Support and Skills to Help You Move Forward
A personalized approach for your personal experience.
Anxiety Therapy in Oakland, CA
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is not a problem that needs to be eradicated. Anxiety is a very common experience.
It is a crucial evolutionary trait that is necessary for our survival! Anxiety signals that a threat is present. It tells us that we need to take action to protect ourselves and find safety.
Anxiety becomes a “problem” when these symptoms arise with a frequency and/or intensity that does not match our surrounding environment. It is completely understandable for anxiety symptoms to spike if you see a bear in the woods and need to seek safety. If these symptoms elevate in social settings where there is no immediate risk of harm, however, that is a different story.
Therapy for anxiety is meant to help you calibrate the way this important function of your nervous system operates.
Anxiety Therapy
provides you with the support and skills to help you move forward.
When working with anxiety symptoms, I first assess whether these stem from biological or environmental factors – or both. Together, we will create a course of action accordingly.
For most people, the first order of business is developing skills and strategies to manage anxiety when it is happening. Deeper work is not possible until you can feel more capable of managing these symptoms.
I provide psychoeducation about anxiety. I introduce mindfulness and grounding techniques. And, together, we will create a map of how your anxiety presents itself so you can recognize the signals within your nervous system which indicate the need for anxiety management.
When you begin to feel more fluent at managing anxiety symptoms, we can start to focus on the root causes of how anxiety arises in your life.
Together, we will work to build insight into past and present experiences that are influencing your anxiety symptoms. What are the beliefs and interpretations you make of the world around you that cause distress? When we can understand how to make sense of your anxiety in this context, we can identify other possibilities to include as we expand the narrative of your life.
Anxiety Therapy Can Help;
Therapy for anxiety can help you regain a sense of empowerment. Anxiety symptoms can be unpredictable and debilitating, leaving you feeling as though they are ruling your life. Talking to an anxiety therapist can help you both understand your anxiety and develop skills to manage these symptoms so that you can take charge of your life again.
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Anxiety therapy can help you:
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Better recognize your body’s signals: We experience every emotion as a combination of sensations within our bodies. They’re called feelings for a reason! However, we are not always paying attention to the signals our bodies send to us. Learning to recognize the early signs of anxiety can help you address these symptoms before they feel out of control.
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Think about how you think: The way we interpret the world around us influences the way we feel. So, when anxiety shows up in situations it doesn’t belong, exploring the way you are interpreting these situations can help identify opportunities to neutralize anxiety at the source.
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Develop tools to cope: Just as anxiety sends us signals to elevate our nervous system, we can send signals to our nervous system to self-regulate. Anxiety therapy can be a place to learn techniques to respond to anxiety symptoms and minimize their impact.
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Increase your capacity to tolerate stress: Overall, the goal of therapy is to expand your capacity to tolerate anxiety symptoms, as well as stressors that evoke symptoms. Anxiety therapy can help you come to a place of acceptance and confidence that these symptoms are within your capacity to tolerate and manage on your own.