The pain is real.
Sleepless nights, exhaustion, excessive worry, lack of focus, and irritability - even physical symptoms like rapid heart rate, muscle tension, and headaches - can be the result of stress and anxiety which can make it difficult to function at work, in school or in relationships.
Stress is often a temporary response to what’s going on in life and although the "stress" is typically short-lived, it can lead to long-term Anxiety Disorders including: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and various phobia-related disorders.
When is it time to seek help?
If your Stress or Anxiety impedes your ability to carry out your normal daily activities (like getting to work on time), talk therapy may help. Together, we can learn to identify your triggers and responses and find strategies that work for you.
Dr. Kathy Shafer specializes is multiple techniques to treat Anxiety and Stress. It all depends on you and what plan of action will work best. Examples include:
- Talk Therapy: Talk therapy, also known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is often referred to as healing from the neck up. It is helpful for identifying and challenging held thoughts, beliefs, and habits of behavior. This direct therapy approach allows you to discover thoughts that create obstacles in daily functioning and self-care. Talk therapy can include practicing mindful exercises or trying new behaviors to replace old ones.
- Mindfulness: The ability to remain in non-judgmental (non-reactive) attention while surrounded by challenging life circumstances can be difficult. The self-regulation exercises that Dr. Kathy teaches, called mindfulness, teaches clients to take charge and engage the fight or flight response associated with stress.
- EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that alleviates distress associated with traumatic memories. These events seem to get locked and dysfunctionally stored in the nervous system with the original picture, sounds, thoughts, and feelings. Scattered memories need safety and containment. EMDR unlocks the nervous system. During EMDR treatments, the targeted event or trauma episode, along with the beliefs attached to it, are relieved and reversed to generate healing, relief, and promote recovery.
- Mental Imagery: Mental imagery, sometimes called visualization, is the language used by the mind to communicate with the body. Think of it as the mind speaking to us in pictures. Different from hypnosis, instead of being placed in trance, mental imagery enlivens you and opens the doors to the inner expert that already exists inside of you, enabling you to become happy, healthy, and whole…on your own.
- Yoga Therapy: LifeForce Yoga practices are integrated into the therapy session to teach to you self regulation skills to manage your mood, and mindfully reduce resorting to reactive responses and numbing out behaviors. Yoga is not all about “striking a pose”, downward facing dog, or mastering a head stead. Focused breath work, mental imagery, gentle movements, and just laying down can be powerful portable self care tools for any body to do anywhere.
If you’ve feeling over-stressed or think you may suffer from an anxiety disorder, it’s a good idea to talk to someone. All it takes is a phone call. The initial phone consultation is always free.