Individual Therapy
Has life gotten you down?
Do you feel like you don’t recognize your life anymore?
After all, it’s certainly not what it used to be.
You used to be happy and engaged in life. Now you don’t enjoy the activities you once did.
You are experiencing difficulty concentrating and focusing on important things in your life. You are missing deadlines, showing up late, have trouble focusing on important matters… you feel like a failure.
Life was going pretty great, and you were able to function fairly well. Now ruminating thoughts keep you awake at night. You notice that your focus and concentration are not as sharp as they used to be. You are tired and can’t stop this unhealthy cycle.
You used to make plans with family, friends, coworkers, and now you feel so down, and blah – it’s difficult to even reach out to people for anything. You isolate yourself and feel lonely.
You are resentful, and it keeps building up inside. You don’t know how or where to change, which causes frustration, discouragement, and annoyance. You notice that you are snapping at people or getting upset more easily, and you’re not the person you once knew. The lightness you used to feel in your life is now somewhere in the distance.
Have your relationships and social life taken a hit?
Your relationships are struggling, and you are having a more difficult time communicating and connecting to people you used to.
Your work is suffering. It is difficult to get engaged in your work as you are experiencing difficulty focusing, concentrating, and meeting deadlines. You’re tired because of constant worry and feeling lonely, sad, and angry because no one understands what is going on with you – not even you.
Are your emotions a mess?
You are experiencing an emotional overload. This is consuming and permeates all aspects of your life. You feel either down consistently or can rally for something occasionally before feeling that low point again. You experience physical symptoms that concern and scare you.
Sometimes, your breathing might be more rapid. You start to sweat, have chest pain, and feel like you might die. The overwhelming mental and emotional feelings are depressing and cause anxiety and panic attacks. You are struggling to stay afloat and live the life you want.
What’s going on that’s leaving you feeling overwhelmed incapable of living your best life? Is it the anxiety… the sadness… the loneliness… the hopelessness… the anger? There’s something behind your lack of energy and enthusiasm.
Do you feel trapped in a cycle?
You’ve tried so many things – so many things that haven’t worked.
Setting goals for yourself, the deadlines come and go with no results. You get angry with yourself and get discouraged and stop trying… things get worse.
You have seen a therapist or two with no positive or helpful outcome. Now, you feel therapy is a waste of your time.
You thought “these” feelings would go away on their own. But weeks, months, even years later, you are still struggling with little to no change.
Feeling stuck in an uphill battle, you can’t seem to win.
You have talked to family, friends, and coworkers, hoping that would help. They can’t seem to help you feel better, and you feel like you are now a burden to them. You feel alone and isolated.
You keep your thoughts and feelings to yourself – concerned no one will understand, and you are ashamed to share what you think and feel. You feel miserable and anxious because you can’t find a way out of this dark lonely place.
And when you struggle to feel better and end up feeling worse, you can’t help but get depressed.
And when you’re depressed, it’s hard to get up and do something else.
And when your progress stalls, you can’t help but get anxious about whether you’ll ever get better!
Reflecting on your past… what took you off track?
Was it a specific event in your past?
A traumatic event or disruptive situation has left you with a cycle of unwanted thoughts about the event permeating other areas of your life.
Have the stressors been building for a while?
Slowly, things have been building inside you, and you have reached a point where you are experiencing difficulty in your relationships, work, social life. You feel angry, sad, and disconnected.
Do you have unresolved issues and pain?
A traumatic event or a disruptive situation has left you with unresolved issues and pain. You find it very difficult to move past the event and work through the pain. Your thoughts about this event keep going around in your head like a hamster wheel day and night, and you can’t seem to get off. You feel stuck.
You used to be pretty cool and calm, and now you struggle with anxiety that causes you even more worry. Sometimes you have physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, dizziness, sweating or chills, chest pain, and you feel like you will die – this scares and concerns you.
Aren’t you tired of this? Therapy is your best move!
Helping you feel understood without judgment or criticism…
Listening to your thoughts and feelings with empathy will help you know you are ok. Many people think that some of their thoughts and feelings are “bad” – they feel ashamed. I will listen when you share; when appropriate, I will normalize some of your thoughts and feelings, so you know you are not alone. We will connect them to events or situations in your life that have caused you to feel the way you do.
We will process them and work with and through the negative thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This process will help you understand where some of these thoughts and feelings originated when appropriate… how to consider a different perspective, and how to be more kind and gentle to yourself.
Gaining insight and perspective into your life…
Through talking and sharing your life’s story, I will help you recognize how your thoughts, feelings, actions have led you to where you are today. This will help you identify the etiology of your struggles. You will have moments where you will recognize why things are the way they are. At times, I will help you connect the dots to better understand your life’s story. The insights and perspectives will help you change what you can in your life, understand how things came about, and give you a different perspective on your life’s events.
Creating positive experiences for yourself and others…
You will learn how to turn things around. We will turn the negatives into workable solutions that will have a positive effect. We will look at the situations in your life and how to approach them differently so that you can benefit from more positive experiences and relationships.
Reducing your stress…
We will first look into what has caused the stress. We will process it and discuss it. We will work on techniques to help you de-stress, such as breathing and exercise options. You’ll also learn to place boundaries around your stress and thoughts and feelings about it, incorporate things that have worked in the past to help you de-stress, and we will brainstorm new ideas that may be helpful to you.
Dealing with your negative emotions…
We will work on ways to place boundaries around the amount of time you spend on negative thoughts. You will have the necessary space to share, process, and discuss your negative emotions. We will look at how these negative emotions play a part in your life and find ways to stop them. We will work on options of things you can do instead of focusing on your thoughts. We will look at the triggers that spark the thoughts and decrease the triggers and how they affect you.
Improving your relationships…
We will talk about the relationships in your life and work toward improving the connections you desire. You will learn new communication skills to help you approach others more healthily. You will learn about conflict resolutions so that when situations arise, you will have more knowledge on how to get through these times. You will learn techniques such as healthy time-outs, how to balance a relationship, how to approach others so that you feel heard, understood, and your feelings are validated.
Are you ready to make it happen?
One of the most difficult therapy steps is simply making that initial call and appointment!
I know it can be scary to think about being vulnerable in front of a stranger. But we’ll get to know each other, and I’ll make sure you’re comfortable and able to open up when you’re ready.
You can feel more in control of your own life…
But you have to take that first step!
Call now for your free consultation. Let’s talk about how I can help: (310) 281-7113.