Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Bethesda, MD.

If you’re not stressed, you’re probably dead! Our world today seems to thrive on it; we work too much, don’t rest enough, eat poorly, and can’t find time to exercise. When we have free time, we often find ourselves staring at a little screen filled with “friends” whose lives seem perfect. This “normal” life causes us physical and emotional distress; add in a propensity for anxiety and chances are you feel really horrible sometimes! Whether you’re simply overwhelmed by life’s responsibilities or are struggling with severe anxiety, panic, and phobias, we can help!

Anxiety disorders develop as a result of long-term and cumulative stress. Recovering from anxiety and coping with stress can be successfully addressed through the use of a holistic and educational therapeutic model. I will help you to: • Learn to counter negative beliefs and self-talk; • Develop skills for coping with stress, panic attacks and phobias; • Adapt mindfulness strategies to decrease stress and worry; • Improve relationship skills; • Develop self-acceptance, self-esteem and assertiveness; and • Cultivate a sense of direction and purpose. I provide a safe and supportive space to help you achieve your goals.

There are at least four components to reducing anxiety. The first is to learn self-soothing techniques. the second is to become aware of the thoughts and images which are making you anxious and to deliberately choose other thoughts and images. The third is to discover and face what you are most afraid of. Sometimes, when there has been trauma, this fear is something that has already happened and from which you have not recovered. Often it is something out of your control, a fact of life, like death! We need to make peace with these, accept their reality and make the best of what we have. I have some excellent tools from hypnosis and a field of study called NLP to speed your progress.

Anxiety and stress often get in the way of a fulfilling life and I believe therapy can help. I am a marriage and family therapist (MFT), so I have been trained to help clients think about the stress in their lives in the context of their relationships. This type of 'systems thinking' is unique to Licensed MFTs. Clients benefit from this approach because it brings your stress outside of your own self and into the world of your relationships. This is very freeing! We work together to achieve your goals, always reaching toward a more peaceful life.

To help you manage your stress and anxiety symptoms, we start with understanding the nature and patterns of your symptoms in relation to environmental triggers, traumatic life events, and unhelpful thinking patterns that influence your daily perspective. Using a collaborative alliance, we will look for better ways to manage both your external stressors and internal reactions. A cognitive-behavioral approach offers practical methods to understand how thought patterns influence emotional reactions and behaviors. By redirecting and re-framing your thoughts with alternative thoughts, you can experience a reduction in unpleasant emotions and an increase in personal effectiveness.

In today's world, we are stressed as never before. Multitasking has become a way of life for many people, and we are all juggling more balls than ever before.Therapy for anxiety and stress can help you to live and enjoy the life you have chosen. You will learn to be an "actor," rather than a "reactor" in your life. I will help you to discern what is within your control and what is not. Then you will be able to make changes, a step at a time, to live anxiety and stress-free.