Reconnect to the calm you’ve been missing.

Stress & Anxiety  Treatment in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA

You wake up every day and immediately the thoughts start; the worries, the to-dos, the what ifs.

You’re exhausted and over it before the day even fully begins. 

As you get ready for the day, you start noticing that unexplained chest pain, backache or pit in your stomach growing. You think:

How am I going to get through today? 

How can I get all of this done? 

Where do I find the time and energy to actually show up for everyone and everything in my life?

You remember that the doctor and the books tell you that you just have to eat healthy, drink enough water, exercise, sleep 8 hours a night and all of your problems will go away. Sounds easy enough doesn’t it? Just live a perfectly balanced life with a perfectly balanced family and all your dreams will come true. 

You grab your giant water bottle and decide that you will try to get to sleep early tonight. You then spend all day running around, doing all the things for all the people without giving yourself a chance to sit down and take a breath. You don’t understand how you can be so busy all the time and still never get anything done.

You get ready for bed, lie down, close your eyes and your mind takes off; the worries, the-to-dos, the what ifs...You think maybe tomorrow will be better.

However, tomorrow is not better.

At work you are constantly worried about being good enough and showing everyone that you truly belong there. The education, experience, praise or awards are just not enough to make that imposter feeling go away. You are constantly waiting for the moment when they finally realize that they made a mistake and you are just not good enough.

At home, you are constantly trying to figure out how to meet the needs of your family, take care of your house and still have time for yourself. You want close friendships and connections, but you are also exhausted by the idea. You worry that if you aren’t the perfect friend and can’t always solve everyone’s problems, then who would want to be your friend anyways.

 It’s like you’re constantly walking around holding back tears, pushing everything down and are one step away from all of your stresses, fears and uncertainties spilling out all over the place.
 

Does it feel like you are just always worried and exhausted?

Like no matter what you do, you just can’t keep up?

It’s time to finally feel better.

What does therapy for anxiety look like?

Anxiety and stress can take over your life and make it feel nearly impossible to get through each day. You didn’t just wake up one day and decide to be anxious and overwhelmed. It took months, years or even generations of negative experiences, new responsibilities, disappointments, uncertainties and maybe even underlying medical issues to get you here.

Imagine:

  • You wake up in the morning feeling rested and ready to take on the day

  • Walking into work, you feel confident that you belong there

  • Relationships feel balanced, fulfilling and rewarding

  • You are able to find the time to connect with others and to connect to yourself

  • Tears are no longer just one frustration away

  • You’re actually able to quiet your mind and go to sleep

Together we will take the time to learn all about you to help us see the full picture of what is making you feel this way.  My approach involves looking at things like your family history, the culture you were raised in and the one you live in now, your current life and the beliefs you hold about yourself. 

We will, also, talk about your physical health and see if it may be useful for you to add more members to your wellness team. Our work together will not only give you tools to manage the anxiety and stress that inevitably come up in everyday life, but will also help you rebuild your life in a way that will make you actually feel good about being a part of it.


Some areas of stress and anxiety that I specialize in:

  • People pleasing tendencies and perfectionism

  • Loss of identity

  • Low self-confidence

  • High pressure environments

  • High achieving/motivated adults

EMDR

Some tools i use:

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a well-researched, helpful therapy that works on your memories and beliefs to ease anxiety. It uses techniques like eye movements or tapping to help your brain process stressful experiences in a calming way. This can make you feel more at ease and give you better tools to handle anxiety when it comes up.

Integrative Mental Health

I've received specialized training that allows me to explore all aspects of your well-being to uncover any factors contributing to your anxiety and stress. This includes examining your sleep patterns, diet, physical activity, and other areas of health to identify potential areas for improvement that can help you feel better.

Therapy for anxiety and stress can help you…

Stop constant overthinking and worrying

Explore how your family history impacts your present life

Reconnect with your cherished relationships

Develop strength and resilience

Discover genuine work/life balance without the guilt

Empower yourself to be unapologetically you

Change is possible.

True self-care is a life you don’t regularly have to escape from.

Questions?

FAQs

  • Each session is structured in a way that will be most helpful for you. When we first start our virtual sessions, we will take time to get to know each other and set goals for treatment. We will then start working on helping you gain insight into what is causing you to feel the way you do and begin to move towards healing. Along the way, we will also work on skills to help you deal with anxiety and stress. This way you can feel confident about being able to overcome anything that comes up in the future.

  • It’s completely normal to be nervous when starting something new, especially therapy. Of all the places that you may feel like you have to be perfect or do it “right,” therapy is not one of them. I hope to create a brave space for you where you  feel comfortable bringing your whole self into session, no matter how messy or imperfect your self may be.

  • No. Though meditation and breathing exercises are great tools for anxiety treatment, those alone will likely not solve all your problems. I don’t want to just help you lower anxiety in the moment; I want to help you actually heal the underlying causes. In order for us to do that, we have to look at you as a whole person and not just a set of anxiety symptoms that we need to “manage.”