TREATMENT  

People come to therapy to feel better. Feeling better means different things to different people. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you look at your thoughts and feelings as they relate to behaviors and helps you elicit the kind of change you want for your life. CBT helps individuals break down problems or situations into more manageable parts and examines the ways in which thoughts, emotions and actions are related to each other. CBT is a proven method to treat Depression, Anxiety, Eating Disorders and problems associated with Life Transitions because it offers lasting solutions that can be utilized long after therapy ends. It is highly solution focused, evidence-based, and offers an individual the opportunity to set their own treatment goals towards “feeling better”. 

Focus Psychotherapy Associates are specialists in the practice of CBT. We also believe that combinations of CBT and psychodynamic treatments may be best for some. On your first appointment, we will perform an assessment that will help you decide what type of therapy is best for you, and what type of problems you want to work on.

Treatment at Focus Psychotherapy concentrates on the following problems: 

	Depression
	Anxiety
	Eating Disorders
	Life Transitions
	Relationship and Family Problems

DEPRESSION

We all feel sad from time to time. Depression can manifest as a reaction to certain life circumstances, such as relationship problems, family issues, school or work transitions. If you have depression, you may feel sad more often than not. You may have lost interest in the things you used to like to do. You may be isolating yourself from friends or family. You may feel irritable, angry and even hopeless. At times you may feel helpless, thinking that things will never be better. Your loved ones notice…and so do you.

Successful treatment of Depression involves looking at situations and events and how we react with negative thinking patterns. Treatment helps you learn to cope with events through various processes of motivation, problem solving, communication skills, building self-esteem, learning better coping skills, or solving relationship problems. It can focus on the unrealistic expectations and overly critical self-evaluations that create depression and serve to sustain it. More than a passing mood, depression involves the body, emotions and thoughts. Without treatment, symptoms of depression can be long enduring.
 

ANXIETY 

We all feel anxious from time to time. Stress is a part of everyday life, and learning to manage stress is an important life skill for both adults and teenagers. Anxiety is over-stress. Anxiety disorders develop when we experience severe anxiety in response to minor or common problems, or when the anxiety actually interferes with daily functioning. We may begin to worry about things all the time. We may find ourselves obsessively over-thinking each and every little decision or circumstance. We may begin to have panic attacks. Phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorders become overly disruptive to our daily living. We may find that our anxiety heightens in social situations to the point where we may avoid people or situations where people gather.  

Successful treatment for anxiety involves learning stress management skills while at the same time challenging our beliefs and our thinking in order to stop worrying. Treatment helps us look at our distorted thinking and how information that comes from events and other people can suddenly make us feel overwhelmed, which in turn reduces our ability to cope. By identifying distorted thinking and replacing those thoughts with a more realistic view, anxiety is reduced and healthy coping mechanisms can be utilized. An untreated or under-treated Anxiety Disorder can diminish one’s quality of life and at times can interfere with one’s ability to function.  
 

EATING DISORDERS

Eating Disorders are serious mental illnesses that ultimately have little to do with food. For many, disordered eating, restricting food intake, binging, purging, and over-exercising become ways to control their environment. We may struggle with expressing feelings and emotions. We may have low self esteem, a driving need for perfectionism, or a more intensive reaction to the pressures of our culture, media, and society to be thin. With Anorexia and Bulimia, food and the behaviors related to food and body image serve to help us feel less depressed and anxious about things in our lives that we cannot control. Although eating disorders are afflictions that affect women and men of all ages, adolescents are particularly vulnerable to developing eating disordered behaviors that in a short period of time can form into a full-blown, serious eating disorder.

Successful treatment looks at the individual and their environment and discovers ways to lift self-esteem, gain control of life, and feel less depressed and anxious. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) aims at correcting errors in thinking and perception that lead to negative self-perceptions which in turn lead to eating disorder behaviors. CBT can be utilized to change attitudes about food, eating, and body image, help correct poor eating habits, and prevent relapse. Because eating disorders are so complex, we may recommend additional services such as nutrition counseling and group therapy.
 

LIFE TRANSITIONS

Starting a new relationship, changing schools, changing jobs, marriage or divorce, beginning college, loss of a loved one, sexuality, relocation, and even birthdays can create scenarios that we may have trouble coping with. We particularly see problems when we move into times of our lives that are considered developmental milestones: becoming a teenager, leaving for college, moving out of the house, empty nest syndrome, menopause, growing older, etc. We come to psychotherapy at these times seeking solutions to problems that seem overwhelming in the moment.

Successful treatment focuses on practical methods that allow us to think more realistically about change and to learn to embrace life’s transitions as opportunities for growth and life fulfillment. Learning methods to cope with the anxiety that life's  changes can bring is a key component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.  Developing and furthering skill sets in decision making, problem solving, social interactions, and communication are vital and have the long-lasting benefit of being available for us to utilize for the next life transition. 
 

  RELATIONSHIP AND FAMILY PROBLEMS  

Human beings are social creatures. Interacting with others is a vital aspect of day to day living. Many times, it is those we are closest to that we have the most difficult time relating with. These problems may be situational and can be treated by learning sound communication skills, problem solving and increasing one’s capacity to share interpersonally. Other times, our relationships with our loved ones are impacted negatively by our own issues such as depression and anxiety. Couples may struggle with changing roles, problems of intimacy, or poor communication. Families may struggle as children grow, as roles change, or when the entire family system is affected by one member’s depression, anxiety, or eating disorder. Divorce, blended families, death of a loved one, and the caretaking of aging parents can all impact and cause major unrest in the family system.  

Successful treatment initially focuses on determining whether the problem is situational or more pervasive. We believe in looking at the couple or the family as a unit, where eliciting change in one member allows the functioning of the unit to improve. By looking at ways the couple or family and its’ members think and react to certain circumstances, we can work on building better communication and emotional management. By helping the couple or family members learn the tendencies of each other’s thinking patterns and feelings, we can work on behavior changes that will have lasting impact within the unit as well as in other outside relationships.

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