Holly Smith

Anxiety is so common, but can feel so isolating when you’re in the thick of it. You may be reluctant to share with others the content of your health related thoughts.  Between the intrusive thoughts about having a serious or terminal illness, uncomfortable physical symptoms and bodily sensations, and constant overthinking and worrying at all hours about whether or not to seek medical care, this variety of anxiety can be truly debilitating. 

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 You may feel like your symptoms and fears dictate  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 of imminent death, and teach you strategies that work so you have some mastery in coping with anxious thoughts and symptoms.

You may have experienced outright abuse, whether physical, verbal, emotional, sexual. Maybe you lived with someone at home who was addicted, mentally ill (or both). Or you grew up with the feeling of walking on eggshells to avoid setting off an angry, perfectionistic, or excessively emotional family member 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). 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, sadness, numbness) but you’re not sure why. In our work together, we'll explore and make 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. Many end up going to the ER due to 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. It can feel so frightening 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 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.

If you or a family member have been told you're a carrier of a BRCA genetic mutation, you may feel terrified, depressed, numb, confused on how to proceed. Friends and family may not understand the diagnosis and what it means for your life.  Suddenly, you may be confronted with life changing decisions related to prophylactic surgeries you never thought you'd have to consider. I understand this experience firsthand, and can help you process the news of your diagnosis, guide you to resources, and support you through tough decisions.

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