Depression
Depression is when you feel at least five or more specific symptoms for two weeks or longer. One of the symptoms is to feel down in the dumps, or blah, or to not feel like doing fun, pleasurable things. Other symptoms include weight loss (without trying), sleeping too much or too little, loss of energy, feeling worthless, or trouble with concentration. If this goes on for two weeks, then you might meet criteria for depression. If these feelings are specifically related to a particular situation or event, then that might be considered an adjustment problem, rather than a major depressive episode. Your initial assessment will include an evaluation of all the things going on in your life, in order to come up with an appropriate diagnosis.
Anxiety
Anxiety is described as having excessive fear or thoughts that are not proportionate to the actual threat. Anxiety can be generalized, or it can be specifically about social situations. The symptoms are feeling on edge, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, sleep difficulties, and excessive worry. Having some anxiety is normal and very helpful to life, but if it interferes with your social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, then it becomes a problem. Many people try to avoid situations that make them feel anxious, but this actually increases the anxiety problem.
Parenting Concerns
Most parents are trying hard to be the best version of parents they could possibly be. However, no one actually knows how to do it! There are tons of books out there, and many of them contradict each other. And none of them guarantee that following the rules in the book will actually result in perfectly behaved, emotionally mature children–much less teenagers. I have learned some things that I can teach you about parenting anxious children, improving your relationship with a surly teen, encouraging personal responsibility, and setting realistic expectations for yourself and your kids.
Low
Self-Esteem
Many of us struggle with having low self-esteem. This results in feeling insecure in a lot of areas. Oftentimes, we measure our worth based on what grades we got in high school, or how popular we were in middle school, or maybe even what our family or parents said. Other times, it is based on what size pants we wear or how much we can bench press. However, worth should come from many different sources, and really, only you can decide what makes a human being worthy. Therapy is a good place to explore what you have believed about self-esteem and self-worth, and find out if those thoughts are accurate or not.
Marriage Problems
Many couples notice that after a few years of marriage, differences between your two ways of being start to become annoying, instead of cute and quirky. You might both feel like you’re not being heard or understood. You no longer give each other the benefit of the doubt. You don’t trust the other person to have your best interests at heart. Your friendship seems to be disappearing. But there are many things you can do to improve your relationship. Everyone wants to feel liked and accepted in their marriage. I love working with couples to teach them how to listen and understand each other better. I can help you translate husband-speak and wife-speak to a language you can understand. I use the Enhanced Gottman Relationship Checkup questionnaire to help couples improve their relationship and find a way to like each other again.
Stressful Job
The workplace seems to have become incredibly more stressful and demanding than in years past. And today’s economy and current world events cause many people to be worried about their savings and their ability to support themselves and their families. Although it is said that if you “Do something you enjoy, you’ll never work a day in your life,” many people have jobs they don’t enjoy. We can work at helping you find work life balance, deal with unrealistic demands, set up some boundaries, and explore the consequences and benefits of making changes.
Negative Thinking
I have found that many people that struggle with negative emotions and moods often have patterns of filtering out positive information, and over focusing on negative events. I help many people pay attention to their thoughts in order to analyze their accuracy. I can help you learn how to interpret events from many different perspectives, and to challenge jumping to negative outcomes or conclusions. I don’t believe in being Pollyanna Positive all the time, but I do think being accurate is the best way to think.
& More
Other things people come to therapy for is to learn how to get along better with other family members, or they want to know how to make more friends. Sometimes people want to have deep philosophical discussions about the meaning of life. Some people want to learn whether being a perfectionist is helping them, or ruining their lives! Perhaps you are dealing with a death or loss of a loved one, and you need an outside resource and support. Many people are really lacking strong enough connections and community, and they need some extra support in dealing with their current life stressors. Moving, and divorce or separation are in the top five most stressful events for people. A job loss or dealing with a long-term illness are the other top doozies. And dealing with an aging parent, or a child, who has a long-term illness, is similarly stressful. Any of these are good reasons to go to therapy and learn new coping skills. Or realize you have been coping as well as expected, and that can help decrease some of your excessive guilt.
I also work with adolescents that could benefit from having an outside, objective party to talk to, and to learn how to process and make best decisions for themselves. I work with teenagers to find out what their own values are, and set their own goals and work towards them.
