Danielle Wayne (she/they)

When I think of anxiety, I think of it as a voice in our head that lies to us. It asks us "what if" something bad happens. It makes us think we aren't good enough, or that we're failing. These thoughts make our body react as though a very real danger is happening. But anxiety doesn't have to be this way. We can work through this to get you to a point where you feel free, actually relaxed, and satisfied.

Stress is awful. It can make us feel anxious or even just make us shut down, but either way it makes everything else in our life so much harder to deal with. You can change how you see stress though. When we work together, you'll learn ways to cope with stress in a health way, so you can trust that you can handle stressful situations, even if they may feel overwhelming right now.

Often times if we struggle with managing our weight, we also struggle with feelings of depression, anxiety, or lower self-esteem. We often use food as a way to cope and deal with emotions that we struggle with, and we can also essentially become addicted to foods. One common method that I frequently use to help heal a relationship with food is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (or CBT). This technique has a great deal of evidence behind it as being effective in healing our relationship with food.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of my favorite techniques, and it's something I use often, depending on who I am working with. There is a great deal of research behind this being an effective intervention for clients who are struggling with many things, including anxiety, lower self-esteem, and even past traumatic experiences. I have been trained in Beck's approach to CBT as well as Ellis' approach to REBT.

Mindfulness techniques are something I use on a daily basis with my clients. Mindfulness includes so many ideas and concepts, from yoga to grounding. These techniques are so helpful in staying in the here and now, which is so helpful when anxiety thoughts are trying to convince us to think about a "what if" thought in the future.

When we feel anxious, we often avoid the things that make us feel anxious. This seems so logical, but really, this doesn't help us. In the long run, when we avoid the things that make us feel anxious, we're actually teaching ourselves that we cannot handle these things. Depending on who I'm working with, I may use Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which is considered the gold standard for OCD.

Self-esteem is impacted by basically everything else in our life. If we're struggling with anxiety, it's hard to feel good about ourselves and have higher self-esteem. Sometimes working on self-esteem means working on other things, like anxiety first. Other times it means processing through how you actually see yourself, and getting yourself to a place where you can see yourself in a more positive way. But it is possible to change how you see yourself!

OCD is so difficult to deal with, especially because people often think of it as just being neat or tidy. But it's so hard when these anxiety thoughts become something that we feel like we can't get away from, and the only way we've learned we can deal with it is with some kind of compulsive action in the world. It may be hard to find proper care, but it is possible. I've been trained in CBT and ERP, to help you learn that you can sit with these feelings, without your compulsions.

Burnout is something that is so difficult to recognize, because it happens so slowly. Sometimes we recognize these stressful things, and we tell ourselves that we can handle it. But then it keeps happening again and again. Eventually we can't handle it anymore, and that's burnout. We can make changes in our lives to deal with burnout though. It may not feel this way right now, but you can make positive changes in your life.

We often think of trauma as events that happen to us, but trauma is actually how we process things. This way of processing what happened to us may have helped us survive those moments, but it doesn't help us all the time. Processing through trauma isn't about forgetting what happened, it's about changing how we feel about what happened. And it is possible to do, even though it may not always feel that way.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is so hard to explain, but it can really help us work through things that feel stuck in our heads, like trauma. Since all of my work is online, I use online tools to help me use EMDR with my clients, but that doesn't impact the power of EMDR. I've been fully trained on both parts of EMDR. I'm also working towards being certified in EMDR, which is above and beyond simply being trained.

Self-esteem has a huge impact on everything we do, but it can be hard to recognize it. Sometimes it's to the point that it's hard to even imagine feeling confident, or worthy. You're worthy, but I can understand how you may not feel that way. Together, we can help you get to a place where you feel worthy, valuable, and confident, in a way that feels genuine to you.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, so I understand how ADHD isn't just about "squirrel brain." It's how much you might call yourself lazy or not motivated enough, especially if you feel like other people are doing better than you. Or feel stuck in a loop of focusing and then feeling like you can't get started on something because it's just too big of a task. Or feeling like people don't understand when you try to talk about how ADHD impacts you. These are things we can work on together.

Usually we choose our jobs because we enjoy something about it. Burnout takes that joy, and dulls it, until we lose our passion and drive, and just feel drained and exhausted. It's a slow process, that leaves us suddenly realizing we have to change something, but left unsure what happened and what to change. When we work on burnout through therapy, we explore what's causing this feeling, and how we can create changes in meaningful and long-term ways.