Specialties

Stress and Anxiety

You may believe that your life is overwhelming and you don’t have the resources, strength, power, or energy to work through it. You may think that the stress and anxiety you are going through is harmful and making matters worse. Do you find yourself experiencing excessive worry, disruptive sleep, change in appetite, lack of energy, physical ailments, irritability, social withdrawal, reduced productivity, frequent crying, and /or hyper-arousal? Based on these symptoms, you may be stuck in the fight, flight, or freeze response. 

The good news is: There are other biological ways to respond to stress. You may not be able to control the stress in your life, but you can choose your relationship to it. Research shows that there is an upside to stress and anxiety. You have the potential to choose one of the more adaptive, beneficial  biological responses.  Even under the harshest conditions people have the innate capacity to make choices, find hope, and construct meaning of their circumstances.

Recent studies have discovered that higher levels of stress go along with things we want and value: love, health, work satisfaction, safety, connection, and meaning. Although we have equated stress as harmful, the stress response is actually designed to help us navigate our world, seek community, take actions, defend ourselves, and learn from our mistakes.

In therapy, we can work together to help you choose your stress response so that you rise to your challenges, connect with others, and learn and grow from your experiences.

Prioritizing your health and wellness and making the courageous decision to engage in therapy will help you to:

• Identify the sources of your stress to understand what matters to you
• Learn the benefits of stress in order to play an active role in transforming your experiences
• Use the energy and focus of stress to solve problems
• Avoid any unnecessary stress by learning to say no, changing your life-style
• Alter the way you perceive stressors by re-framing problems, looking at the whole picture, developing gratitude, and adjusting your standards
• Start taking care of your physical needs- exercising regularly, eating healthy foods, getting rest and relaxation 
• Ask for support and connect with others
• Learn mindfulness skills/coping strategies
• Balance your life with fun, creativity, and relaxation
• Replace a negative, hopeless outlook with a more positive, empowering attitude
• Learn and grow from your stressful experience
• Find ways to make meaning out of your suffering
• Let stress be a catalyst for compassion

Change your mindset from fearing the stress in your life to appreciating, harnessing and trusting the process.

 

Bereavement

Grief and loss are part of the human experience. Whether you find yourself yearning after a lost dream, a beloved pet or close loved one, healing is a personal journey. There is no right or wrong way to grieve; as there is no loss too small if your heart is breaking.

When loss happens, grief becomes the fabric of your life. While sadness may seem like the appropriate response, you may find yourself surprised by feelings of self-judgement, fear, guilt, anger, confusion, and/or blame. You may feel untethered and disconnected from your friends and family. All of these experiences are worthy of your attention and care.

Healing requires giving yourself permission to grieve. Therapy can provide a safe space to explore the nature of your grief and loss. I will guide you into a merciful awareness of your experience. Coming to know your pain and grief more intimately can be your way through bereavement towards healing, wholeness, and acceptance. What we don’t heal, we carry.

If you chose to share your grief with me, in therapy you will:

• be given permission to choose your personal time frame in which to heal
• be provided a place to share stories about your loved one or loss, a place to celebrate their lives
• learn about the physical, emotional, physiological symptoms of grief
• explore current and past losses
• bring mercy and forgiveness to yourself and others
• identify healthy responses to grief and ways to take care of your needs
• learn to honor your process
• ask others for help
• find ways to make peace with your loss
• create rituals for honoring your love ones

 

Women’s Issues

As a woman, you have a unique set of issues which can be further impacted by your race, age, sexual orientation, social economic status, relationship status, and/or the presence of a disability. You may feel you need someone to help you navigate your life. Maybe you are trying to sort out career goals, balance work and family life, or navigate motherhood. Or you are experiencing health and wellness issues, struggling to find your voice in a male dominated world, navigating relationship problems with friends, family or a significant other, adjusting to a life transition, or facing the aging process. Whatever you are struggling with, you deserve to receive support. Give yourself permission to reach out and ask for help. I can offer you understanding, compassion, and validation. Together we can generate alternate ways for you to be in your world. As well as feeling emotionally supported, you will be challenged to gain a sense of empowerment by making effective decisions, engaging in self-enhancing behaviors, and increasing your self-worth.

It’s time to put yourself at the top of  list. In therapy you can:

• determine how to best take care of you
• create a life that reflects who you are
• learn to trust your intuition
• establish healthy boundaries
• communicate your needs
• say no without guilt
• express your creativity
• explore and redefine your roles within your family, friends, workplace, and your world
• adjust your priorities to take care of yourself so you can take care of others and the things that matter to you

 

“How do I get started?”

Go to my contact page and call, email, text, or use the provided field to contact me.