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Psychotherapy Benefits

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Professional Psychotherapist at Your Service

Psychotherapy is a powerful tool for managing anxiety, depression, and stress. As an experienced Psychotherapist, I am dedicated to helping you navigate through life's challenges. Through a supportive and confidential environment, we will work together to explore your thoughts and emotions, leading to self-discovery and personal growth. My goal is to empower you to overcome obstacles, improve your mental well-being, and enhance your overall quality of life. Let's embark on this transformative journey towards healing and inner peace.

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Psychotherapy treats anxiety by integrating cognitive, emotional, and relational interventions that directly reshape the brain's neurobiological response to threat. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) targets the "top-down" regulatory system by using the prefrontal cortex to identify and restructure maladaptive thought patterns and "thinking traps," effectively training the brain to reassess perceived dangers more realistically. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) complements this through a "bottom-up" approach, helping patients access and transform primary maladaptive emotions—such as shame or fear—into more adaptive states like self-compassion, which provides a "corrective emotional experience" that can permanently modify emotional memory traces. 

 

Systemic psychotherapy extends this work by contextualising anxiety within an individual's social and family systems, addressing how interpersonal dynamics and relationship structures reciprocally maintain or alleviate distress. From a neuroscience perspective, these combined approaches facilitate neuroplasticity, strengthening the communication between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala to reduce hyperreactivity and "rewire" the brain for improved emotional regulation and resilience. 

Grow Your Mental Wellness

In addition to talk psychotherapy, some patients will benefit from somatic exercises to deal with physical symptoms of anxiety, trauma and stress, such as dissociation.

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VIrtual Appointments Available

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Dissociative Experiences

Link below to the Dissociative Experiences Scale-II (DES-II) to rate your symptoms and return to me at nicole@oceansidefamilytherapy.com for scoring.

 

Integrative approach to trauma treatment integrates the perspective of body-based or somatic psychology and parts work therapies with EMDR (bilateral stimulation) in talk psychotherapy.

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Qualified Supervisor MHC and MFT
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Client's Family Member 

"Dr. Story at Oceanside Therapy and

Assessments was a total lifesaver for our family.

The first semester of college was overwhelming for a family member and we didn't know where to turn. Dr. Story stepped in, really listened, and gave us the clarity we desperately needed.

Getting an accurate diagnosis and her practical advice on what to do next turned a difficult situation into personal development and academic success that was unimaginable. It allowed them to find the right ongoing therapy and get back on track. We are so incredibly grateful for her help!"

Testimonials

Client

"Dr. Story is amazing. I've seen her for years and she is such an understanding and professional therapist.

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I've never felt judged and always felt heard. 

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She genuinely cares about her clients and has a passion to help people."

Intern

Thank you for everything--you have truly made a forever-lasting impact on my professional growth and development.

 

I can't thank you enough.

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I look forward to our last meeting on Friday! It is extremely bittersweet for me."

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