When life’s challenges become overwhelming and additional support is needed to overcome them, seeking the professional help of a therapist can restore a person’s capacity to effectively cope and achieve a more productive and fulfilling state-of-being. Therapy provides individuals with a safe and comfortable environment to explore a new sense of self. Taking the steps to find solutions in psychotherapy is an ideal way to find the balance to become a more focused and joyous person while learning how to effectively deal with life’s many challenges.
- Stress Management
- Personal Growth
- Overcoming Depression
- Raising Self-Esteem
- Pain Management
- Grief Counseling
- Eating Disorders/Weight Management
- Anxiety
- Breaking Addictions
Stress Management
Stress is the natural response to the mental and physical demands being placed on the mind and body. When the demands are too overwhelming the body responds by experiencing higher levels of stress. It is not necessarily the stress itself that causes anxiety, but may be a reaction to the emotional conflicts faced on a daily basis.
Therapy can teach an individual to manage this stress and help them find healthier ways to express their thoughts and feelings. Therapy for stress management includes a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy, techniques to utilize energy to bring about greater sense of well-being and efficient problem solving solutions to reduce pressure. Stress management techniques including meditation, muscle relaxation, deep breathing and guided imagery. The main goal of stress management therapy is to reduce the negative emotions that lead to feeling pressure and to provide an individual with the tools to effectively manage responsibilities without becoming overwhelmed. These new skills will help maintain a more positive focus and restore a sense of balance.
Personal Growth
There are times in life when an individual is so burdened with emotional barriers that it prevents their personal growth. Engaging in therapy leads to greater self awareness and a better understanding of what it takes to fulfill emotional needs. By using the cognitive-behavioral approach to explore the reasons behind negative feelings and actions it increases the ability of an individual to adapt new coping skills and restore balance and happiness.
Achieving goals and regaining motivation through therapeutic sessions will enhance a client’s emotional, physical and spiritual life leading to a more connected life experience and more successful social relationships.
Overcoming Depression
Depression is characterized by feelings of sadness, despair and hopelessness. Often, depression is the result of stressful life events, marital problems, change or loss of a job or death of a loved one. Symptoms of depression can include persistent sadness, lethargy, fatigue, loss of interest, sleep difficulties, changes in appetite and even thoughts of suicide
Depression is very treatable and sufferers who seek help often find they are once again able to enjoy life. Studies have found that therapy is highly effective and can be much more beneficial than solely relying antidepressant drugs. In therapy individuals have the opportunity to safely explore and express their feelings and find the root causes for their depression. By engaging in both cognitive and interpersonal therapy an individual will alleviate the depressive symptoms and re-connect with activities they once enjoyed. Therapy will also focus on how past and current relationships may be contributing to feelings of depression. Incorporating new coping skills to deal with life’s challenges together with building a therapeutic relationship will raise an individual’s self-esteem and their motivation will be restored.
Raising Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is so important to cultivate relationships as well as to find success on a personal level. Unfortunately, many people who suffer from feelings of low self-esteem find it hard to enjoy social situations and often have trouble in business as well as in their daily lives. Working with a therapist is an ideal way to boost self-esteem and gain a more positive perspective and appreciation for oneself. It will empower an individual to reevaluate their own self-worth and minimize the constant negative input low self-esteem sufferers put themselves through. This self effacing thought process is very damaging and by working with a therapist individuals will find a greater sense of self and their lives will be transformed.
Pain Management
Chronic pain is a condition that can take all of the joy out of life. Ailments such as migraines, neck and back pain, arthritis, and stomach problems are often caused or worsened by negative emotions and stress. Therapy provides individuals with an opportunity to explore and release these painful emotions and adapt new coping skills. By using meditation, guided imagery, and cognitive-behavioral therapy individuals can create new tools to relieve emotional and physical pain and will lead to a fuller, healthier and happier lifestyle.
Grief Counseling
Everyone experiences loss and we all need support to get through this difficult time. However some people experience a degree of loss that leaves a hole in their lives they need help to fill. Loss may include the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, aging, loss of self in a relationship or declining health. Therapy provides a caring environment that allows individual to mange their grief and move on to leading more fulfilling and productive lives. This therapeutic relationship will teach an individual to cope with life on life’s terms and offer a substantial support system for healing and growth.
Eating Disorders/Weight Management
Using food to cope with emotional upsets is a very common behavior although it can be a severe source of anxiety and embarrassment and often leads to feelings of shame or inadequacy. Emotional eaters use food to calm and soothe their nerves and to offset negative emotions. Unhealthy eating habits take their tool on the mind, body and spirit. The guilt over out of control eating habits only leads to further feelings of frustration and depression.
While in therapy individuals learn healthy eating habits while gaining the ability to use food as sustenance and pleasure rather than to cover the emotional upsets that they are experiencing. Therapy teaches cognitive methods to identify the triggers that lead to eating to relieve emotional pain rather than hunger.
Many people who suffer from eating disorders also have a distorted body image and are using dieting or binge eating to gain control over their emotions rather than working through them. Learning how to distinguish these feelings and developing the skills necessary to manage weight and eating habits can lead not only to better health, but also to a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Anxiety
Anxiety results from chronic stress on the mind and body. Symptoms can have a significant impact on an individual’s life. Excessive worry, restlessness, sleep deprivation, irritability and lack of concentration are just some of the effects of anxiety.
Therapy will help alleviate these symptoms and eventually eliminate them altogether by utilizing stress management techniques such as meditation, imagery, muscle relaxation, and deep breathing exercises. Therapy will then include a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and exploration of phobias and negative behavioral patterns. It will also instill coping strategies that provide an individual with mechanisms to control anxiety and the effective tools to respond more positively to life’s situations.
Breaking Addictions
Addictions of all kinds are notoriously difficult to break and can be detrimental to success in relationships and family life as well as causing problems with work. Addiction can take many forms including food, alcohol, drugs, work, sex, gambling and other unhealthy behaviors.
Therapy is the catalyst that best treats all types of addiction. It provides a safe environment to explore and work through the issues that are the driving force behind the addiction itself. By utilizing cognitive methods to identify the triggers and practicing exercises that create a better mind/body connection, an individual can learn to control the cravings and impulses that lead to unhealthy addictions.
Lana provides counseling and therapy for teens, adults, couples and families. She treats depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, eating disorders/ weight management, stress management, personal growth, self-esteem, family counseling, couples therapy and pain management.
Lana serves the greater San Diego area including La Jolla, University City, Clairemont, Kearny Mesa, Mira Mesa, UTC, Sorrento Valley, Carmel Valley, Del Mar, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, and Point Loma.