Online Psychotherapist for Overcoming Agoraphobia
Online Psychotherapy for overcoming agoraphobia
Online Therapist for Agoraphobia – Specializing in Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy via Skype
Email me to learn more about Online Psychotherapy sessions via Skype with me.
During these sessions I will teach you how to apply mindfulness for working with all forms of anxiety, including Agoraphobia and Social Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, persistent depression, and addiction, including alcohol addiction and other forms of emotional suffering, by using the very practical teachings of Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy.
This approach is remarkably effective and most people experience tangible improvements after 3-4 sessions with me.
Online Mindfulness-based Skype Therapy is extremely effective for overcoming anxiety and depression without relying on medications. It is always better to treat the psychological cause of your emotional suffering rather than just suppressing symptoms.
The principle healing factors developed during mindfulness-based psychotherapy are Conscious Awareness, which is necessary for neutralizing the reactive habits that cause emotional pain, and Inner Compassion, which is what accelerates healing and resolution of emotional suffering.
“Having visited with many-a-therapist in the past, Dr. Strong stands out as a genuinely good listener and offers pointed and intuitive responses in return, that are real, constructive, and compassionate. His caring, non-judgmental, nature is apparent and has aided me in the healing process.”
Online psychotherapy for agoraphobia
Online Psychotherapist for agoraphobia
Main LinkedIn article: Online Therapy for agoraphobia
Main site: Online Psychotherapist for Overcoming Agoraphobia
Online Psychotherapy by Skype for overcoming agoraphobia with panic disorder
Welcome! My name is Peter Strong. I am a professional licensed psychotherapist specializing in mindfulness therapy. This is a system of psychotherapy that works very well by Skype and it's extremely effective for the treatment of agoraphobia. People suffering from agoraphobia find it very important to work online because it's so difficult to leave the comfort of your home or secure place. This is the biggest feature of agoraphobia, this fear of having a panic attack if you leave a secure comfort zone, and it can become progressively worse over time. Many people I've worked with have had agoraphobia for sometimes as much as 10 years.
Agoraphobia is very debilitating and limits just about every aspect of a person's life. So it's very important to seek treatment. Mindfulness Therapy is a very good way of working with anxiety in general. It helps you change the underlying patterns of habitual conditioned reactions that feed and sustain your anxiety and panic attacks.
Panic attacks are simply a very acute form of anxiety. It's like a storm, an anxiety storm.
The best strategy, the best approach, to overcoming agoraphobia is a very systematic system of exposure therapy. But not classical exposure therapy, which is based on the idea of becoming familiar and habituated through repeated exposure to the stressful situation or area or other triggers. That can work but often it's very inefficient because it simply re-traumatizes you, it simply feeds that anxiety.
So what I have developed is called Mindfulness-based Exposure Therapy. And this is a different approach. It certainly will involve exposure challenges in a systematic approach where you will set yourself goals each day and carry those out. But the key ingredient with mindfulness-based exposure therapy is the preparation and training before and after each challenge. That is what is vital and I feel is often missing in traditional, conventional exposure therapy.
So what do we do in mindfulness-based exposure therapy for agoraphobia? Well you set up a series of challenges. You then do what we call a rehearsal meditation before you do your first challenge. This is where you will play through that challenge in your imagination and specifically look for those triggers and the anxiety reactions that get triggered.
When you find the anxiety you then work with that and train with that anxiety using mindfulness. You build a relationship with that anxiety that's based on openness and friendliness. These are the two vital requirements for healing anxiety.
Very often people fall into reactive patterns of avoidance and self-criticism or hatred towards that anxiety, and that will not help the healing process. In fact, avoidance and aversion are the two main factors that feed the underlying fear.
So we build a different kind of relationship based on consciousness and compassion for the emotion itself. We learn to see the emotion as being an object in our awareness. We start to break the habit of reactive identification, where we become completely consumed by that anxiety, where we take on the identity of our emotions. Instead we learn to develop a conscious observing relationship where we observe our emotions but we don't become them. This process is very, very important because if you identify with your anxiety, then you end up feeding it. It is another reactive process like avoidance and aversion that simply feeds the fire of anxiety.
So if you would like to get started with me and you would like to do online psychotherapy for your own agoraphobia and panic attacks and you'd like to schedule some Skype therapy sessions and please go to my website and send me an email.
This approach, the mindfulness-based exposure therapy approach is very efficient and typically people see progress, tremendous progress, within the first three to four sessions. It's quite different than conventional talk therapy. It's much more practical. And of course it gives you a set of tools that you can apply yourself between the session, because that's where the real change happens as you gain more and more experience of applying mindfulness with your exposure challenges. So if you would like to get started with me please contact.
