Anxiety Disorders

While each anxiety disorder has a specific set of criteria for diagnosis, there are commonalities among them. People suffering from anxiety disorders typically engage in behavioral avoidance, excessive worry and experience uncomfortable and distressing physiological signs of anxious arousal. I have extensive experience and advanced training in empirically validated treatments for anxiety. I also know how unrelenting and exhausting it can be to suffer with anxiety. Let me help. I treat the following anxiety disorders;

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Panic Disorder

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (click here for more details)

• Phobias

• I treat many phobias, but I have a special interest in:

  • Emetophobia: Fear of vomiting

  • Blood Injury/Needle Phobia: If you are unable to receive injections or have fainted during needles/blood draws you would benefit from a special protocol for these particular phobias.

• Social Anxiety Disorder

• *Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: OCD is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder in the DSM-V but this has overlap with several other clinical conditions that I treat and I have specialized training in evidence based treatments for this disorder.

  Helpful Resources

• Anxiety Disorders Association of Canada

• Effective Treatment for Anxiety Disorders

Stress

Everyone experiences stress. Negative as well as positive stressors (e.g. getting married, starting a great new job) can impact a person's mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and relational health. If the stress is chronic and/or overwhelming in severity or number, coping resources can become taxed and individuals can start to experience difficulties. Left unaddressed, chronic stress often precedes conditions such as clinical depression and anxiety.

Therapy can be helpful for stress management by helping you to engage in more adaptive coping strategies, altering how you perceive your stress and by helping you to learn concrete strategies to offset the effects of stress (e.g. relaxation training, mindfulness skills).