An Integrative Approach
Anxiety disorders do not respond to traditional talk therapy. We provide specialized, structured treatments that are effective in eliminating anxiety disorders and that have been shown to work in scientific studies.
Generally, a successful treatment for anxiety is approached by integrating a variety of psychotherapeutic approaches. Although some “experts” will argue that exposure therapy is the best, these experts are often misguided. Although some clients may benefit from exposure therapy alone, many clients find this to be a “band-aid” approach and are seeking a longer-term solution to deal with their anxiety disorder. In fact, we often find that clients who undergo exposure therapy alone re-experience anxiety and OCD symptoms down the road, often times in the form of a new issue, and find themselves back in therapy seeking the same answers as before.
At Denver Emotional Health, our counselors and therapists are trained to integrate the most researched-informed approaches to make sure that you develop a different relationship with anxiety, such that you see long-term and permanent benefits. We assess any lifestyle changes that might be helpful, provide foundational mind-body approach skills including deep breathing, mindfulness and other techniques to help ease muscle tension and promote calmness as needed. Most importantly, we provide integrative, research-backed, holistic psychotherapy services.
Since anxiety does not respond to traditional talk therapy, we utilize therapy approaches that focus on giving you a long-term solution to your anxiety disorder. This includes traditional therapies such as Exposure Therapy, but also newer therapies such as Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT – an enhanced form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and Internal Family Systems Therapy. In short, our approach to therapy teaches people to challenge and face their fears, but also accept and let go of distorted or unhelpful anxious thinking. Exposure therapy and ACT help people tolerate and calm anxiety by gradually exposing a person to feared situations or objects under guidance from a therapist while taking committed action to live a values-based life. Internal Family Systems therapy adds a layer that allows us to help clients heal their inner wounds, trauma that usually stems as the root of anxiety disorders.
Our Psychotherapeutic Approach Works
At Denver Emotional Health, we will help provide you with individualized treatment for your anxiety disorder symptoms that goes way beyond traditional talk therapy. This includes a comprehensive assessment of your symptoms as well as past attempts at therapy, medication and other non-traditional attempts to alleviate your symptoms. We will then utilize an integrative approach to psychotherapy that is evidence-based, holistic, and targets and eliminates your anxiety disorder in order to help you live the life you want.
As humans, it is rare that someone naturally wants/tries to suffer with anxiety. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite – our clients usually come into therapy desperate to escape anxious feelings/thoughts as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, people soon realize that their natural, common sense approach to getting rid of awful feelings of anxiety is only causing their anxiety to be maintained or even made worse. Rarely do people succeed at truly getting rid of those awful feelings by sheer force of will, or ignoring parts of ourselves.
Suppressing anxious parts, feelings or thoughts, denying them or distracting ourselves with other activities might work for a short period of time, but these are temporary fixes at best. For many of our clients who find success, it begins with understanding that trying to escape uncertainty and argue or fight with our parts only leads to our anxiety inevitably returning, often with greater force. At Denver Emotional Health, we are specialized in helping people recognize and escape the cycle of avoidance, and inner battle of our parts, that maintains and perpetuates anxiety for so many intelligent people.
Our Denver, and remote/virtual, counselors and therapists are completely knowledgeable and specialized in treating various anxiety disorder. The research is clear that chronic or intense anxiety can end when properly addressed with the help of a knowledge and trained therapist, but not your traditional talk therapist. Anxiety therapy helps break the cycle of avoidance by teaching you how to face the anxiety head-on, and then get to the root of the anxiety so it does not feel the need to surface anymore.
Learning Skills to Relate Differently to Anxiety
During the course of therapy, you’ll learn a variety of skills and strategies to manage your anxiety. You will learn to recognize your triggers and identify your internal warning signs that the anxiety cycle has started. You will learn to disengage from negative thoughts or worry patterns, and treat them as information or signals, rather than absolute truths, so they have less influence over your behavior. You will also learn acceptance skills that allow you to feel the physical symptoms of anxiety as they occur in your body without trying to change them or run from them. You will begin to live a more meaningfully, fulfilling life once you stop letting anxiety dictate your direction.
Our anxiety specialists will help you open up to the nature of the wandering mind, and the different parts of your mind in comparison to your Self. For example, maybe it is the part(s) of you that revisit the past, explores and analyzes every detail, or worry and plan for the future to gain a better sense of control. When we can’t make sense of what’s going on, or maybe want to avoid past emotional wounds from surfacing, our anxious parts repress, distract or fixate with the intention of helping, but ultimately with the counter-effect of causing us distressing anxiety.
By letting us help you treat your anxiety disorder, you will learn to step outside of normal, anxious thinking patterns and relate to your Mind and parts differently. In fact, we can hep re-wire the brain by learning how to respond differently to our anxiety. You can learn to reach beyond the regrets of the past and the worries of the future and focus on the present moment where you can take meaningful action. As you learn these skills and your relationship with anxiety begins to change, your anxious feelings will become less intense and less frequent, allowing you to lead a more fulfilling, balanced and peaceful life. Your parts will trust in your Self, and anxiety will not be as needed.
Getting to the Root of Anxiety
While most therapists will simply focus on providing client’s with skills and helping them practice exposure therapy, our Denver therapists are knowledgeable and trained to go further “inside” with clients to help them get to the root of their anxiety. Our anxiety therapists are skilled at going deep beneath the surface to help you confront the root causes of anxiety in your life utilizing psychodynamic therapy and Internal Family Systems Therapy. So much of what we do is dictated by our subconscious, and the various “parts” of us that operate beneath the surface, and appear to be our habits or personality traits (some desirable, others not so much).
Our skilled anxiety therapists can help you understand why certain fears, places, or situations induce anxiety and how to overcome them, and will help you work with your anxiety so it does not cause you distress at all, rather than simply bringing your symptoms down from extreme to tolerable. We will help you learn more about your anxious parts, and help them re-examine the situation with a renewed perspective and consciously design a life after your own heart and values rather than fear.
Ultimately, we will help you identify your triggering situations and learn how to work with your anxious parts, calm yourself and disengage from negative thoughts and behaviors. We will also then do what most therapists simply fail to do; we will help you get to the root of the anxious thoughts/feelings, so you can make sure that it won’t simply appear in a new fearful situation. By learning various strategies for minimizing stress and anxiety, and uncovering the root of our anxiety, you will be able to accept reality as it is, feel the physical symptoms of anxiety, and recognize their impermanence and benefits as a signal to take decisive action.
Let Us Help You
Choosing the right psychotherapist can be an overwhelming challenge, which is why we strive to make it as easy as possible to find us, a top-rated anxiety counselor in Denver. No matter how intense your feelings of stress and anxiety, Denver Emotional Health Counseling has anxiety therapists available to help. We provide outpatient for anxiety using cognitive behavioral therapies (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy & Exposure Therapy), psychodynamic therapies (Internal Family Systems Therapy) and mindfulness-based therapies. Our Denver Anxiety Counselors are available in-person and are also able to provide online therapy from the comfort of your home. Contact us today for your free consultation and to learn more about how we can help you treat your anxiety disorder.
Learn more about legal psychedelic-assisted therapies we offer that can help you with your struggles.