Specializations
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety doesn’t get to call the shots.
I approach anxiety treatment primarily with cognitive behavioral therapy. Anxiety often compels us to avoid certain people, places, things, or ideas, or engage in behaviors to relieve anxiety. In this treatment, we work to figure out the ways your pattern of avoidance may be helping in the short term, but making your anxiety worse in the long term. Treatment includes gradually facing uncomfortable situations through “exposures,” which allows us to test out the fears you have about what will happen if you no longer avoid these situations. If the idea of this sounds very scary, that’s okay — and completely expected! It takes real courage to engage in this process. This treatment is highly effective in helping people break free from being controlled by anxiety.
Over time, most clients learn:
1. The predictions we make are less likely to happen than we think.
2. Anxiety does not last forever and gets better the more we approach our fears.
3. We can tolerate our anxiety more than we expect.
4. Even when our feared predictions come true, they aren’t as bad as we build them up to be.
This process will look different for each person. Importantly, every piece of the process is completely your choice, and we’ll work together to find a pace that is right for you.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Take back control.
I offer two evidence-based treatments for OCD: exposure and response prevention (ERP) and inference-based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT).
In both treatments, we work to identify your obsessions, or intrusive thoughts that cause significant distress. Obsessions can relate to many topics – contamination, accidental harm, sexuality, morality, and perfection, to name a few. We then identify compulsions, the many ways that you respond to obsessions in order to make you less anxious.
ERP functions similarly to CBT for anxiety disorders. While compulsions may reduce obsessions in the short term, they worsen them in the long term. Treatment involves working to eliminate compulsions (response prevention) and gradually facing the circumstances that bring up obsessions (exposure). This may sound terrifying, and that’s completely normal and expected. I am happy to discuss any questions you may have. Notably, this treatment works very well for most people with OCD who are willing to work hard and commit to it.
I-CBT involves working with clients to figure out what leads them to believe their obsessions in the first place. We look at the ways in which you may doubt the evidence in front of you coming from your five senses, your common sense, and the person you are, and how this and other reasoning errors lead you to believe your intrusive thoughts to be true. We attempt to resolve those doubts by examining how you may be relying on reasoning that does not fit your context, which in turn may help you no longer engage in compulsions. I-CBT has over 20 years of research evidence to support it. The treatment is growing in popularity in part through the efforts of OCD specialists with lived experience with OCD who have reported on its benefits.
Trauma-Focused Treatments
You can recover.
Contrary to what many people think, people can recover from PTSD. Our field has developed several treatments, which extensive research shows are highly effective:
Facing experiences of trauma can feel daunting and painful. However, I have experienced many times how these treatments help people gain new perspective about what happened to them, develop a sense of empowerment over their trauma, and improve their lives. If you’re unsure whether you want to discuss your trauma, or unsure which approach feels like a good fit for you, we can discuss your concerns — and I can offer recommendations based on your unique experiences. These treatments can also be helpful if you feel stuck following experiences of trauma, even if you don’t have PTSD. If you are willing to begin this journey, I will be right there next to you to provide warmth, support, and guidance.