Do you struggle with emotions? I specialize in treating people who are the “grand pianos” of the world. When you feel happy, you feel it to the extreme and reach higher notes than people around you. But when you are sad or angry or anxious, it brings you to much lower and darker octaves than others. You might be a creative or someone that doesn’t seem to fit in the mainstream. You are a grand piano in a world of synthesizers, among people who seem to have a much smaller range of emotion. People who have overwhelming emotions are often diagnosed with issues such as anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder.
It is so tough to feel you are stuck in pain or feel you’re a prisoner of your emotions. And yet you don’t have to stay there. I’ve been trained to help feelers of the world, not rid or suppress emotions, but to respond to them skillfully. It takes time and effort to learn how to play a grand piano. Here are descriptions of people that I have helped:
· You have big emotions and have trouble controlling them. You feel a lot more than other people. When you feel something, you feel it for a long time before your emotions go back to normal. Things that don’t seem to bother other people get to you.
· You alternate in feeling too much and feel numb. Sometimes your emotions feel like a tidal wave, and other times you feel nothing at all and you wish you could feel something.
· You think in extremes. For example, if you make a mistake in something, you think “I’m a failure.” Or maybe if someone doesn’t return your call, you immediately think “they must not like me.”
· You struggle with relationships. You have a hard time making friends, keeping friends, resolving conflicts, saying no, getting too close too quickly, or opening up. You really care about relationships but are afraid that you will get hurt by them or that they will leave you.
· You’re confused about who you are. You might feel you are a different person depending on who you’re with, or you might feel numb or empty most of the time. You may struggle with self-loathing or shame.
· You struggle with harmful behaviors or urges. Your emotions make you want to escape or cope through suicidal thoughts, self-harm urges, or other behaviors that are self-destructive.
I use DBT-informed therapy to help people to learn to manage emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. DBT, short for dialectical behavioral therapy, is an evidenced-based treatment that has been proven in numerous research studies to decrease depression, anxiety, symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and many other issues.
Life can be so difficult and painful, and yet there is hope in darkness. Please contact me today to take the first step towards light.
Bridges Christian Counseling 