One thing about life is certain: change. Change can encompass exciting, scary, joyful, stressful, and more. Whether you are experiencing a move, break-up, job change, graduating college, divorce, or becoming a parent, you can feel regulated and confident to navigate the stress.
You or your child may be experiencing:
Stress
Confusion
Self-doubt
Overwhelm and/or anxiety
Avoidant behaviors
Feeling "on edge"
Physical manifestations of stress (headaches, getting sick easily, Poor sleep, digestive concerns)
Substance use
Struggles to make decisions
Brain fog/struggles focusing
Grief
What does therapy for life transitions look like?
The first step of navigating a life transition is stabilizing the stress you experience from the stressor. This includes processing emotions, identifying stuck patterns in the body, noticing the "meaning making" your brain is creating (i.e. "I can't do this, It's too much, this is more than I can handle, etc.").
Sessions then focus on creating more resources or capacity to experience emotion and stress. Increasing capacity to experience distress allows you to experience less activation in the face of the transition.
Interventions can include verbal processing, body-based modalities like EMDR and Somatic Experiencing, expressive arts, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and more. Therapy isn't one size fits all, and you as the client get to decide what works best for you.
Therapy can help you or your child:
Decrease anxiety and stress
Identify regulation skills
Increase confidence in decision-making
Support emotional expression and release stuck stress responses
Process feelings related to the transition
Disrupt behavioral patterns of avoidance or overwhelm
There is no timeline for how long it takes to feel better and reduce distress. Sessions are typically 50-60 minutes, and we do offer extended sessions for deeper processing and based on need. We offer holistic mental health services in-person at our office in Plano and virtually across Texas.