Holly Smith

Anxiety is so common, but can feel so isolating when you’re in the thick of it.  Between the intrusive thoughts, physical symptoms and bodily sensations, and constant overthinking and worrying at all hours, anxiety can be truly debilitating. 

​

Sometimes living with an anxiety disorder, you may feel like your symptoms dictate so many of your life decisions, big and small. I can teach you more about anxiety and your body’s stress response system, work with you to explore and process why your body and brain frequently believe you’re in danger, and teach you strategies that work so you have some mastery in managing your anxiety instead of feeling like anxiety is in charge of you and your life.

You may have experienced outright abuse, whether physical, verbal, emotional, sexual. Maybe you lived with someone at home who was addicted, mentally ill, or just plain mean and rejecting, which made day to day life at home feel uncomfortable or frightening. Sometimes, our childhoods are painful because of the things that did not happen to us (emotional connection, feeling seen, noticed, appreciated).  Sometimes, things might not be so clear for you.  Perhaps you don’t have many memories from childhood, or, you get uncomfortable feelings when you think about your family; guilt, grief, sadness, but you’re not sure why. In our work together, I can help you explore and make some sense of your experience and some of your current patterns that may stem from your childhood.

Having an abortion can bring physical pain, intense grief, intense relief, or other feelings that you don’t trust your friends and family would or could understand. You may experience disenfranchised grief and keep the experience to yourself because you can’t trust others won’t judge you or gossip about you with others in your community. I offer a safe space to talk openly about your experience.

Most of us don’t know we’re having a panic attack the first time we have one. If you’ve ever experienced the sudden onslaught of intense physical symptoms, the sense of impending doom, the fear of “I think I’m about to die” or “I think I’m going crazy”, the sense of being unreal or strangely detached from reality -  I’m sorry - and I know how it feels. It can feel so scary that we may fear it happening again, which it often does. Sometimes even thinking about a previous panic attack can lead us to start noticing the symptoms.  We may spend weeks or years of our lives trying to arrange our lives and limit situations which could trigger another attack.  I can help you learn more about panic attacks, and work with you to explore why they may be happening to you.  EMDR can be an effective modality for targeting panic, and the fear of panic.

Pregnancy loss and infertility can overwhelm our ability to cope and can undermine our beliefs about ourselves and the world. Often, it’s hard to explain to friends and family what you might be going through with various testing, procedures, medication protocols, not to mention what you’re experiencing emotionally, mentally, financially, and within your romantic partnership. You may experience disenfranchised grief, feeling as though society doesn’t understand losses such as early pregnancy loss, embryos that didn’t implant, or longing for another child if you have a child already.  I have knowledge of and training about the impact of infertility and IVF –I can support you through the lows and celebrate the wins with you, without you having to experience the burden of educating your therapist about IVF.

Pregnancy, and/or the postpartum/"4th trimester" period can all be overwhelming emotionally and physically. You may have been traumatized by your birth experience, surprised at the intensity of emotions that arose after birth, or shocked at the impact of sleep deprivation (or all of the above, and much more)! Whether you're the one physically experiencing these events, or your partner is, I can help support you through it. I have experience, knowledge, and training working with folks experiencing fertility challenges, and perinatal mental health struggles.