“I no longer feel shame or fear, and my relationships have improved tremendously after therapy with Dr. Hacker” (former client, age 26)What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is broadly another word for feeling fear. If you are reading about Anxiety Disorders, you have likely reached a point of affecting your happiness and well being, and maybe your home life or work life. Anxiety can elicit feelings of wanting to flee or to freeze in a situation. It can feel like a weight on your chest or a punch in the stomach. It can cause a person to feel disconnected and very lonely, scared, and isolated.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Panic Attacks
Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms (OCD)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Social Anxiety (or separation anxiety as a child)
Phobias
Eating Disorders (Anorexic, Bulimic, or Binge Eating symptoms)
Anxiety disorders can be debilitating, but often can be relieved rather quickly with the right therapy. If you have suffered from distressing events in your life, you have experienced trauma. Have you had an experience where another person has devalued you or put you down over and over again? That can be referred to as trauma. Have you suffered from sexual assault, physical abuse, been a witness to war or near death experiences? These are all trauma. Suffering from intrusive thoughts and images and difficulties in having close relationships are all symptoms of the experience of trauma. And, the good news is that there is relief.
recovery from Anxiety Disorders
There is good news for you if you suffer from trauma or anxiety. Resolving the way your brain and body respond to traumatic memories and anxiety can be greatly shortened with certain techniques.
What I can do to help you heal from Anxiety is to use my skills and experience to work with your particular symptoms to reduce anxiety by communicating with your nervous system and your brain to help rewire linkages that are causing anxiety, fear, and negative beliefs and thought patterns.
Often we can work together to resolve trauma fairly quickly with the use of this type of therapy along with some traditional psychotherapy, the incorporation of mindfulness meditation (which helps calm the parasympathetic nervous system), guided imagery, sand tray therapy, and expressive art work, just to name a few. Working together, we can address symptoms in your mind, body, and spirit that can free you from the long term unwanted effects of anxiety.
Treatment Options for Anxiety Disorders:
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) - helps you learn to regulate your emotions (have more control of what happens with your emotions/anxiety) and build healthier relationships through practical skills development.
Mindfulness Meditation Training - helps you to get outside the anxiety and connect with an inner sense of peace and well-being. Helps you develop a part of yourself called “the observer self,” which can facilitate an experience of yourself as bigger than your anxiety, because, the truth is YOU ARE bigger than your anxiety. Having this increased awareness of self brings freedom from anxiety and more choices, curiosity, and connection.
EMDR - facilitates reprocessing of negative beliefs and fears so that they no longer affect your everyday life.
Emotional Freedom Technique or tapping therapy - easily learned skills that can be used anytime anywhere to reduce anxiety, negative feelings, thoughts, and beliefs.
Energy work such as Reiki - can bring a feeling of relief from anxiety and increase your ability to relax both in session and on your own.
Anxiety THERAPIST
It is very important you find the right therapist for you, and that you find one who actually does have the training and experience to help you heal. There are many people who call themselves trauma informed or specialists in anxiety. Look into the training and experience of anyone you choose to help you. Contact me for a free consultation
