Anxiety/Depression/OCD
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety treatment looks different for every client, but I find what works best is to understand where the anxiety comes from and then use skills to decrease the frequency of symptoms. Anxiety can be very tricky to overcome because it is just one of the ways our brain processes information and protects us. It doesn't want us to feel pain, even emotional pain, and will do anything to make us avoid situations that bring it up. I find its helpful for clients to learn about the role anxiety has on their life in the past and present in order for them to feel control about how they want to live with it in the future.
Specific Experience:
Depression and Anxiety co-occuring Treatment
Social Anxiety Disorder Treatment
Generalized Anxiety Disorder Treatment
Specific Phobia Treatment using Exposure Prevention Response Therapy (ERP)
Health Anxiety
And more
Common Topics for Treatment:
Identifying anxious triggers
Identifying coping mechanisms
Finding skills that help lessen feelings of anxiety
Regular practice of activities that are non-anxiety inducing
Tracking where triggers came from
And more
Depressive Disorders
Treatment for depressive disorders focuses on increasing positive behaviors that the client wants to experience. First, barriers to this goal are addressed and then an increase in self-compassion is added to help neutralize negative self talk that is a common occurrence with depression. After this step, a regular routine is put in place to increase the behaviors that client's want to see and work on skills to decrease the behaviors they don't want to see.
Specific Experience:
Depression in adults and teens
Major Depressive Disorder Treatment
Depression and Anxiety co-occuring Treatment
And more
Common Topics for Treatment:
Identifying depressive triggers
Identifying coping mechanisms
Finding behavioral skills that increase activity
Increasing positive self-talk
And more
Obesessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Treatment for OCD takes a willingness to be uncomfortable in order to heal from the non-helpful patterns that our brain created. We start with looking at the triggers for OCD behaviors and track when they started and what has fed them during that time. Safety behaviors, or things that the client does to make them feel better (eg. compulsions, validation, etc), are reduced in order for the exposure exercises to work. We then create a list of exposures to the obessive thoughts that are mini challenges to help build confidence to exterminate the behavior. During this time emotion regulation strategies are also implemented so that the client can learn how to find healthier coping skills when they meet up with their trigger again in the future.
Specific Experience:
OCD Treatment using Exposure Prevention Response Therapy (ERP)
OCD and Anxiety Disorders
OCD and Depressive Disorders
Intrusive Thoughts
Non-Compulsive presenting Obsessions
And more
Common Topics for Treatment:
Identifying what obessions and compulsions are currently in practice
History of these obsessions and compulsions
Creating a list of actionable goals to challenge the obsessions and compulsions
Creating a list of safety behaviors that will need to be extinguished
Learning emotion regulation skills when doing exposures
And more
If you have questions about experience in any of these areas or areas that are not listed above please email Mallory@Thrallcounselingpllc.com or set up a free 15-minute consultation phone call.