Anxiety and Depression
Walnut Creek therapist, Shannon Rogers, can help you work with stress, anxiety, and depression so you can meet life’s challenges with courage and live a rich, full life based not on fear but on your personal values.
Anxiety
Therapy for Anxiety in Walnut Creek
Anxiety and depression often go hand-in-hand. The helplessness, hopelessness, and self- defeating thoughts and behaviors that can accompany anxiety, depression, and stress hurt. If you are experiencing stress or anxiety, I may be able to help. I provide psychotherapy for people suffering from anxiety. I believe help is available no matter how debilitating your symptoms.
Therapy can help you learn ways to work with and relate to anxiety (fear, worry), and stress so you can stop avoiding things that matter to you and begin to take the steps and risks that will enable you to build the life you want to live. In therapy we will work to understand the root causes of your suffering and help you learn new skills that will make your mind and your life feel workable instead overwhelming and confusing.
Symptoms of Anxiety
If you have a history of anxiety or stress you may find yourself experiencing:
anxious or repetitive thoughts and worry, even if you know you don't need to worry
physical symptoms of anxiety such as racing or pounding heart, shaking, feeling like you can't breathe, sweating, nausea, or stomach discomfort
feeling anxious and dizzy or faint, possibly with chills or hot flashes
anxiety with a fear that you are going crazy or losing control or dying
intense discomfort while being out socially (social anxiety) including fears about having a panic attack
self medicating with drugs or alcohol to ease the intense discomfort of anxiety
As a licensed therapist I will help you learn to relate to your anxiety in a way that leaves you feeling less overwhelmed and more courageous so you can face life’s ups and downs with more ease. If you are white knuckling your way through life, therapy can help you let go and become more flexible and resilient. Our work may also focus on self-criticism as well as the depression and hopelessness that often accompany anxiety.
Treating Anxiety & Stress
Approaches such as ACT, PBBT, mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and somatic work are very effective in treating anxiety. I have specific training in these areas:
Process-based Behavior Therapy (PBBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Mindfulness-based models including meditation, yoga, and somatic psychotherapies
As a therapist in Walnut Creek, I meet you where you are at based on your particular goals and needs. I believe it is possible to live a life in which anxiety doesn’t prevent you from following your dreams and meeting your goals. If you are interested in learning more about working together, I offer a free 30 minute phone consultation.
Depression
Depression often accompanies anxiety. If you are experiencing feelings of sadness, irritation and anger, or other feelings that come with depression I will work with you to help you learn to relate to your experience differently and make necessary changes so you can live a full, meaningful life no matter what you are feeling - up or down. Some ways we may work with depression are:
developing and implementing a self care plan
attempting to understand the root cause of depression
addressing unhelpful thoughts or behaviors and experimenting with new behaviors
mindfulness work, including looking at how you relate to your thoughts, feelings, the world, and other people