VISIT MY CONTACT PAGE FOR DETAILS AND TO SCHEDULE AN ONLINE THERAPY SESSION WITH ME FOR THE EFFECTIVE TREATMENT OF AGORAPHOBIA
Online Mindfulness Therapist for overcoming agoraphobia via Skype
Agoraphobia Therapy Online via Skype
Welcome! My name is Peter Strong. I provide online therapy via Skype for the treatment of anxiety disorders, including agoraphobia.
So if you're interested in online psychotherapy for overcoming agoraphobia, then I invite you to learn more by visiting my website and then simply e-mail me. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about online therapy and this approach that I specialize in for treating agoraphobia, without the use of medications. I'm happy to answer any questions you have, and if you feel comfortable with this approach, then we can schedule a Skype therapy session and you can evaluate for yourself if this is the right approach for you. It certainly is for the majority of people that I've worked with over the last 10 or so years.
I see a lot of people who suffer from agoraphobia, not surprisingly, since it's very difficult to leave the security of home when you're suffering from agoraphobia.
So the approach that I have developed over the years is called mindfulness therapy and specifically mindfulness-based exposure therapy. So you know already that you need to face your anxiety, you need some form of exposure therapy plan and protocol; that's going to be an essential part of your recovery process. But it's how you go about that that makes all the difference.
So I do not advocate straightforward exposure therapy in its usual form, which simply means exposing yourself incrementally to your challenges until you develop more comfort with them through familiarization. I think that is a rather ineffective and crude approach to exposure therapy.
It Is much, much more effective when you do a lot of detailed preparation and training before you do each of your exposure challenges, whatever that might be.
So many people that I've worked with suffering from agoraphobia feel very uncomfortable in public places where there are lots of other people around. The real underlying fear for most people with agoraphobia is the sense of being out of your comfort zone and worrying about having a panic attack in that environment and not feeling that you have an escape route. You feel trapped in that environment. That's very common.
There are many different types of agoraphobia. A lot of people just feel very uncomfortable driving, for example. They can leave their house, but they just cannot drive on a busy road. That's a different quality of agoraphobia. But it's basically any situation where you feel trapped.
So in the mindfulness-based exposure therapy approach we identify all of our challenges, all of our triggers. That's the first step. It's very good to write those down, make a list of your triggers. And then we set up a strategy of exposure challenges each day. And we make sure that we stick to that strategy.
We do not skip the practical challenges because avoidance, of course, is one of the big problems with agoraphobia, and the more that you avoid anxiety-producing situations, the more you're likely to reinforce that anxiety. I also don't recommend medications, because, really, medications are simply another form of avoidance. They're not really equipping you with new ways of working with your anxiety that resolve that anxiety; it is just covering up the symptoms. And that's not really an effective treatment.
The only effective treatment is to strategically and intelligently design an exposure protocol that you follow through, religiously. So how do we go about doing this in the Mindfulness-based exposure approach?
Well, we choose one of those challenges that we're going to work on. It doesn't matter how big or small it is, something that you feel is a good challenge, not too stressful, but sufficient that it creates anxiety.
We then prepare for that challenge by learning how to apply mindfulness to work with that anxiety.
This approach is very effective and most people see very big changes within quite a short period of time. This is quite different than the classical talk therapy or counseling. It's actually working at the deep process level that creates your anxiety. It works at the psychological level directly. That's the important thing.
So please contact me if you are struggling with agoraphobia and you are committed to overcoming your agoraphobia.
VISIT MY CONTACT PAGE ME TO LEARN HOW TO START SKYPE THERAPY WITH ME TO HELP YOU OVERCOME AGORAPHOBIA
Online psychotherapist for overcoming agoraphobia without drugs
Agoraphobia Help Online
Welcome! My name is Peter Strong. I'm a professional licensed psychotherapist based in Colorado and I offer online therapy via Skype for treating anxiety disorders, depression, addictions, PTSD and other common emotional psychological problems. I specialize in the treatments of agoraphobia. So if you're looking for an online psychotherapist for agoraphobia then please contact me. Go to my website and learn more about the services that I offer via Skype and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
I really enjoy working with agoraphobia and the mindfulness-based treatment plan that I have developed for agoraphobia is extremely effective. It's based on what we call mindfulness-based exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is very, very important and generally always incorporated in a treatment plan for agoraphobia. But exposure therapy really works best when it's accompanied by some form of training with the anxiety, how to deal with anxiety reactions that occur during those exposure challenges. So that's where the mindfulness-based exposure therapy comes in. We use mindfulness training to work with any anxiety reactions any panic attacks that may get triggers.
So basically the approach is one of setting up a series of exposure challenges, first of all that's very important. You need to do this in a systematic way, in a regular way, in a disciplined way, doing exposure challenges every day in order to get on top of the anxiety reactions.
