Anxiety Therapist Los Angeles
Hi, my name is Dr. Nicole Moshfegh, and I’m a licensed clinical psychologist and anxiety therapist in Los Angeles.
You may be feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and find yourself constantly worrying. You may notice yourself having a hard time turning off your brain and find yourself staying up all night with anxious thoughts which spiral into the next day and so on. I understand, and I’m here to help.
I help people get to the root of their anxiety and find tools to help them better cope with anxious feelings so they can get back to living their lives to the fullest.
If you’re ready to start feeling better, schedule a complimentary consultation with me today.
My Approach to Anxiety Therapy Los Angeles
It’s hard not to be anxious in today’s day and age. As our world progresses it seems like the number of things to be anxious about also grows. But, whether your anxiety stems from real-world fears or is due to worries about outcomes that you may rationally know will most likely not occur, it can still have the same impact on your body and ultimately your overall life and well-being.
My approach to anxiety therapy in Los Angeles and throughout California is based on a combination of decades of training, experience, and research in anxiety. What I and numerous researchers, clinicians, and academics have found is that therapies that offer tangible coping strategies help people to keep their anxiety at bay.
For this reason, I primarily utilize Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people who are experiencing anxiety. In CBT, you will learn how certain thoughts (which can often be outside of your awareness) can cause you to feel anxious which may then cause you to avoid certain things (to understandably avoid feeling anxious) which will then perpetuate the cycle.
Because we cannot control our feelings but we can control our thoughts and our behaviors, CBT teaches you different ways of challenging and changing your thoughts and gradually changing certain behaviors, which will then tame your anxiety.
Alternatively, some people respond more to Mindfulness-based approaches or use them in conjunction with CBT. Different types of mindfulness-based approaches include Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).
In MBCT and MBSR, rather than trying to challenge and change your thoughts, you learn strategies to accept and let go of your thoughts. This ultimately helps you to not get so caught up in the thousands of (often frankly gibberish) thoughts we all have every day. You also learn how to focus more on the present moment rather than thinking about the past or worrying about the future. This allows you to develop more kindness and compassion to yourself and others.
I will also teach you various methods of stress reduction which will help to calm your nervous system. When you are anxious, you are typically constantly in a state of what is called “fight-or-flight,” which is essentially our body’s way of keeping us safe by preparing us for danger. Unfortunately, because our body reacts in the same way to an immediate life threatening situation (like being attacked by a bear for example) as it does to an imagined situation (like worrying about potentially saying something that could be perceived as embarrassing to someone) your body is most likely often in a panic-like state, which can feel terrible.
As a certified mindfulness-based therapy provider, I can teach you various ways of calming down your nervous system so that you don’t have to constantly be in this heightened state of anxiety.
Because people who experience anxiety on a regular basis also often have difficulty sleeping, I also often teach them proven ways to manage their insomnia. We know through research that anxiety and insomnia have what is called a “bi-directional” relationship. This means that not only does anxiety make it hard to fall asleep but that lack of sleep in and of itself also increases anxiety. Therefore, sometimes if we only treat the sleep challenge, anxiety will also naturally get better on its own.
What sets me apart from other anxiety specialists is that because I also have expertise in insomnia (as well as trauma and work stress challenges, which can also contribute to anxiety), I can typically help people achieve faster and longer-term results.
Whether you have been experiencing anxiety your entire life or you recently started feeling anxious, I have the tools and expertise to help you find relief. I invite you to reach out to me, an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, today to see how I may be able to help.
Anxiety Therapist Los Angeles FAQs
What is an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety is classified as a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease that usually occurs in anticipation of a future threat of some kind (real or perceived). Fear is classified as an emotional response to a real or perceived immediate threat. People experience anxiety and fear for a variety of reasons.
There are different types of anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders differ from each other in the types of objects or situations that create fear or anxiety. When fear or anxiety is occuring most days and/or lasts for long periods of time (typically at least a few months), it is usually best to seek treatment.
Some of the most common types of anxiety disorders include:
Specific Phobia: occurs when someone is fearful or anxious about or avoidant of specific objects or situations (such as flying, heights, spiders, seeing blood)
Social Anxiety Disorder: occurs when someone is fearful or anxious about social situations, such as having a conversation, meeting unfamiliar people, or performing in front of others
Panic Disorder: occurs when someone experiences recurrent panic attacks that seem to come on out of the blue, and cause the person to start worrying about having additional panic attacks or to change their behavior in some way to avoid having a panic attack
Agoraphobia: occurs when someone experiences fear or anxiety about using public transportation, being in open spaces, being in enclosed places, standing in line or being in a crowd, or being outside of the home alone
Generalized Anxiety Disorder: occurs when someone is very anxious and worried about a number of events or activities more often than not and they find it hard to control their worries
How are anxiety disorders treated?
Although there are different types of anxiety disorders, all have proven to be responsive to Cognitive Behavioral and Mindfulness-Based Therapies.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most widely-used therapy for anxiety disorders. CBT addresses negative patterns and distortions in the way we look at the world and ourselves. As the name suggests, this involves two main components:
Cognitive therapy examines how negative thoughts (cognitions) contribute to anxiety.
Behavior therapy examines how you behave and react in situations that trigger anxiety.
The basic premise of CBT is that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all related to one another. the way we feel. The goal is to change our thoughts or our behaviors so that our feelings can change in return, thereby reducing our anxiety.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a modified form of cognitive therapy that incorporates mindfulness practices, such as meditation, with cognitive therapy. Just like in CBT, MBCT teaches you how to break away from negative thought patterns. The difference in MBCT is that you learn how to change your relationship with your thoughts and emotions by watching them come and go, rather than getting wrapped up in them. Meditation can rebalance neural networks in your brain, which allows you to move away from automatic negative responses toward an understanding that there are other ways to respond to situations.
Get help from an Anxiety Therapist Los Angeles
Anxiety can wreak havoc on your life, from causing you to chronically feel ill at ease to preventing you from living your life in the way you would really like. You don’t have to continue to feel this way. I can give you the tools you need to get back on track. Reach out to me today for a free consultation to see how I can help.