Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in San Carlos, CA.

There is an almost infinite list of causes for anxiety and stress, probably a few more if you live in a metropolitan area. Maybe your anxiety is decades old from trauma, family of origin, or chemically related. Perhaps it's situational and can be attributed to a recently suffered trauma, is work related, or relationship related. When you are stressed out or anxious, your brain doesn't function optimally. Instead, it functions in crisis mode and impairs your decision making ability and leaves you feeling too drained for the rest of your life. I will help you to regain your control by giving you concrete strategies and tools to manage them.

I help men, women, and teens who are feeling anxious and stressed out, develop the skills they need to succeed. I understand that we in the Bay Area live in a "high expectations" environment. As a clinical psychologist with more than 10 years of experience, I have treated countless individuals for anxiety and stress-related concerns. My approach to therapy is client-centered, authentic, and based on current research. Psychotherapy can be transformative and life-changing. I am happy to offer a free initial phone consultation and to answer any question you may have. Give me a call today!

Anxiety and stress are the symptoms I treat most often in my practice. Some people are not aware, but trauma is deep-rooted anxiety that is held within our body. We can feel anxious about work, children, relationships, or family. We can feel stressed about work or relationships and friendships. A highly effective tool for treating these symptoms is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a way that you can learn to relax the anxiety that is held within your body and your mind. I love this technique because it is not only highly effective, but it is very easy to learn. You can walk away from your first therapy session with a start to your mindfulness journey and have real tools at your disposal.

I take a practical approach to treating anxiety and stress. I help you identify the sources of anxiety if you do not already know them. I support you in learning skills to regulate your emotions and increase awareness of body sensations and experiences in order to help you be able to control and reduce feelings of anxiety. I also use a combination of exposure therapy, if appropriate, and adjustment to lifestyle to help you reduce or eliminate sources of anxiety or stress. I know that every experience of anxiety or stress is unique and I will work with you to develop a plan of support tailored to your needs. I will provide a safe environment for you to challenge and overcome your fear/stress

Working through anxiety in therapy involves developing and using coping tools such as mindfulness, grounding, deep breathing, meditation, creative self-expression, relaxation techniques, and emotional regulation skills. Therapy can help you create a healthy work life balance to buffer stress and understand what triggers your anxiety. Relief from anxiety will allow you to navigate life’s ups and downs without becoming overwhelmed. Working through anxiety leads to feeling calm, confident, centered, and present.

We hold our anxiety and stress in our body. We feel tension, gut problems, hot flashes, disrupted sleep and more. I work with anxiety and stress by helping individuals learn and develop tools to re-regulate their nervous system. When we have a coherent and fluid nervous system, we can do difficult things without feeling paralyzed by overwhelming fear.

Anxiety in all of its forms (social, panic attacks, fears and phobias, PTSD, health-related anxiety, and performance anxiety) are concerns that I have helped adults and children overcome for over 22 years. It is a specialized area of therapy I work with using approaches that bring somatic awareness and resolve the underlying trauma that has led to activation in the body and worried mind. My aim is to help you learn tools to help you cope better and empower you to understand the causes of anxiety leading to resolution and lasting change.

Couples interact in 1 of 3 ways to anxiety and stress. (1) They turn toward each other. (2) They turn against each other. (3) They turn away from each other. The latter two responses cause or compound existing stress and anxiety. Instead finding support from the other, a bad situation is made worse when a couples are not there for each other. I help spouse's reduce their stress and anxiety by assisting them to turn toward each other and find relief and gain the knowledge that whatever one is facing, he or she is not facing it alone.

You don't have to go at this alone. Anxiety is difficult to manage because sometimes our mind and body do not appear to agree. When you are dealing with the physical symptoms of anxiety or stress, your heart rate may increase, you may sweat, you may breathe a little more shallow, or you might find yourself holding your breath altogether, while your mind may be confused as to what and why you feel as you do. As your therapist, I will offer you exercises/tools, somatic perspectives and grounding to help you regulate your nervous system. I will hold space with you and I will approach your anxiety with compassion and curiosity, honoring the defenses that keep us going.

Anxiety in my experience works similarly to depression. If depression is caused by unexpressed feelings, anxiety is caused by unexpressed fear. It may be a therapist cliche to talk about creating safety and trust, but this is especially true of helping to heal anxiety. It really is about helping the client feel safe to express their fears and worries and to learn to feel safe to have the full range of our emotional expression.