Why do I have so much anxiety during (insert any number of situations)? Why do I react with such strong emotion when certain things happen that intellectually don't seem like that big of a deal? Why do I feel so much tension or nervousness in my body at the sight/sound/smell of certain things? Why do I sometimes feel like I'm in fight, flight, or freeze in the course of normal day to day life? The simple explanation is…

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is the most powerful therapeutic approach I know to address issues related to anxiety, phobias, past trauma, current triggers, strong emotional reactions, feeling stuck... the list is endless! I've used it to treat a wide variety of issues with great and lasting success. EMDR can be hard to wrap your brain around at first…

In the wake of trauma, associations to certain sounds, smells, images, sensations, or any trigger can instantly bring up overwhelming feelings and reactions because intense emotions are paired with specific cues. And when it comes to relationships, some unhealthy patterns can feel familiar because…

People tend to think that they just have anxiety, that it's just part of them that they can't change, and that they'll always have to just do the best they can to manage it with medication and/or coping that helps but doesn't heal. Anxiety can be an organic issue that persists over time even when you do everything you can to manage it well, but more often I find that anxiety has an underlying cause that's fully resolvable, and that…

For most people, New Year's Resolutions don't work, but why? They're usually aligned with your loftiest goals and most idealized version of yourself. A new year gives you a sort of blank slate and fresh start to slow down, focus in, and try something new. It seems like a great recipe for success. But New Year's Resolutions that are lofty and idealized can make them feel impossible to follow through on, which is why most people end up quitting them instead.

The parent/child relationship can be strained with so many different issues. Parents often struggle with knowing how to manage behaviors or set limits with young children. Parents and teens usually butt heads in one way or another as teens strive for independence and parents are unsure where and when to let go. Adult children often feel confused and overwhelmed by recognizing relationship patterns…

Most of my EMDR clients start the process saying something along the lines of... I struggle with these feelings that I know are from my childhood, but it's hard to think of specific memories that are significant. Or... I have so many memories that it's hard for me to narrow down what's important and I don't know how to decide. This is common, and the good news is, you can still benefit tremendously from EMDR even if you're unsure where to start.

Very often this feeling of always waiting for the other shoe to drop comes in the aftermath of an experience where you felt blindsided. If you survived an event in which you felt intensely overwhelmed or frighteningly out of control, your survival instinct clicks into place to protect you. Sometimes this is a significant single event trauma, and sometimes this is a more subtle experience like growing up in a home with longstanding patterns of unpredictability over time.

Processing and releasing past pain and trauma can have profound and life changing effects. One of the most impactful things about EMDR is how processing certain memories or beliefs can generalize out to other memories and beliefs, creating lasting healing on a very deep level. And this can happen in days or months, instead of years of therapy.

A lot of my Christian clients come to me frustrated and disillusioned because they have been praying and applying Scripture to their anxiety faithfully for months, or even years, without any real change. Well meaning Christian friends have told them that anxiety is a problem of faith, and that if they would pray more, or trust more, or surrender more, then they would be healed. So they've tried and tried, but still come up short.

I work with a lot of highly successful professional men and women, many of whom have worked their way up to high level positions or established very successful businesses. Many of these people, in spite of their success, struggle with feelings of inadequacy or fears of being a fraud. Most people would never know. On the outside they look like they have it all together. But on the inside high anxiety is derailing them.

What a lot of people don't know is that anxiety is a physiological response in your brain and body to a trigger that feels upsetting or threatening. It's not a mindset problem that you can just think your way out of, it's an automatic nervous system response that's part of your hard wired survival instinct. You reduce anxiety by creating a sense of calm and safety in your nervous system so that you can get out of survival mode.

Your brain and body just automatically did what they could to try and keep you safe. You didn't have time or capacity to think, the primitive part of your brain just took over and kicked you into survival mode. Sometimes that automatic survival response is different than a decision you would have made with your rational mind. But your rational mind, by design, isn't always available in those moments and so your primitive survival instinct switches on and takes over.

Knowing that intrusive thoughts get bigger and more anxiety provoking when you pay more attention to them, it makes sense that finding ways to give them less focus and attention can greatly reduce anxiety and disturbance. There are 3 simple steps you can take to start reducing anxiety from intrusive thoughts.

Imposter Syndrome is a pervasive fear that you're not competent or not good enough, that your success is fragile or a mistake, and that you'll be found out and something terrible will happen. It's more common than you would think among highly successful and high achieving people, in spite of evidence that they've actually earned their success through competence, hard work, and being well respected.

One thing I try to keep in mind is that these teens are pretty much going through life with half a brain at this time. They just don't have that prefrontal cortex development that gives them the ability to reason with logic, control impulses, and problem solve consistently. Also, there's hormones. Everything is changing so much, their inner world can be a roller coaster... so it's no wonder we're often left feeling like we're on an absolute ride of ups and downs.

EMDR is immensely helpful for healing early childhood experiences that may not have been overtly abusive, but that you know were impactful to your sense of safety, security, or identity. Through EMDR processing, you can neutralize pain from the past and restore a sense of who you are with confidence in the present.