But we take his challenge and then we prepare for it by playing it through in the mind and watching for any anxiety reactions, any form of anxiety-based thinking that gets triggered when we imagine doing the challenge, when we imagine walking outside of our comfort zone or going to a shop or a mall or whatever it might be or driving beyond a certain distance from home.
Whatever form the agoraphobia takes, we set up a series of challenges and then we prepare for each challenge by playing through in the mind, finding the anxiety reactions and then responding to them with mindfulness, whereby we learn first of all to break free from that pattern of reactive identification which causes us to be completely overwhelmed by the anxiety reaction.
If you would like to learn more about online therapy for agoraphobia and you would like to work with an online psychotherapist who specializes in Mindfulness Therapy for treating agoraphobia, then please go to my website and please email me and let's schedule a Skype therapy session. You will see results very quickly with this very strategic mindfulness-based approach. Typically after two or three weeks you will notice significant improvements. And this approach gives you the tools that you can continue to develop to get over your agoraphobia completely. That's our goal. Not to tolerate it, not to manage it, but to heal it so we are no longer a prisoner of our anxiety.
So please contact me if this interests you. Lets schedule a Skype therapy session. Thank you.
GO TO MY CONTACT PAGE TO SCHEDULE ONLINE THERAPY WITH ME FOR HELP WITH AGORAPHOBIA, PANIC ATTACKS & ANXIETY
Online Therapist for overcoming Agoraphobia – Psychotherapy via Skype
The way to overcome agoraphobia is to take a strategic and practical approach that incorporates some form of Exposure Therapy that is combined with thorough training to overcome and neutralize each individual anxiety reaction that you encounter as you do your exposure challenges. Training is everything.
You will also appreciate the importance of online therapy and being able to work with a psychotherapist online. This becomes essential if you have agoraphobia.
I have spent the last 10 years developing and perfecting online Mindfulness-based Exposure Therapy for agoraphobia. Please reach out to me if you need help.
Online psychotherapy via Skype for overcoming agoraphobia
Welcome! My name is Peter Strong and I provide online therapy via Skype for the treatment of anxiety and depression and also for agoraphobia. So if you are interested and getting help to overcome your agoraphobia, then you might consider seeing an online therapist like myself. I have made it a mission to try and provide effective practical ways of working with the anxiety and panic attacks associated with agoraphobia, and that’s why I offer this online therapy service.
The methods that I’ve developed is called Mindfulness Therapy and it’s extremely effective in teaching you how to not only neutralize your anxiety but eliminate it completely through training, through effective practical training, using mindfulness-based methods.
Mindfulness-based Exposure Therapy for Agoraphobia
The central method that we use is called mindfulness-based exposure therapy. As you will undoubtedly understand by now, it is extremely important that you not fall into the trap of avoidance. You must face your anxiety and face those situations that trigger that anxiety, but you must do it in a strategic way with appropriate training. It is not sufficient to simply throw yourself into that anxiety-provoking situation and try to struggle through. That kind of exposure is not really very effective.
So if you want to be successful with exposure therapy, you need to take a strategic approach with a lot of training, and so this is the theory behind mindfulness-based exposure therapy for agoraphobia.
We start by setting up a series of challenges and then we work through each challenge in a systematic way starting with easy challenges and progressing to harder challenges. But the important thing is that you do each challenge well and that you reach your goal of being able to do that charge without being overwhelmed by anxiety.
Training through mindfulness meditation
The primary way we go about doing this is through mindfulness meditation. We meditate on that challenge. You play it through in the mind. And we watch for the anxiety reactions. When we find an anxiety reaction, we respond to it with mindfulness. That is that we open to it, we embrace that anxiety. And we treat it very much in the same way that we would treat a friend or a child or even an animal that we encountered that was in pain. You don’t avoid the child in pain, you go towards the child and you then explore comforting the child to help it overcome its pain.
This is a basic strategy that you already know. Well we should adopt that same strategy in relationship to our emotions, to our anxiety. We need to go towards our emotions, we need to face them, but we need to embrace them in the same way with compassion and with a great deal of consciousness to really explore the structure of that anxiety. How does it work?
One of the first things we learn is to work with is the outer structure of the anxiety, which is in the form of reactive thoughts. These are conditioned habitual reactive thoughts that get triggered when you encounter the situation, the particular triggers in that challenge. They get triggered from conditioning and then produce an anxiety reaction.
So we need to work with those thoughts because the thoughts are a very important part of the structure of anxiety. Thoughts do not cause anxiety, that is a common misconception, but thoughts are a very powerful fuel source that feeds anxiety and increases its intensity.
So we learn to work mindfully with those thoughts. We learn to not identify with those thoughts. We learn to see them as objects. And not become lost in that series of habitual thoughts. We learn to recognize the thought clearly, to acknowledge it, but then to stay as an observer, embracing the thought but not indulging in the thought. So it’s like seeing a child that’s in pain but not becoming as upset as the child. You have to remain independent of that child’s suffering if you want to help the child. So we have to learn to be an observer.
