Depression and Anxiety
Depression is one of the most common psychiatric diagnosis in the United States. Common symptoms that we look for are prolonged sadness, a lack of interest in things we enjoyed doing before, feeling of helplessness, hopelessness, anger, irritability, Restlessness, change in concentration, chronic body pain, withdrawal from family and friends, and/ or thoughts of suicide. Depression is a medical condition that often requires professional treatment. I can help with identifying life events or occurrences and help change, adapt or accept them. We will set goals as a team for your future, identify unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors that don’t serve you anymore, develop skills and healthy coping strategies to identify and prevent future episodes.
Everyone experiences anxiety. Anxiety becomes a problem in our lives if we become fearful and avoidant of the activity thus changing our lives due to anxiety. This is were Somatic Psychology has been proven to be one of the most effective tools for change. Somatic Psychology looks at the connection of the body and mind. We will always get a physical symptom before our brains register we are anxious. It can look like your stomach tightening, sweating, our hearts can start to race. I can help you identify the body signals through different techniques such as deep breathing, relaxation exercises, deep mindfulness and meditation may be used to help relieve any symptoms felt in the moment.
By working with you over several sessions, the person begins to develop a mind-body connection and is able to release long-held anger, tension, frustration and other negative emotions that may have gotten stuck in the physical body.
The overall goal of a somatic therapist is to help their clients free themselves from the mental, emotional and potentially physical pain that is preventing them from fully engaging with their life.