Counseling in Montana to Help You Master Emotion Regulation
As humans, we are not born knowing how to regulate our emotions. In fact, learning to handle our emotions happens in the context of early relationships. Ideally, we learn how to do this as children, and by observing our parents effectively handle their emotions. They teach us how to effectively manage our own emotions. Our parents or caregivers witness, acknowledge and help us make sense of our emotions. Optimal caregivers let us know that our experience is valid, and that our emotions even make sense.
Therapy is very helpful for people who do not easily identify, express or manage emotions. People who have difficulty regulating emotions are often very sensitive to things in the environment that become emotional triggers. They may act and react intensely to those triggers, and quite often, struggle to return to a more regulated baseline. Also, individuals who struggle with emotion regulation have difficulty identifying their emotions, or tolerating these difficult states in a heathy and effective way. This can impact their lives in significant ways especially if being activated or triggered keeps them from finishing important tasks.
In psychology, emotion regulation is often referred to as emotion dysregulation. Ongoing emotion dysregulation may create problems at work, at school, in relationships, and other areas of life. As a way of decreasing or escaping intense negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and sadness, many develop other difficulties, such as a mood or anxiety disorder, anger management, eating disorders, binge disorders, or self-injury. Some individuals experience numbness in response to strong emotions, they shut down, which causes problems as well.
Counseling to heal the root cause of low self-esteem
You are here because you would like to feel more confident about yourself, and proud of who you are. We all struggle with low confidence from time to time. But when you struggle with low self-esteem, it tends to be chronic, and you lack confidence most of the time. Most days, you doubt yourself and think you are not enough or not worthy of having a more satisfying life. Living with low self-esteem and low self-worth can take a toll on your mental health. Your life can feel limited and small much of the time, with unfulfilled goals and dreams. You may have even stopped dreaming and creating achievable goals for yourself because of your self-esteem issues. Feeling bad about yourself can have many causes, but often it is rooted in earlier experiences. At Integrative Psychotherapy Montana, we feel strongly that counseling should get to the root cause of your self-esteem deficits.
You Do Have The Power To Change How You Feel About Yourself, And Working With An Expert Therapist On Increasing Your Self-Esteem Is A Great Place To Start.
Does Any Of This Resonate With You?
You are constantly doubting your abilities or decisions
You have negative thoughts or are constantly criticizing yourself
You struggle to advocate for yourself
You struggle to identify your own strengths
You struggle to identify your own strengths
You feel unworthy of having a better life
You worry what others think of you or assume they are unhappy with you
You are afraid of trying new things because you might not succeed
You tend to tolerate unhealthy situations because you feel undeserving of better
Counseling to heal the root cause of depression
Do you feel worthless, hopeless or apathetic about your life right now? Do you find that you’ve lost interest in the many parts of your life that you once found interesting? Do you isolate now or spend less time with other? Dos life just feel so hard, and your problems insurmountable? Maybe you’d just like to be happier? At Integrative Psychotherapy Montana, we feel strongly that counseling should get to the root cause of your depression. What Follows Are Some Common Signs That You Have Depression:
You don’t enjoy some of the things you used to love
You have insomnia, or you sleep more than usual
Your body aches or you have unexplained body pain
You have difficulty concentrating or experience cognitive difficulties
You have changes in appetite, eating more or less than usual
You have trouble getting out of bed in the morning
You have a difficult time finding the motivation to start or finish tasks
You feel down, rejected or dejected
You are more emotional than usual and find yourself getting angry or crying easily
You have lost interest in activities, hobbies, friends or you avoid spending time with loved ones
You care less about your personal appearance or self care
You feel trapped by some aspects of your life
You experience sexual dysfunction
You think about suicide either actively or passively
Counseling to heal the root cause of anxiety
Do you live in a state of constantly feeling “on edge” and worried that your life will fall apart? Do you find yourself going to the worst case scenario, instead of a more realistic response? Are you afraid to allow yourself to be happy and live in the moment because you think things will most certainly fall apart? Struggling with anxiety can rob you of joy and keep you from enjoying the blessings in your life. When anxiety is a constant in your life, it is called Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Other anxiety-related problems include: panic attacks, separation anxiety, social anxiety and post-traumatic stress that happen in response to specific triggers or experiences. Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCS, is another type of anxiety, and is marked by persistent invasive thoughts or compulsions to carry out specific behaviors (such as hand-washing). Much of the time, anxiety in any form is accompanied by depression.
Anxiety counseling can help you develop perspective and more helpful coping skills. This will result in the ability to better manage anxiety in the future as you build natural resilience and resources. At Integrative Psychotherapy Montana, we feel strongly that counseling should get to the root cause of your anxiety, and that leads to lasting healing. Identifying your symptoms of anxiety is the start to finding the root cause. If you are suffering from anxiety I look forward to the chance to work with you to create a life you can enjoy.
How To Know If You Would Benefit From Therapy For Anxiety:
You are frequently irritable and agitated
You cannot relax and are constantly needing to busy yourself
You find yourself struggling to focus and concentrate
You struggle with insomnia, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
You don’t feel rested the next day
You are unable to calm your restless, worry mind
You have symptoms of impending doom or panic attacks
Counseling To Heal the root cause of Trauma & PTSD
Are you struggling to cope with something that has overwhelmed your nervous system, or a traumatic event? Are you often overwhelmed with intense emotions? Do you feel “on edge” unable to relax? Do you have you unwanted memories or images about a particular experience? There are traumatic events that are universally traumatic such as a natural disaster, and then there are experiences that are less universal but impactful, such as job loss or divorce. It’s important to understand that people experience events differently. In other words, what traumatizes one person may not be as impactful to another. It’s important to have a professional help you if you are experiencing symptoms of something that has overwhelmed you.
At Integrative Psychotherapy Montana, we feel strongly that counseling should heal the root cause. Identifying symptoms of trauma or PTSD is the start to finding the root cause. If you are suffering from trauma, we look forward to working with you to create a life you can enjoy.
Do These Symptoms Sound Familiar?
You experience shock, denial, disbelief, anger, mood swings, irritability
You lack interest or motivation
You have tears and uncontrollable sadness
You experience fatigue and exhaustion
You experience insomnia and nightmares
Your appetite has changed
You experience racing heart, thoughts, aches, pains, muscle tension
You experience sweating and perspiring
You have nausea and intestinal upset
You have muscle tension or feel shaky
You feel overcome with fear, even though you’re perfectly safe in the here and now.
You have trouble focusing, startle easily, and startle easily
Your memory may be poor
You feel haunted by an experience
You get triggered by something that reminds you of the trauma, even if it is harmless
You are accident prone
You withdraw from others, feel disconnected and numb
You experience flashbacks and can’t stop thinking about past events