Anxiety & Depression Therapist – Lafayette, LA

As an individual therapist, I work with you one-on-one in a safe and supportive environment that aims to facilitate change and improve your quality of life. My focus as a Therapist is to resolve the issues that brought you into therapy and create the change you seek for your life. We will begin by setting personal goals for yourself and identify steps toward resolution or achievement. Each individual session will differ according to what you bring in that day to address. We may explore past events that impact you and your current relationships or we may focus on learning new skills to give you freedom from your symptoms. People seek individual therapy in Lafayette for a variety of reasons. We may work together for as few as 5-8 sessions or we may choose to work for a longer period of time, depending on your unique needs and personal goals for therapy.

What is Dialectic Behavior Therapy?

  Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a skills-based treatment that is effective in treating individuals who experience emotional dysregulation. Initially developed for individuals who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder, but has been shown to be effective in many areas. DBT enhances dialectical thinking patterns by validating and accepting your issues while simultaneously helping you to change. The idea is that once you can accept uncomfortable and unhealthy thoughts and behaviors, instead of struggling against them, then change seems more possible. You learn to regulate emotions, tolerate distress, improve interpersonal relationships and develop acceptance skills.

DBT for Depression:

DBT emphasizes both validation and tolerance, which can be helpful for you if you are struggling with depression. DBT offers coping skills, such as emotional regulation and distress tolerance, which allows you to address depressive symptoms and ultimately break free from them.

DBT for Anxiety:

Anxiety symptoms often interfere with your daily functioning. DBT offers new skills for you to better manage panic attacks, worries, fears and anxiety that cause you to feel stuck. DBT incorporates mindfulness meditation to help you regulate anxious emotions and associated behaviors. DBT can be helpful with generalized anxiety, as well as other anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorders, panic disorders, social anxiety and phobias.  

Interested in learning in DBT therapy from a trained therapist in Lafayette, LA? Please call or email me to set up a free phone consultation.

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the preferred techniques to treat depression and anxiety, but can also be effective in treating a variety of other issues. It is based on the idea that negative feelings are the result of distorted beliefs or thought patterns. Treatment focuses on the connection between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Using a combination of behavioral and cognitive principles, this approach challenges unhelpful thinking and behavioral patterns to resolve current problems.

CBT for Depression:

At the foundation of CBT is the assumption that your depressed mood is related to your pattern of thinking. CBT helps you to recognize negative and dysfunctional thoughts, evaluate their validity and replace them with healthier ways of thinking in order to improve mood, behavior and sense of self.

CBT for Anxiety:

CBT can help uncover underlying causes of worries and fears that cause anxiety. By changing negative thought patterns, you can learn different ways of coping and problem-solving; look at situations in new and less frightening ways; and increase relaxation in order to overcome anxiety.

CBT for Maternal Distress:

CBT is considered to be one of the most effective methods for mothers struggling with perinatal distress. CBT helps you to identify and acknowledge automatic thoughts, including your thoughts about parenting and motherhood; become aware of these thoughts; and evaluate when they are helpful or not helpful.  CBT provides tangible tools that you can adopt immediately to help you to change your thinking and manage your emotional distress. CBT also offers individualized treatment plans to develop personal coping strategies so that you feel better equipped to manage distress and take care of your baby.  

As a Therapist specializing in CBT in Lafayette, La, I can help you overcome the issues you are challenged with. Please call or email me to set up a free phone consultation.

What is Solution-Focused Therapy?

  Solution-Focused Therapy is a goal-directed collaborative approach that focuses on solutions rather than problems or past failures.  Therapy is driven by your existing strengths, assuming that you already have the knowledge and tools to achieve a better life. Therapy helps you take small steps to achieve goals by focusing on the problem right now, finding exceptions and working towards the future in a goal-oriented way.

Solution-Focused Therapy for Depression:

One of the symptoms of depression is hopelessness. If you are struggling with depression, you may tend to ruminate about the past and feel hopeless about your future. Solution-focused therapy specifically targets this by helping you look ahead to a future free from depression, rather than focusing on the things in the past that caused your depression.  Solution-focused therapy values solutions to improve your mood and help you develop new skills.

Solution-Focused Therapy for Anxiety:

Solution-focused therapy addresses anxiety by helping you change your focus from what is going wrong to what is going right. As a therapist, I can help you see beyond your anxiety and engage in more rational patterns of thinking. Solution-focused therapy offers you practical ways to focus on solutions in order to regain control of their life.

Solution-Focused Therapy for Maternal Distress:

Therapy focuses on the mom’s strengths and skills. She sets goals and focuses on solutions. In therapy, this may include concrete interventions. If the mother’s chief complaint is that she is exhausted and overwhelmed, the therapist and mother may look for opportunities where she can increase sleep by having a partner take on a night-feeding, asking for help from family or friends, or finding times during the day where she can rest. In my practice, we focus on increasing the mom’s overall wellness to address and decrease maternal distress.

Interested in working with a Solution Focused Therapist? Please call or email me to set up a free phone consultation.