What’s the difference between worry and anxiety? How can I best parent my anxious child? How do I date after a divorce? Does my child have OCD? Are your thoughts intrusive?
If you’re asking these types of questions, you’re not alone. Welcome.
stop worrying, start living
Stop worrying,
start living
Tell me about your situation
- I’m an adult experiencing anxiety.
- I’m a parent who wants to help my anxious child.
- I’m an adult with obsessive compulsive disorder.
- I’m a parent of a child who has obsessive compulsive disorder.
- I’m divorced and want tools to help me adjust to this new life.
- I’m not looking for therapy but would like career or life coaching.
My specialties and expertise are focused on treating adults who have anxiety disorders or obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders, are going through life transitions (like life after divorce), or who would like help with their parenting skills.
I prefer the down-to-earth approach, so I translate the evidence-based research and give you useable solutions. I listen to your needs and then together we develop a plan that feels doable and that includes milestones to note improvement. Believe it or not, therapy shouldn’t be boring or stodgy, and it shouldn’t last forever.
Conversations with Joanna
What Is Exposure and Response Prevention?
ERP stands for Exposure and Response (or Ritual) Prevention. For those with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), ERP along with medication, lifestyle changes and other factors, can give them back their lives.
What Is OCD?
I hear this all the time: “I’m so OCD, because……..” I have to then take some deep breaths. As a therapist whose practice is focused on helping those with this mental illness, hearing OCD used as an adjective makes me want to scream. It also makes me realize just how misunderstood it is. Before I…
5 Ways to Put the Kibosh on Imposter Syndrome
I was recently a guest on The Coach’s Podcast, and I was asked if I ever felt doubt in my abilities. Ah, yeah. All the time. It’s called imposter syndrome (or, as psychologists call it, imposter phenomenon).It’s not about what’s real. It’s about how we feel about ourselves. About 70% of people feel imposter syndrome…
7 Tips to Get Through 2020’s Holiday Season: A Therapist’s Advice
I have to be honest. My general feeling about the holidays usually leaves me wanting to go to sleep around Thanksgiving and wake up after New Year’s. Thanks to the pandemic, those feelings have only intensified this year. That being said, I’m going to take some of my own advice … Expect to feel a…
Defining Choice Points & What They Mean for the Anxious Mind
I’d like to talk about the term “Choice Point.” It comes from the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT model. A Choice Point refers to a moment in time when you can choose behavior that moves you toward your values or behavior or one that moves you away from them. In the most simplistic terms,…
10 Actions to Help You Stop Singing Anxiety’s Song
A client of mine had the greatest metaphor for her obsessive compulsive disorder. She said that when she came to see me, she had been singing “OCD’s song” for 50+ years. Through our weekly sessions and A LOT of work between sessions, she was able to learn “a new song which gave her freedom.” A…