Mental Health
About Anxiety and Depression Treatment
Anxiety, sadness, and all of the human emotions are a normal, adaptive part of life. However, many people suffer profoundly from some type of anxiety or depressive disorder, and have come to live their lives largely centered around avoiding people, places, or situations that bring on these painful feelings. Severe anxiety or depression can interfere with work, relationships, and overall quality of life.
The good news is that there are treatments available that have high success rates. At Northwest Counseling, we believe that while medications are often helpful in reducing symptoms, especially early in a treatment program, effective individual or group therapy can be an integral component in helping people get back to experiencing a vibrant, meaningful life.
Anxiety and depression often co-occur with other life difficulties, such as substance abuse, chronic pain, eating disorders, or trauma. We take a holistic approach and offer individual or group therapy and can supplement with mindfulness or body-centered approaches. Because of the diversity of services offered at Northwest Counseling, we can tailor a program to meet your individual needs, or enter you into an existing program.
NCWC offers programs to treat anxiety and depression that is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a research-based therapy that helps people to learn and practice new skills in responding to painful thoughts and feelings so that they have less impact on daily life, AND to get in touch with what’s really important in their lives so as to provide guidance and inspiration to set goals and take action towards a rich, full and meaningful life.
About Psychotherapy
We advocate the use of individual, couples, family, and group therapy to enact change. The following represent a list of common ideas about therapy from the NCWC group of Therapists:
- Psychotherapy helps clients change in a way that is purposeful and functional. The most common form of psychotherapy is direct, personal talk therapy. Because sensitive topics are often discussed during psychotherapy, therapists are ethically and legally bound to respect client privacy and confidentiality.
- Therapy is a cooperative endeavor between client and therapist. A therapist cannot make change happen, a therapist can only facilitate change. One’s motivation and desire to change is vital to the process.
- Therapy happens in the context of safe relationships and environments.Sessions are confidential and a therapeutic relationship must be honest and trusting in order to produce results.
- Therapy happens in the context of family and significant relationships. Encouraging others to participate in the therapeutic process is important.
- Therapy helps people to think differently and engage in more functional behaviors. Most of the way we think is subconscious. Becoming more aware of deeper thinking is an important aspect of therapy.
- Not all psychotherapy is talk therapy. Learning to cultivate and access intuition and insight (also known as mindfulness) happens in your own silence as well.
- Life is sometimes painful and change can be too. Therapy helps clients to work through discomfort and learn more functional ways to cope (pain is inevitable – suffering is optional).
We offer therapy to address a variety of mental health issues including mood disorders (such as depression), excessive anxiety, family and relationship problems, adolescent concerns, nutrition and eating disorders, problems with stress, and much more. Please feel free to ask your therapist questions you may have about the therapeutic process. 
Assessment (Initial visit)
Assessment is a prerequisite to all counseling and program involvement. The purpose of the assessment session is to gather as much information as possible about the presenting concern, discuss with the client the range of possible interventions, determine an appropriate plan of action, and encourage involvement in the therapeutic process. Assessment includes a psych-social questionnaire to assist the clinician in defining presenting concerns. In some cases, additional assessment instruments may accompany the psych-social to screen for specific concerns (for example, substance abuse and depression).
Screening for Anxiety
Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life, usually during a stressful time such as beginning a new job. However, if you feel anxious for no apparent reason, you may have an anxiety disorder. Without treatment these feelings of distress and fear can lead to problems at work, at home, as well as in social situations.
Read through the following statements. 3 or more “yes” answers may indicate an anxiety disorder.
- I feel more nervous or anxious than usual.
- I get upset easily or feel panicky.
- I feel like I’m falling apart and going to pieces.
- My arms and legs shake and tremble.
- I can feel my heart beating fast.
- I have fainting spells or feel like I may faint.
- I get feelings of numbness and tingling in my fingers and toes.
- My face gets hot and blushes.
- I have nightmares.
- I have difficulty breathing or feel like I’m choking.
For a more thorough assessment of anxiety related concerns and treatment, please call to schedule an assessment.
Screening for Depression
Periods of depression are a normal part of life’s journey, particularly during times of grief, loss, and transition. However clinical depressive disorder is a serious condition that can lead to significant impairment in life.
Read through the following statements, if many of these seem true for you most of the time,
you may have a depressive disorder:
- Have you felt in low spirits or sad?
- Have you lost interest in your daily activities?
- Have you felt lacking in energy and strength?
- Have you felt less self-confident?
- Have you had a bad conscience or feelings of guilt?
- Have you felt that life wasn't worth living
- Have you had difficulty in concentrating, e.g. when reading the newspaper or watching television?
- Have you felt very restless?
- Have you felt subdued?
- Have you had trouble sleeping at night?
- Have you suffered from reduced appetite?
- Have you suffered from increased appetite?
Depression is a serious but treatable condition. Contact us to schedule a more thorough assessment of depression concerns.
Stress Assessment
Symptoms of stress may affect you physically, emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally, even if you do not realize it. Stress is inevitable, but our ability to effectively manage stress plays a major role in our function and happiness. Chronic and untreated stress can cause serious life complications.
Do you recognize any of the following symptoms of stress?
- Irritability / Anger
- Headache
- Restlessness
- Frequent illnesses
- Sleep Problems
- Stomach Upset
- Overeating/Under Eating
- Loss of Concentration
- Lack of energy
- Shortness of Breath
Concerned about your stress? To more fully explore stress symptoms and explore a variety of stress management strategies, contact us for an initial assessment.
Programs
Mental Health Programming. Intensive Outpatient Program addressing depression and anxiety coming soon in 2012!. Contact us for program details.
