Understanding Anxiety: Q&A with Brooke Pomerantz, LCSW
Q: Can you describe how anxiety typically shows up for your clients?
Anxiety can present itself through a broad range of symptoms. For the majority of the individuals I work with, anxiety can show up as chronic worry, ruminations or obsessive thoughts that interrupts their day-to-day functioning and negatively impacts their lives. Sometimes anxiety can show up in the form of physical symptoms including tightness in the chest or throat, tense muscles, stomachaches, headaches, insomnia, and nightmares. Anxiety can also be reflected through self-doubt, indecision, second-guessing, self-criticism, and a fear of what others will think.
Q: What are some common misconceptions people have about anxiety?
Some individuals believe that we shouldn’t experience anxiety at all, but in reality low level anxiety can be adaptive and both alert and motivate us to ways that we need to attend to something important in our lives, as a means to staying safe and secure in the world. Anxiety becomes problematic when our symptoms signal danger when there is no danger present or when our symptoms become debilitating and get in the way of living our lives.
Q: What’s your general approach as a therapist when working with anxiety?
I start off by getting a history of how an individual’s anxiety symptoms show up in their lives and develop a timeline around the symptoms. We then work to identify what stressors are triggering the anxiety. I address anxiety in two parts, including: 1) teach skills to cope more effectively with the anxiety and ideally reduce the anxiety in the day-to-day, and 2) address the underlying stressors contributing to the anxiety. We might also work on cultivating curiosity about one’s anxiety, exploring the relationship one has to anxiety, and identifying if the anxiety masks other emotions that may be important to explore and address. Lastly, we explore an individual’s early blueprints for coping with stress in their family of origin.
Q: Are there specific tools or techniques you find especially helpful for clients managing anxiety?
Initially it can be helpful to track one’s anxiety including the frequency, duration, and intensity of the symptoms, the anxiety triggers and one’s responses to their anxiety. This process of information gathering can then guide how we move forward in the work.
I often recommend the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) class, an eight-week course that teaches mindfulness practices (such as sitting meditations, walking meditations, and body scans). The mindfulness techniques taught in the class help individuals learn to observe their thoughts, feelings and physical sensations in a nonreactive and non-judgmental way.
Other helpful tools include exercise, yoga, walking, decreasing processed foods, limiting caffeine, alcohol, and sugar, and developing self-soothing practices – e.g. petting a dog, drinking herbal tea, or taking a walk.
As the techniques help an individual to stabilize their anxiety symptoms, we are able to move into the work of addressing the underlying stressors inducing the anxiety.
Q: How do you help clients differentiate between “normal worry” and anxiety that may benefit from therapy?
When worry starts to feel consuming or takes over your life in a way that feels unmanageable, that is when therapy can help. Usually, by the time someone comes in for therapy, the anxiety is beyond normal worry and is negatively impacting an individual’s ability to function at work or school, and their relationships.
Q: How do our caregivers model how to navigate stress and anxiety in our lives?
Our caregivers showed us, often without meaning to, how to walk through the world and cope with stress. We tend to internalize what was modeled for us, and that can become a kind of blueprint for how to be in the world. Sometimes we end up repeating coping styles that don’t serve us. Part of the work we can do is to identify those patterns and explore how to shift them to something more adaptive.
Q: What would you want someone struggling with anxiety in Oakland to know about getting help?
Oakland has a lot of opportunities to support one’s well-being. Being outside in nature or near water sources can be very calming to the nervous system. Some places that come to mind are: Redwood Regional Park, Lake Merritt, Joaquin Miller Park, and Lake Temescal. Oakland is rich in healing and support resources including psychotherapy, yoga, bodywork, spiritual communities, coaching, and meditation groups.
Q: What’s one small step someone could take today to start feeling calmer?
Take a walk outside in nature.
Brooke Pomerantz, LCSW, is a licensed therapist based in Oakland, with 18 years of experience supporting adults through anxiety, depression, and life transitions. She offers in-person therapy in Oakland and online therapy for clients in California, New York, and Indiana. Brooke is dedicated to providing inclusive, compassionate care that helps clients create meaningful change in their lives.
Are you suffering from anxiety? Learn more about Brooke’s Anxiety Therapy.
Brooke Pomerantz, LCSW
Psychotherapy, Supervision, and Consultation
Licensed in CA, NY, and IN
(415) 832-0767
brookepomerantz.com