Really it’s like learning to be a parent in relationship to the anxiety. You learn to be bigger. You learn to develop a relationship based on compassion rather than reactivity. That is what will help the anxiety heal. In fact that is what it requires in order to heal. It needs you to be a parent to it.
So we find each emotional reaction and we help it heal by the quality of our relationship to it, developing more compassion and more consciousness.
Then we replay the scene in our mind of the challenge and look for other anxiety reactions and other triggers. We work with those in the same way until we can go through the entire challenge in our mind without anxiety. Then after this training period, which may be half an hour of meditation before the challenge, we then go and do the challenge and we put it into practice.
We put the training into practice. We recognize the anxiety it arises. And the training will help it resolve during the challenge.
We then meditate after the challenge on any fresh anxiety that did not resolve. So we train with that anxiety and help it resolve in the same way.
And after that we repeat the charge again. And we keep cycling through meditating before the challenge. Doing the challenge. Meditating after the challenge. Taking a break and then repeating until we can do the challenge with zero anxiety.
We are not learning anxiety tolerance techniques. Other people teach that; I do not. I am interested in healing the anxiety so that it does not arise in the first place.
And it can be done very successfully because anxiety is primarily a habit, a series of habitual reactions. Habits can be changed. Mindfulness Therapy is all about changing those habits by bringing more consciousness and more compassion to the habit itself.
Get help from an online therapist for agoraphobia
You cannot overcome anxiety by some sort of rational thinking protocol. Trying to convince yourself that it’s irrational and that you won’t have a panic attack. That simply does not work. You have to heal the anxiety. Then those thoughts will come in, “Yes it’s irrational,” “I’m going to get through this,” “It’s going to be fine.” But it’s based on experience not based on some wishful thinking.
So we work in this very strategic experiential way with our emotions. We work at a very deep level, working with the external structure, which is the constellation of reactive thoughts that feed the anxiety. We also work with the internal structure.
Utilize emotional imagery
So what is the internal structure of anxiety? Well that internal structure is primarily in the form of imagery. This is one of the central features of my teaching on Mindfulness Therapy, is to explore the imagery of the emotion.
So all emotions are based around internal imagery. It’s the organizing force, if you like, that holds that energy together to produce fear or depression or anger or any other emotion. This is something that I’ve observed over the years and found to be very effective, when we start to uncover the imagery of the anxiety and then start to change it with compassion to help that emotion heal. Because when the imagery changes then the emotion changes with it.
And this is a natural mechanism that we’re utilizing. Emotions work through imagery. This is a natural process. When an intense emotion resolves itself naturally it does so by changing its own internal imagery. You can see this for yourself. If you think about a traumatic experience, for example. At that time the imagery of that emotion is very intense.
It’s very large and it’s very overpowering because it is very large and very intense in color. But over time that traumatic image becomes smaller. It naturally shrinks in size. And the colors tend to fade. And that’s why we say things like, “Oh, that’s a distant memory now,” “I’ve gotten over that now,” “it’s not as big a problem as it was then.” This language tells us a lot about this internal imagery that I’m talking about. If you have gotten over a traumatic experience it is because the position of the image of that trauma has become lower in your psychological internal visual field. You have raised yourself about the emotion.
Also if it becomes smaller. When you say things like, “it’s not so big a problem anymore,” we’re referring to the imagery. So you can think about this yourself and contemplate this phenomenon, but I think it’s really quite convincing when you examine it, that emotions are based around imagery and when that imagery changes the emotion changes.
So we look at the internal structure and we help it change. So this is part of the training that we do during our meditation before and after the challenge. We help that imagery change in a direction that resolves the anxiety.
Want to get started?
So this is a brief introduction to mindfulness-based therapy for agoraphobia. If you would like to talk to an online therapist like myself for help overcoming your agoraphobia, then please reach out to me by email and lets schedule a Skype therapy session.
Most people see results very quickly when they take this strategic and very in-depth approach to working with anxiety. So you can expect and you should expect to see significant changes within three to four sessions. And then when you start to apply these methods yourself you will continue that progress and eventually you will get to that position where you do not feel overwhelmed by anxiety or panic attacks.
So that is our firm commitment. Our firm goal in Mindfulness Therapy it is not to tolerate or manage anxiety, it is to eliminate it. It is to heal it. So if you’d like to get started please contact me. Thank you.
GO TO MY CONTACT PAGE TO SCHEDULE ONLINE PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH ME FOR HELP OVERCOMING AGORAPHOBIA, PANIC ATTACKS & ANXIETY
Online psychotherapist for agoraphobia