Anxiety and Depression

You don’t have to stay “stuck.”

By all appearances, you’re fine.

But inside, life has come to a grinding halt.

Why is it never good enough?

It is so exhausting pretending to be above it all. But that’s what everyone does, right? Who are we, otherwise?

Surely, therapy doesn’t work…

How could talking to someone you don’t know – about something you’ve already thought about over and over – make anything change?

Why can’t I control this???

But no, there it is again – sweaty hands, weird feeling in your chest, skin-crawling up the wall before you can.

Doctors ran tests, said you were healthy. Just anxiety. Doctors <eyeroll… “just anxiety”>.

Clearly, you can’t keep going like this.

Being anxious has long been a part of your personality. It just didn’t use to be this… LOUD.

The medication makes you a zombie, but goddammit, you’re going to figure out how to live with it – because that’s what the doctors said would help.

But it’s not helping.

It’s a way to get high, maybe, but not a way to feel like your feet are safely flat on the ground and aren’t about to be ripped out from under you like a weak, impotent rug.

Effective therapy treats the cause – not the symptom.

You can’t choose how you think or how you feel – because the part of the brain where you’re aware of your thoughts and feelings is not the same part that causes them. Let’s pretend we’re enjoying a sunny afternoon at the park.

You see someone angrily shaking a Bluetooth speaker blaring some odious pop song that’s been an earworm and a menace to the general public for years.

“Excuse me,” you ask, “but… what are you doing?”

“I don’t care if I never hear this song again!” they snarl. “So I’m trying to change it!”

“The music is playing through the speaker, but it’s coming from your phone,” you explain. Eyebrows slant in confusion.

“Let me have your phone for just a second.”

Now, you’re getting a blatant eyeroll, but they pull the phone reluctantly from a pocket and hand it to you with a “see if you can do better” shrug. In just a second or two, you stop the track, delete the playlist, the earworm disappears – and the mouth drops.

“Here you go!” you smile, handing back the phone and leaving the stunned music lover staring blankly at the phone and muttering nonsense syllables.

Connecting the Dots (or the speaker, in this case)

Human beings are a lot like phones and speakers, come to think of it. You experience your thoughts and feelings more like the speaker – they play through you.

But that part of the brain that causes those thoughts and feelings, outside your normal conscious awareness, is more like the phone.

Refreshing Your Emotional Playlist

The bad news? If you treat only the symptoms, it’s like taking your 4500-watt, $3,000 Bluetooth speaker and slamming it into a cinder block wall. Sure, the music stops – definitively. But as soon as you buy a new model, the same old song you don’t want to hear anymore comes right back – because you haven’t changed your playlist.

In just the same way, if you treat only your emotional symptoms, they go away only temporarily – until something triggers those underlying causes, and your symptoms return.

The good news? (And yes, there IS good news!)

Effectively treating anxiety and depression means resolving their cause at the subconscious level, shifting the way the mind processes information, and healing from the inside out.

And that’s what I most enjoy!

My work integrates the most powerful elements of the most effective treatment approaches available today, including Internal Family Systems, EMDR, and Rapid Resolution Therapy.

I connect deeply and directly with the inner mind to clear the clouds of depression and shut off the alarms of anxiety and panic – for good.

And I love doing it – quickly, completely, and painlessly.

In fact, I love having a good time doing it. I know it hasn’t been fun to feel this way. So, I say we should have a blast during your transformation.

Your life isn’t a broken record. And it’s not too late to change your tune.

Let’s connect for a free phone consultation to see what we can accomplish together.

Take your next step forward to freedom. (925) 264-9739