Anxiety Therapist
New York

CBT is a collection of evidence based treatments which help people to change their feelings by regulating their patterns of thinking and behavior.

Often referred to as the “gold standard” for therapy, CBT emphasises short term and present focused skill building and has been scientifically proven to be extremely effective in reducing anxiety in a short amount of time.

Specific CBT approaches include -

Exposure Therapy which is particularly effective in treating specific phobias, panic, social anxiety and related anxiety issues. In exposure therapy, you learn to slowly and gradually confront feared situations.

With the help of the therapist, you learn how to understand and tolerate emotional reactions which results in desensitization and reduced anxiety.

With consistent exposure practice you gain confidence and feel empowered to finally conquer your fears one by one.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a form of exposure therapy focusing on treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In addition to learning how to tolerate triggering thoughts, feelings and situations clients learn to gradually decrease and eventually eliminate their compulsive behaviors, which leads to freedom from their anxiety.

CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I) focuses on improving sleep patterns, developing healthy sleep hygiene, reducing worrying and mastering relaxation techniques.

Therapists help clients set sleep restrictions to limit time spent in bed awake and promote a more consistent sleep schedule.

Through sleep consolidation clients will experience a reduction in the time it takes to fall asleep as well as time spent awake at night. This results in a more consistent and restful sleep.

DBT is a skills based approach to therapy, particularly helpful for those struggling to tolerate and regulate intense emotions.

“Dialectical” refers to the therapy’s focus on learning to balance opposites such as acceptance and understanding of present realities while also working towards future change.

DBT focuses on 4 primary skill sets -

Mindfulness: learning how to be more present in the moment and experience yourself and others in a non-judgmental way

Emotion regulation: learning how to understand and regulate emotions as they occur. Increasing positive emotions through short term pleasant events, long term valued driven action, building mastery and taking care of your mind by taking care of your body.

Distress tolerance: learning how to cope with intense emotional distress in healthy ways to survive crisis, accept reality and move forward effectively.

Interpersonal effectiveness: Learning communication skills to get what you want and need from others, while maintaining relationship effectiveness and increasing self respect.

ACT is an action oriented approach to therapy that focuses on helping people accept what is out of their control and commit instead to actions that improve and enrich their lives.

ACT is centered around 6 core principles.

Acceptance: embracing the full range of your thoughts and feelings rather than trying to avoid or fight them.

Cognitive defusion: distancing yourself from and changing the way you react to distressing thoughts and feelings to reduce their influence.

Being present: being mindful and fully engaged in the moment, observing thoughts and feelings without judgment.

Self as context: accessing a transcendent sense of self and identity

Values: clarifying your deepest desires for how you want to behave as a human being; how you want to treat yourself and others. Using values to guide and inspire action, to do what is important to you, face fears, live meaningfully and change your life for the better

Committed action: taking concrete steps to incorporate changes that align with your values and lead to positive change.

ACT has been proven effective with a diverse range of conditions including panic, work stress, social anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain and substance abuse.

Positive psychology is a scientific approach to understanding human thoughts, feelings and behaviors with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses.

Instead of trying to address what is “wrong” with people, positive psychology asks how we can cultivate humans strengths such as resilience, joy and meaning.

Special focus is given to developing character strength, optimism, gratitude, compassion, happiness, relationships and life satisfaction.