Evidence-Based Treatment of Anxiety and Depression.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
FOR CHILDREN, TEENS, and ADULTS
Is your negative thinking making you anxious and taking the joy out of life?
Are you struggling to control your worries? Do you tend to catastrophize and focus on the negative? Are you so focused on the worst-case scenario that you feel gripped by a fear of failure? Do you jump to conclusions and anticipate negative results before anything starts? Perhaps your tendency to think negatively has affected your view of yourself, other people, and even the world.
People often arrive at my practice wanting to improve their anxiety, mood, sleep, relationships, and outlook on life. They often describe feeling stuck in a cycle of blame, harsh judgment, self-criticism, avoiding anxiety-provoking situations, and often questioning themselves and their decisions. We can work together to come to a better understanding of your problems and help you learn tools to address these problems.
CBT is research-proven to treat mood, anxiety, and sleep disorders and I specialize in:
Depression, sadness, low or irritable mood
Anxiety Disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, OCD, and Social Anxiety
Panic Attacks or Panic Disorder
Stress management
Sleep problems including insomnia (sleep onset and sleep maintenance)
You’d never invite a thief into your home, so why would you allow thoughts that steal your joy to make themselves at home in your mind?
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WHAT IS COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT)?
CBT is evidence-based, which means it is proven by research to be an effective treatment for mood, anxiety, sleep disorders, and other psychological issues. Research studies comparing CBT versus medications (such as antidepressants) show that CBT can be as effective (sometimes even more effective) than medication.
In CBT, the sessions are structured and the client is an active participant who collaborates with the therapist to better understand what may be causing and maintaining their problems. The therapist is action-oriented and serves as a coach, teaching strategies that may help address problems with a goal-oriented approach. At the start of treatment, clients work with their therapist to set clear, measurable treatment goals and progress will be monitored regularly throughout treatment.
CBT helps people understand the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Clients who practice learn to better recognize their automatic negative thoughts and replace them with more accurate, useful, and balanced ones.
CBT is problem-specific and present-focused, so although you and your therapist will work together to gain an understanding of the root of your problems, the main focus of therapy is understanding current factors that cause, contribute, maintain, and exacerbate the problems. Client and therapist work together to practice skills and clients learn tools to address their difficulties. Often, clients and therapists work together as scientists to form hypotheses (reasonable or educated guesses) about problems and conduct experiments to determine which solutions are most effective.
CBT may help you:
Learn strategies to cope with stress
Improve your mood, feel happier and less irritable
Decrease anxiety and manage your worries
Improve the quality of your sleep
Manage pain and chronic illness symptoms
Strengthen your relationships, including with yourself
Enhance your communication and interpersonal skills
Let’s find balance and bring happiness back into your life.
FAQS
Common questions about CBT
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The average number of CBT sessions typically ranges from 5-20 sessions. However, if you have multiple problems or the problem is long-standing (i.e., you’ve had this problem for many years), then it may take over 20 sessions. The number of sessions depends on several factors such as the nature of your problems and your progress as well as the work you put into CBT skills practice between visits. I will have a better understanding of the number of sessions you will need after we meet for the initial assessment to discuss your concerns and goals. Treatment is always tailored to the individual and not “one size fits all.”
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In CBT, you are an active participant and you work collaboratively with your therapist to reach a shared understanding of your problems and develop strategies to overcome them. A focus of CBT is empowering you to learn strategies to help yourself so if similar issues arise in the future, you will be better prepared to handle them.
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Weekly sessions are recommended at the start of treatment. Once you begin to feel better, we’ll discuss reducing the frequency of sessions to every other week, then once per month. When you feel ready to end therapy, we can plan some follow-up sessions to check in and help you maintain the progress you’ve made, usually at 3- and 6-month intervals.
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Reach out to schedule an initial visit or free 20-minute consultation by clicking here or the “Contact” button at the top of this page.
Feel free to contact me if you are not ready to schedule the free consultation but have additional questions.
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