Anxiety is a normal human emotion and physiological response to perceived danger, uncertainty, or stress. It becomes a problem when it's excessive, persistent, or out of proportion to the actual situation, and it starts interfering with daily life, relationships, or well-being.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective and well-researched treatments for anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety, and phobias. CBT helps treat anxiety by addressing the thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs that fuel anxious feelings and avoidance. CBT helps treat anxiety by changing how people think, feel, and behave in response to their fears. It breaks the cycle of worry and avoidance and empowers clients to face challenges with confidence, flexibility, and self-compassion.

OCD is characterized by intrusive, unwanted, and distressing thoughts, images, or urges that repeatedly enter a person's mind. These thoughts often cause significant anxiety or discomfort.

I treat OCD through a combination of Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP):

• Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) is a specialized form of cognitive therapy designed specifically to treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) by targeting the way people come to believe their intrusive thoughts in the first place. Unlike traditional CBT, which often focuses on challenging the content of obsessive thoughts, I-CBT focuses on the process by which someone infers that a feared scenario is true—despite lacking evidence.
  

• Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) works by helping individuals face their fears (exposures) without performing compulsions (response prevention), ultimately retraining the brain to stop reacting to intrusive thoughts as threats.

Couples seek therapy for a wide range of relationship issues that can affect emotional and physical intimacy, communication, and overall happiness. Oftentimes, couples are unconsciously re-enacting relationship dynamics and patterns they learned from their families of origin. Couples may also be experiencing difficulties staying connected and prioritizing their relationship while managing the demands of careers, parenting, and family obligations. I utilize a combination of Gottman Method and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) approaches to help couples learn how to better communicate their needs and strengthen their relationships.

• The Gottman Method focuses on building and strengthening the emotional connection between partners while providing practical tools to manage conflict and improve communication. Through the use of the Gottman Method, I am able to help couples learn how to strengthen communication, deepen intimacy, and address conflict. The approach also involves a lot of education, where couples learn about healthy relationship dynamics, the importance of emotional bids, and how to repair emotional damage.

• Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is based on attachment theory and focuses on the emotional bonds between partners. EFT focuses on identifying negative interaction patterns or cycles that create emotional distance or conflict. These patterns often involve partners reacting to each other’s emotions in ways that perpetuate conflict or isolation. Through the use of EFT, I help couples understand their individual attachment styles and underlying unmet emotional needs. I then help couples learn how to better identify and communicate their needs to one another in healthier and more productive ways.