Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Hancock, NY.

Anxiety is frequently occurring problem and our trained psychologists are experienced in aiding to reduce symptoms. Our approach to anxiety and stress include a cognitive behavior approach that seeks to identify negative thought patterns leading to anxiousness, as well as a behavior approach that focuses on the learned patterns of behavior that accompany feelings of anxiety.

The modern world we live in is full of amazing technological advancements and organizational wonders, but it is also more complex and demanding than ever before. The myriad competing demands of our lives, how busy we are, the continual pressure to do and be more creates enormous stress for all of us. This stress can escalate into anxiety and the added strain of these issues easily begins to short-circuit our ability to function at our best, to feel good, to maintain relationships and responsibilities. I can help you understand the internal and external forces creating these negative feelings, and together we can find strategies for minimizing stress and anxiety so you can feel better.

Most people who suffer from excessive anxiety are suffering from a form of stage-fright. Some anxiety is genetically based. Some is culturally based. Hal encourages his clients to verbalize their anxieties so they understand it genesis. Which in turn eventually leads to confidence that they can learn to calm themselves down. Hal gives each client exercises to use to lower levels of anxiety and to find creative ways to modulate areas in their life that foment stress.

Most of us experience anxiety and/or stress at some point. However, when it persists and reaches a heightened level of intensity, therapy may be needed and can have a powerful impact on reducing these symptoms. Talk therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are two approaches shown to have success in treating anxiety. Talk therapy allows for my clients to open up and unburden themselves from the weight of what they may be carrying and validating their experience and emotions. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps address and shift any unhealthy thinking or behaviors associated with the anxiety. This can significantly improve ones ability to manage their anxiety.

We’ll start by getting on the same page: what is bringing you to therapy, what are our goals for incorporating medication, and what would it look like to truly feel “better?” We’ll discuss your past history with both psychotherapy and medication, the current challenges you’re facing, and what you hope to get out of this process. You and I will collaborate on a treatment plan that maps out how we’re going to get there.

My method of working with clients on anxiety , stress and coping varies per individual. How we cope is greatly influenced by how we see the world. Mindset, life experiences, and our current situation can impact that. Overall, integrating Strength- Based, Mindfulness, NLP even DBT approaches enhances our ability to accept, and view our life with a fresh perspective. As we begin to see things through a different lens, this new perspective becomes a powerful tool in developing our mind as a muscle; an essential part of moving toward the life changes you seek. This opens the door to management of unwanted symptoms, anxiety, stress, feelings of overwhelm or low motivation and a path forward.

I like a quote by Stephen King: "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us and sometimes they win." Anxiety is no more a person than leukemia or diabetes. Anxiety convinces it's victim that safe things are dangerous, and to be avoided; puppies are perceived as alligators, and who wants to get close to those?! Sometimes the danger is perceived to be physical while at other times it is thought to be social; either way, isolation is anxiety's endgame. The treatment of choice for this is usually cognitive behavioral therapy, something that I have been doing, teaching others how to do, and writing about, for decades. The results can be quite life-giving and remarkable.