Services
Contact Colleen for help overcoming challenges such as:
Depression
You feel sad, down, or helpless at times. Feeling “not yourself” or feel “stuck in a rut”. These feelings are common reactions to certain negative life events or circumstances such as losing employment, facing financial difficulties, experiencing loss, or relationship struggles. Often you feel overwhelmed and have low energy and motivation. It’s hard to get out of bed or do anything. You are exhausted and unhappy. A low mood or depression can also burden other areas of your life such as work, school, family and relationships. Intense sadness and depression can be so staggering that it may hinder your ability to function on a day to day basis. Together, we can work to help you learn strategies to manage your mood, overcome negative thoughts, become more mindful, and gain skills to help you find joy and happiness in your life again.
Anxiety
You feel anxious, fear, stressed, and tense. You find that you are constantly planning and worrying, and often feel out of control. This emotional mindset of nervousness, dread, and uneasiness has interfered with your daily life. You are experiencing sleep disturbances, eating and digestion difficulties. You can’t relax as you are constantly working to control things and ruminating on all the “what if’s…?”. You find yourself avoiding anxiety provoking situations and places and seek reassurances that “everything will be ok”. Fear and apprehension can halt you in your tracks, however, with effective and brief treatment methods such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and Mindfulness you can learn to overcome your anxiety and fear-based thinking and manage your physiological reactions.
PTSD/ Occupational Stress Injury
Do you find yourself re-living traumatic event? Do you experience mood disturbances, states of panic and fear, nightmares and trouble sleeping, hypervigilance, numbness, and anxiety? Do these experiences interfere with your daily functioning? Your relationships? Your work life? If you suffer from post-traumatic stress or occupational stress injury, I can help you learn and understand what’s happening in your brain and in your body. You will learn specific strategies to manage your post-traumatic stress reactions and, as a result, increase your lived and felt experience of safety, presence, relaxation and wholeness. Once you have some control over your stress reactions, hope is within reach: hope for the future, hope for yourself and your relationships, hope for your career, hope to find meaning and a renewed sense of purpose in your life.
Addiction
Are you struggling with addiction or connected socially to an addict? The partner of an addict? Do you feel that your life has unraveled and has become completely unmanageable and you don’t know where to turn for help? There is help for you to learn to deal with your addiction or the addict in your life. Staying clear of substances often means changing your lifestyle and entering into a state of recovery but the journey is not easy. Taking the first step toward recovery takes courage and creates feelings of vulnerability and discomfort. Addiction is a treatable illness. With unconditional compassion, caring, and respect we can collaboratively design a holistic plan to meet your needs to support long term recovery.
Anger Management
Everyone gets angry. Anger is a normal human emotion. However, anger can become a problem when it is uncontrolled. This looks different for everybody. For some, it can live silently under the surface, some people dwell and become fixated on the things that made them mad, and for others rage may be triggered by specific events causing an emotional blow up. Often people don’t recognize the depth of their anger until they are met with the long term consequences. This can include high blood pressure, increased risk of heart disease, and problems in relationships with family, friends, and co-workers.
You may need help with your anger if you experience your friends and family members distancing from you or telling you they think you have a problem, friction in the work place, you feel angry most of the time, and harboring thoughts of violence and aggression. We will examine root causes of your anger through self-reflection and beliefs, develop effective communication skills, and practical skill development to assist in dealing with anger. Anger issues is also often seen in those with PTSD, addictions, depression, and trauma.
Life Transitions and Relationship Issues
Transitions in life happen all the time but sometimes they leave a mark. Sometimes it’s a transition into marriage or a new relationship. Sometimes it’s a new baby and you have parenting questions and concerns, and other times it’s a transition to divorce or separation. Perhaps you have found yourself in a new role as a single parent or as a step parent. Maybe it is a transition to a new career or loss of an old one. Whatever the event, this change whether it is wanted or imposed, is unsettling and may take some getting used to. It is a period of adjustment and you are not quite sure where to start.