12417 Cedar Road Cleveland Heights OH 44106 | In-Person or Online Therapy Available
Therapy for Depression & Anxiety
My Approach
Depression and anxiety are often treated as symptoms to eliminate. From an attachment-informed and relational perspective, they can also be understood as adaptive responses; the ways the mind and nervous system learned to cope with experiences that once felt overwhelming, unsafe, or unpredictable.
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My approach emphasizes awareness before change. Rather than focusing solely on quick fixes and symptom reduction, therapy can help build understanding of how these patterns developed and how they continue to shape your emotional life.
Increasing Awareness & Understanding
Drawing from Gestalt and relational therapy, our work focuses on increasing awareness of emotions, bodily responses, and relational dynamics as they occur. As patterns become more visible, they often loosen their hold. Therapy may involve:
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Noticing how anxiety or depression shows up in specific situations
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Understanding what these responses are trying to protect or manage
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Recognizing recurring emotional and relational cycles
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Developing greater flexibility and self-compassion
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Change tends to emerge through understanding, rather than willpower alone.
Recognizing Patterns
Anxiety and depression often show up in recognizable ways:
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Persistent worry, overthinking, or hypervigilance
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Emotional withdrawal, numbness, or exhaustion
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Difficulty with closeness, boundaries, or expressing needs
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Cycles of pushing through until burnout or shutdown
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In therapy, we work to recognize these patterns without judgment, understand where they came from, and explore how they function now. Change often emerges not from forcing new behaviors, but from developing a more compassionate and flexible relationship with these patterns.
The Therapeutic Alliance
Therapy itself is a relationship, and relational experiences in the therapy room can offer valuable information. Moments of closeness, frustration, misattunement, or repair can help illuminate long-standing relational expectations and open new possibilities for connection.​
Our work will be collaborative and paced with care. There is no pressure to “fix” yourself or move faster than feels sustainable. Over time, increased self-awareness can support:
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Greater emotional range and flexibility
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More grounded responses to anxiety or low mood
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A clearer sense of needs, boundaries, and desire
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A more compassionate relationship with yourself
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​If this approach feels like a fit, I invite you to reach out to schedule a consultation.
