Desiree W. B. (she/her/they/them)

Anxiety is both a natural and necessary human emotion, as well as specific "disorders". It's our body's way of communicating emergency, like our ancestors on high alert to protect themselves from predators. When anxiety is occurring most of the time, getting in the way of your work, school or social life, OR it's causing intense panic attacks and/or social isolation, it's time to check in with a specialist. Anxiety disorders like Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, etc.

PTSD + Complex Trauma occurs when we experience one or more life-threatening events, causing intense prolonged fear & symptoms such as avoidance, flashbacks, nightmares, living in survival mode, emotional numbing, social isolation and depression. Trauma can cause us to feel ashamed, blame ourselves, feel "broken" or send us down an existential rabbit hole. You're not alone in feeling this way and I'm here to remind you that healing is SO possible no matter how long you've been feeling this way!

Adjusting to changes, even positive ones can trip us up emotionally. Moving, leaving the nest, recovering from an accident, getting married, starting a family, ending a relationship, experiencing a job change, loss and bereavement, starting a new school, realizing part of your identity, coping with an illness, being a caregiver, dating, graduating or setting different limits requires mindfulness, processing, rest and compassion. Change isn't so bad when you have the right support in place.

DBT provides us with an array of Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness skills to practice together. You will become able to accept yourself and the world around you with less fear, decreased urge to be in control, improved communication and relationship skills, heightened ability to tolerate stress and triggering people, places and things. Somatic work such as guided meditation and EFT tapping may be incorporated to deepen the experience.

I use CBT with clients to help them understand the many thinking errors our brains make on a daily basis and how to fact-check ourselves. Because cognitive distortions, cognitive dissonance and implicit bias often slips through our internal B.S detector, CBT is used to empirically test the beliefs and thoughts causing us pain or distress. Discovering patterns in our thinking helps us correct negative messages, decrease anxiety, take feedback less personally and stop being so hard on ourselves.

Coaching with a licensed clinician specializing in anxiety and trauma is not the same as with the average "life coach". Holistic Health Coaching is something I incorporated into my practice as a way of reaching under-served communities outside NY state. While we won't be engaging in deep trauma work, we will discuss the contributing factors that have been getting in the way of self-care, empowerment, engagement in your community, productivity at work and any other areas of life being affected.