Anxiety

Having trouble…

You feel like you have enough income to pay the bills, maybe even get ahead, but you can’t get past “paycheck to paycheck.”

Buy a new couch? Not when you are too worried to order pizza delivery.

Everyone says you are a rock, the strong one, the one they all come to when they are struggling.

But now you are the one who feels worried and sad – and you’re not sure what to do next.

It used to be so easy for you and your spouse. You got along, shared plenty of similar interests, agreed on about everything.

Now you can’t agree on a movie without a fight. It’s gotten to the point where your relationship is affecting your children. They’re worried. You now know that without help your relationship may not survive.

Getting back…

My approach as a therapist is to offer a safe place to establish trust while offering you the opportunity to share your story, from as far back as you can remember to the present.

You will be encouraged to take your time, stating your hopes, dreams, struggles, worries, with the only interruptions being my occasional questions to make sure I am understanding correctly.

Next we will look closely at all that you have so bravely disclosed about your life, searching for the events most significant in relation to explaining why you think, feel, and act the way you do now. From here, we will turn our attention to clearly identifying your struggles, what needs changing, improving. Put simply, if you worry too much, we’ll likely make your goal to be calmer, less anxious, importantly mapping out the steps necessary for achieving this change.

Along the way, I will be encouraging you, challenging you, and always believing in you.

You have struggles. You want to change. You realize now that you need help.

There are many ways I can help…

My approach for guiding you from worry to calm confidence involves multiple treatment types, including but not limited to: Person-Centered, Psycho-Dynamic, Motivation Enhancement Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and, as needed, visualization and hypnosis.

Person-Centered Theory is most prominently used as we get to know each other and takes the form of my showing respect, never judging, actively listening to you, modeling genuineness, and empathizing with who you are. Together, we’ll clearly identify what needs fixing, and I’ll join you in the process of making changes.

Psycho-Dynamic Theory is beneficial when, once you have shared your unique story, we attempt to identify the important, perhaps traumatic, events from your past, in many cases repressed or buried, which once unearthed, offer relief and, quite often, treatment breakthroughs.

In the third stage of treatment, we typically make use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which, as the name implies, involves changing your beliefs and thoughts, from maladaptive (bad for you) to adaptive (good for you).

In practice, we work on getting you comfortable…

…and “good at” recognizing and blocking negative thoughts and replacing with interpretations which predict better results for you. An example would be replacing “I’m a bad parent” with “I will read and incorporate proven methods for being an effective, supportive parent. I will get better.”

During therapy, you will be challenged and encouraged to use your “thumb”; that is, take personal accountability (internal locus of control) for your success in your career, your relationships, and your fitness level. Doing so will necessitate using less of your “finger,” which involves giving responsibility to outside (external locus of control) forces for your success or failure. That said, therapy is a time where you will be offered ample time to vent (pointing your finger at legitimate external challenges) without judgment.

I will never try to talk you out of feeling worried, frustrated, or saddened by external factors. However, once you are done venting, and we understand your role in it, we will work on a plan for bringing you less worry and more happiness.

We’ll make use of Motivational Enhancement Therapy throughout our collaboration but most notably when we “develop discrepancy” between where you are now to where you want to be. This involves my gently guiding you to:

a) Identifying where you are now? This involves the good, the bad, the realistic about your current situation (relationships, health, career, etc.).

b) Where do you want to be? Your answer here will require great detail about your: relationships, career, health and fitness. For example, “I want to be promoted to Vice President of Claims at Harris Bank in Chicago, IL, earn $125,000 per year, have a wife, two children, a boy and a girl, live in a red brick house with a pool in St. Charles, IL, call my two brothers every week. I want to weigh 190 pounds and run four 10Ks per year.”

c) Self-Efficacy… What are your skills and talents which will enable you to get from A to B. Boiled down, self-efficacy is your belief about your ability to complete a goal or objective. It also involves your belief that you have the talent and skills to “pull off” meeting your goals. Examples of talents and skills which have helped my past clients to achieve their goals include: having a vision for how things ought to go, intelligence, persistence, being a quick learner, being hardworking, never giving up, having a love for learning, being great with detail work, and getting along well with others.

I will use visualization or hypnosis to help you to get to a calm, suggestible state of mind at which point I will recite a script for ego-strengthening (the group of traits which combine to preserve and maintain mental health) to more individualized scripts aimed at improving your confidence, reducing the effects of your anxiety.

Just imagine it…

Think for a moment about your life six months from now, where you will understand yourself so much better, where you will feel less worried, where you will have a plan for handling stress in your life, where you will have a clear picture or vision of what you want to “chase after” in terms of your goals and aspirations.

What will success in treatment look like for you? Will you be taking responsibility for the checkbook or reading to your children every night?

Will you have learned to meditate or perform self-hypnosis or will you have committed to and stuck with a date night with your spouse?

Is it going to and enjoying your high school reunion or applying for and earning a promotion? Earning a Bachelor’s or graduate degree or finish painting a picture? Will you be a more confident and supportive spouse or lose 20 stubborn pounds?

You are sure that you need help.

You do not want to go on medications. You know that your worry is affecting your relationships and career.

You know the time is now!

The next step is a calming, confidence-boosting, free consultation where we will discuss your struggles and how I can help.

You know now is the time to take care of you. Call me at (815) 325-8116 for a free consultation.