Therapy for anxiety, depression in Naples, Fort Myers

When someone seeks help for anxiety symptoms, the first thing I want him or her to know is that it is not necessary to be able to relax to work effectively with me.

Anxiety is an emotional and physiological response to perceived threat that goes into overdrive. Some symptoms, such as hyper-alertness, may have been useful at one time, but in anxiety that response stays in place even when it is no longer useful.

When a person experiences clinical depression, it affects thoughts, behaviors and feelings. There may be a physiological imbalance that causes that, or it may be that previous trauma is negatively affecting the person without his or her conscious knowledge.

Medication can be valuable for certain people, but if it does not work for someone, it can leave him or her feeling worse than before. I say, "Good for you for being willing to try the medication, but it looks like your symptoms are not physiological. Let's try another approach."

Rapid trauma resolution for anxiety, depression

Our conscious minds are only about 3 percent of our mind's functioning. The other 97 percent is subconscious. People actually make themselves feel worse when they try to figure out their feelings with just 3 percent. They go around and around on the gerbil wheel.

Since most of our solutions are in the 97 percent of the mind that is subconscious, that is where I concentrate most of efforts in therapy.

This does not mean that people have to relive upsetting or traumatic events. Contrary to what some have said, that is not necessary for healing.

I use a combination of Rapid Trauma Resolution and expressive therapies to bring all parts of the mind in line with what is beneficial for my clients. Expressive therapies can include drawing, storytelling, movement or music.

Expressive therapies in Naples, Fort Myers

My training in expressive therapies works well with Rapid Trauma Resolution, which is about helping people reorganize how they integrate traumatic events into their self-perceptions. Expressive therapies make use of art tools, but they really have nothing to do with art.

For instance, it is very common for someone who has struggled with lifelong depression to express him- or herself as if this is who he or she is. But no matter what causes the symptoms of depression, it is important to recognize they are just symptoms, not a person's identity.

Depression is something people have, not something they are. To illustrate this, I make sure to use language that is very clear, and I teach clients to do that, too. "You are not a depressive. You are a person who has depression."

Self-esteem therapy for depression

One woman I saw was depressed for more than 30 years. Some times were better, some were worse, but she felt depressed to some degree for most of her life.

After we met a few times to get to know each other, I told her a simple story. "Imagine you had a friend who cut her thumb off in a gardening accident. Would you say, 'Would most of you like to come over for iced tea?'"

Of course, she knew she would not say that. The essence of her friend is not her thumb. This client had the insight that it is just the same with depression. Although she experienced disturbing symptoms, that did not define her whole identity.

Over the following few sessions, we separated the symptoms from who she truly was. She went from describing herself as disabled to seeing herself as a whole person.

We also cleared up some troubling events and feelings of guilt about things she felt she could have prevented if not depressed. She saw from her new perspective that she could not have done anything differently at that time.

As a result of our work together, this woman's symptoms began to lift. She started to dress and care for herself differently. She began to enjoy all the various aspects of her life.