Specializing in Anxiety Treatment, Depression, Trauma and Eating Disorders.
Anxiety
Anxiety is your body's natural response to stress. It's a feeling of fear or apprehension about what's to come. The first day of college, going to a job interview, or giving a speech may cause most people to feel fearful and nervous. However, if your feelings of anxiety are extreme, last for longer than six months and are interfering with your life, you may have an anxiety disorder.
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Your anxiety may be linked to chronic worry. You might experience panic attacks if your anxiety is acute. Some people report a chronic sense of dread and disturbed sleep. Finding it difficult to get to sleep due to a racing mind and waking early unable to get back to sleep.
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Health anxiety, the fear that I have a serious illness and the doctor has missed it. You may find yourself having lots of medical tests to feel safe, but nonetheless the doubt and uncertainty persists
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Social anxiety, you may have a fear of negative evaluation. Performance anxiety, people will see how anxious I am and think I am weird. I will say or do the wrong thing and people will think that I must be stupid. You might have beliefs such as 'I should be fully in control of my anxiety at all times'.
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OCD worries 'my thoughts are bad and out of control'. I might act on them and do something dangerous, I need my rituals to protect me.
Depression
Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression. Depression is when you feel persistently sad for weeks or months, rather than just a few days. It affects your ability to do everyday things.
Eating Disorders
Binge eating disorder is when you find yourself eating large quantities of food very quickly or to the point of discomfort; experience overwhelming thoughts about food or shame, distress or guilt and self-criticism. It is the most common eating disorder and well treated using CBT.
OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) features a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears that lead to compulsive behaviours (the compulsion). The compulsion maybe be visible such as excessive washing or the compulsion maybe something we do in our head such as reviewing past events?
Trauma
Trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event such as an accident, rape or natural disaster.
There are 3 types of trauma:
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Acute trauma results from a single incident.
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Chronic trauma is repeated and prolonged such as domestic violence or abuse
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Complex Trauma is exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature.
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Examples of trauma:
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Physical abuse
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Sexual abuse
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Bullying
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Domestic violence
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Traumatic Grief
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Medical Trauma
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Terrorism
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Refugee Experience
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Serious accidental injury
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Neglect
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Emotional abuse
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Impaired caregiver
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Forced Separation
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Racism or other discrimination
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Adolescent Therapy
Adolescents don't always have or show the same symptoms as adults. It's harder to spot mood disorders in adolescents. That's because they are not always able to say how they feel. Adolescents may show different symptoms than adults. It depends on their age and type of mood disorder. These are the most common symptoms:
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Ongoing feelings of sadness
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Feelings of despair, helplessness or guilt
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Low self-esteem
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Feelings of not being good enough
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Feelings of wanting to die
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Loss of interest in normal activities or activities once enjoyed
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Trouble with relationships
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Sleep problems, such as insomnia
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Sensitivity to failure or rejection
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Being grouchy, hostile or angry
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