Are you in need of effective treatment of anxiety? You came to the right place – our anxiety specialty clinic offers scientifically-based psychotherapy that is proven to be helpful in long-term management of anxiety.
Is Therapy Effective?
While there are many different types of therapy for anxiety, we are dedicated to treating psychological problems with methods based on the best science available. We specialize in a form of cognitive-behavior therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which has been shown in empirical studies to be effective for a wide variety of psychological problems, including anxiety.
Why Not Just Use Medication?
Using medication is an option that a lot of people take to address their issues with anxiety. Our commitment at Portland Psychotherapy Clinic is to help our clients so that they can live fuller and more meaningful lives. Our commitment is not just to help our clients feel better, we help them to live better. It’s a personal choice for you to decide if medication alone accomplishes this for you.
Can I Afford Therapy?
We take many forms of insurance and also provide sliding scale services to those in financial need.
What Can I Expect?
There is no easy way to tell how many sessions we would suggest, but in general most people are able to obtain significant results in their life after approximately 10 sessions. Our goal is not to keep people in therapy for longer than they need to be.
If you decide you are ready to start taking your life back, the first step is to send us your information below. We will then call or email you to and discuss how we can start to help. We can answer any questions you have about therapy and get you in contact with a therapist.
Why Not Buy A Workbook?
Self-help books can be a great resource and we can recommend some of our favorites to you. Consider though if a workbook has led to any long-lasting change in your life. If so, great! If not, then maybe it’s time to consider getting help from a professional.
To Review:
- Therapy is scientifically proven to be effective for many people with anxiety
- Therapy is effective in the long-term
- Therapy is not only for the rich
- Therapy does not have to take years
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Want To Learn More About What We Do? Read on…
Having too much anxiety is a very common problem for people and most people would love to just get rid of it. However, it’s not that easy, is it? Or else this wouldn’t still be a problem for you and you wouldn’t be reading this website. To understand why anxiety is such a big issue for so many people and why there is hope for you to deal with this more effectively, let’s consider what we call the control paradox.
The Control Paradox
First off, it is important to note that while anxiety can be unbearable when you have too much of it, anxiety is a normal part of life. Without some anxiety you would not be very good at getting around in the world. When anxiety gets to be too much though, it is natural to want it to go away, to get control of it. This instinct is very strong in people because it often works really well. If you spilled a glass of water, you get rid of the mess by cleaning it up. If you have a headache, you get control of the pain by taking a pain reliever. The name of the game becomes “if you don’t like it, get rid of it.”
Control of Anxiety
Controlling things is very useful in many areas of life but it does not seem to work the same way for anxiety, does it? In fact, not only does control not work – it often has the exact opposite effect. When you try hard to get rid of anxiety, it often gets worse Instead of going away. Does this fit with your experience too?
Let’s use an example to see this control paradox in action. Imagine you have a date that you have been looking forward to for a while and the night finally comes. You get the first date jitters before the date but you are able to work through it. Then later, the date is going really well and you notice you are starting to become anxious. You start to think thoughts about ‘not screwing this up’, your heart rate speeds up, you notice you are starting to sweat, and you are breathing quicker. Imagine what would happen if in an attempt to not appear anxious to your date you thought thoughts like “stop being anxious!”, “just be calm!” really hard to try and relax yourself and get rid of the anxiety. Would your anxiety go up or down?
For most people, the harder they try to control it, the worse their anxiety gets. “If you don’t like it, get rid of it” no longer seems to apply like it did before with spilled water or a headache. This is the paradox of control when it comes to feelings.
There Is Hope Without Needing Control
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) addresses this problem head-on. Instead of trying to give you temporary solutions to get control over your anxiety, ACT instead focuses on allowing you to learn how to let go of the struggle to control your anxiety and allow you to move toward living the life you truly want to live.