Counseling for anxiety & depression in Charlotte, NC

For treating anxiety, my go-to approach is to address the thoughts and behavior patterns that go along with your anxiety, and how to reshape those patterns to help you cope better. When you are in the depths of depression, even simple daily tasks can start to feel overwhelming. For this reason, I believe in starting with the smallest of baby steps necessary. My approach to treating depression is to focus on small, realistic goals that will start to poke holes in that cloud so the sun can start to shine through. For both anxiety and depression, we will start with small goals, such as implementing brief relaxation skills throughout your day and learning to recognize your anxious thought patterns, or walking for 10 minutes a day and dedicating 20 minutes toward an enjoyable hobby. We will then build off of those goals to help equip you with a toolbox to manage your anxiety better in the long run. You may think, “How will that possibly solve my problems?” In short, it won't, but it's a start. Doing things that help you feel even a little bit better is often the catalyst toward tackling bigger goals that will make an even bigger difference!

Here are some of the tools I teach when treating anxiety:

• Deep breathing: One of the quickest and most effective ways to manage stress is to regulate your breathing. This helps slow your heart rate and calm your nervous system, making anxiety more manageable.
• Grounding techniques: These are exercises that focus on your senses as a way to redirect your thoughts from your worries.
• Reframing negative thoughts: Sometimes, anxiety is based on realistic concerns and other times they are unrealistic. Reframing negative thoughts helps you learn to recognize which thought patterns are not helpful and how to think about things more constructively.

Some tools I may teach to treat depression include, but are not limited to:

• Cognitive reframing: Cognitive reframing involves learning how to reframe overly negative, unhelpful, or untrue thought patterns. This may involve acknowledging unpleasant realities while focusing on what you can do to control them.
• Physical exercise: You don't have to train for a marathon to reap the benefits of physical activity. Even just five minutes of walking can make a difference.
• Mindfulness meditation: This is the process of learning to observe what goes on in your mind in a nonjudgmental way. It helps you develop more insights into your thoughts and feelings and more acceptance of your unpleasant emotions.
• Mood journaling: It can be helpful to track your mood from day to day to help notice patterns that contribute to or decrease your depression.

There are many ways to manage anxiety and depression, and these are just a few. We will work together to help you develop a set of coping strategies that fit your needs.

I know clients are making progress in anxiety therapy when they can handle stressors in their lives more effectively, dwell less on their worries, and focus more on what makes them happy. I can often tell people are making progress simply by their demeanor, when they generally seem happier and more content with life. Outside of therapy, this can look like being more engaged in activities they enjoy, being more connected to friends and family, and having more energy to complete daily tasks. It is truly remarkable and rewarding to see people learn to manage their anxiety and depression better, and therapy really does help!

In between anxiety therapy sessions, I may assign “homework” that could include practicing daily coping skills or keeping track of worrisome thoughts. I also encourage clients to explore on their own whatever helps them cope with stress in a healthy way, whether that is through exercise, meditation, hobbies, or spending time with family and friends.For depression, I encourage people to seek out whatever helps increase joy in their lives, whether it is spending time with friends and family, engaging in meaningful hobbies, getting outdoors, or volunteering.

To prepare for your first anxiety therapy session, I encourage you to think about what is driving your anxiety. What are the triggers, and when is it most likely to be problematic? For your first depression therapy session, I encourage you to think about what is driving your depression, and what kinds of goals you'd like to set in order to help treat it. In both, I encourage clients to think about what things will look like when their anxiety or depression is no longer weighing them down. What will you do differently? How will life be different?