Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety, OCD, & Trauma
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a science backed psychotherapy treatment that looks at how our thoughts and emotions impact our behaviors and provides strategies to better cope with and live a more meaningful and fulfilling life.
Exposure therapy is a type of CBT that helps individuals take steps towards approaching fearful and uncomfortable things that have gotten in the way of meeting their goals and living the life they want. Exposure therapy can be applied to help those struggling with anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and traumatic experiences.
Anxiety
Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time and it is a normal reaction to stressful situations. However, anxiety disorders differ from typical feelings of nervousness or anxiousness, as they consist of excessive fear or worry that get in the way of peoples’ lives. This can look like anxious thoughts and worrying about general everyday concerns, panic attacks, or fears of specific things like driving on the highway, crossing bridges or tunnels, or flying. It can also be fears of being judged in social situations and difficulty being around others. CBT has been shown to be effective in treating all types of anxiety disorders, and can help individuals get over their fears and open up their world.
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Types of anxiety disorders include: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobia (e.g., fear of flying, heights, bridges, tunnels, animals, blood, needles, specific situations, etc.), and social anxiety disorder.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) consists of unwanted intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that keep coming back even when you don’t want them to, and cause significant distress and anxiety. Individuals then engage in repetitive behaviors, otherwise known as compulsions, as an attempt to decrease or neutralize the distress and anxiety brought on by the thoughts/obsessions. Sometimes this can look like fears of dirt or germs, or being responsible for something terrible happening like a fire or burglary. Other times it can be a fear of harming someone or distressing sexual or religious thoughts. Exposure and Response Prevention (EX/RP or ERP) is a front-line psychotherapy for the treatment of OCD, which has been shown to be effective in reducing symptoms and reaching symptom remission.
Trauma & PTSD
Many people will experience a traumatic event at some point in their life, but only some will go on to develop Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD occurs after an individual has experienced one or more traumatic events that they experience as emotionally or physically harmful, or life-threatening. Some examples of traumatic events include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war or combat, sexual assault, or intimate partner violence. PTSD may impact your thoughts, mood, behaviors, sleep, and relationships with others, and you may avoid situations or things that remind you of the trauma. Prolonged Exposure (PE) is an evidenced based treatment for PTSD, in which you process the trauma with your therapist and take steps towards healing.