spend more time in-person with people. Having a simple cup of coffee once a week with a friend can reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation.
You can volunteer. Helping others makes us feel better as well as the folks we help. Developing your spiritual life is another activity that can improve your overall sense of contentment.
