Counseling in Northeast Portland

I offer counseling in NE Portland with a focus on anxiety, depression, and relationship issues.

Anxiety can manifest in a variety of ways, including fear, panic, worry (e.g. catastrophizing, focusing on negatives, ruminating), phobias, sleep problems, social anxiety, or even post-traumatic stress.

Depression can also show up in various ways, such as sadness, low mood, less interest in normally enjoyable activities, low self-esteem, guilt, and feeling hopeless, trapped, or stuck.

Relationship issues are another important area of focus. I find that healthy relationships are essential to our wellbeing; when our important relationships are not functioning well, they can be a significant source of anxiety and depression. In short, humans are hardwired to connect - when this is not happening, we tend to struggle. Relationship problems can take on many different forms as well, such as fear of rejection or abandonment, co-dependency, jealousy, or trust issues.

Anxiety, Depression, Relationship Problems, and other related symptoms can be a real barrier to experiencing happiness and fulfillment in your life; fortunately, counseling can help you to create the positive changes that you are looking for in your life.

The key to my counseling work is being able to tailor my approach specifically for your unique situation by drawing on different counseling methods and techniques.

One approach that I use is "talk therapy," which helps with building insight and awareness, changing negative thinking, and developing clarity about your life direction and choices. Talk therapy is most valuable when it is used in a very focused way to identify problematic behavior patterns. Once these patterns are identified we can then focus on two very important areas: 1) Skill Building and 2) using specific Counseling Techniques to address the negative patterns that are at the source of your concerns.

1. Building new skills and behaviors is important for managing symptoms (anxiety, depression, etc.) and for improving relationships. Examples include developing effective stress-reduction, relaxation, self-care, mindfulness, emotion processing, communication, planning, and boundary-setting skills.
   
   
2. Deeper, more persistent patterns often benefit from specific counseling techniques that can address the trauma and attachment wounds that are at the source of painful symptoms and triggers. Left unaddressed, the painful thoughts and emotions from past emotional trauma and attachment wounds can easily be activated in the present, resulting in unnecessary and uncomfortable symptoms and reactions.

Finally, the counseling work that I do draws on both the wisdom of the Eastern spiritual traditions as well as Western psychology. This allows you to tap into a broad range of perspectives and tools that can assist you in working through your life challenges.

The counseling in Northeast Portland that I do is focused on helping you to:

• Move beyond painful symptoms, triggers, and emotional reactions
• Establish a better relationship with yourself and others
• Feel more calm, centered, and relaxed
• Experience joy and passion
• Live in the present
• Feel empowered
• Live in harmony with your true nature

If you're looking to start counseling in the Portland metro area, feel free to call or email me so we can discuss ways that we can meet your counseling goals.