Anxiety, Depression, and Social Isolation
Root Cause Psychotherapy Relieves Current Symptoms and Heals the Underlying Core Issues for Lasting Freedom
Life can feel so much better than this. You don't have to suffer.
Human beings are suffering from depression, anxiety, and social isolation in record numbers.
Depression, anxiety, and social isolation affect all walks of life. Wealthy, poor, middle class. Young, old, middle-aged. Men, women, and all genders. All sexual orientations.
I think it's a by-product of the way we live. But what matters is that by working together, we can find a way for you to live that reduces your unhappiness and suffering.
The fix isn't drastic. These conditions are a perfect storm that creates unhappiness and suffering. Altering a few habits or links in the chain changes the entire pattern.
There are many approaches to therapy. You may not need to use medication or any specific intervention. The only things required are effective guidance and the willingness to try some different approaches.
Depression, anxiety, social isolation, and the suffering and loneliness that go with them are entirely treatable.
While it may not have been your experience or that of the people you've spoken to, I have seen many clients achieve immediate and lasting relief from their symptoms.
So the good news is you don't have to suffer from these conditions any longer.
An experienced therapist can guide you to effectively relieve the various symptoms you are experiencing.
While you're treating your anxiety and depression symptoms, why not resolve their root cause so you can be free?
Michael Hoffman Psychotherapy takes a root cause approach to anxiety, depression, and social isolation.
So, in addition to alleviating your current symptoms, it also addresses the cause of these symptoms.
When working with clients with symptoms of depression, for instance, we've often identified a precipitating event, trauma, or wound that was the root of the depression.
When we uncovered that precipitating event, there was often a deep sadness or other disheartening feeling that made them want to give up on life to some extent.
When speaking of that event, clients might say, "I think that's the first time I was depressed." From there, their neuropathways change, and their depression takes root.
The clients who were willing to address the precipitating event experienced lasting freedom from their depression. Their symptoms didn't come back or became manageable.
Once you address the root causes, you may still have tendencies toward anxiety and depression. However, their symptoms, pain, and suffering become more manageable.
You can take care of this once and for all, so you get back to the most important thing- enjoying your life.
Specialties
Anxiety
Anxiety can be crippling. And it affects everything. Anxiety is best treated with guidance and support to challenge it in the context of your daily life. This disempowers it and provides the confidence and momentum to move forward in your life.
Depression
Depression can always be traced back to a precipitating event that created some form of giving up on life. Healing the underlying core issue is the essence of root-cause therapy, making it particularly effective for treating depression.
Social Isolation
Social isolation disconnects us from human interaction. We're herd animals, not meant to live in loneliness. Social isolation is best treated with guidance and support to both address it behaviorally in your life, and to heal its underlying issues
Hi, I'm Michael
When I'm not playing the drums, exploring the Pacific Northwest, or interpreting dreams, I offer psychotherapy sessions with my root cause approach, which both relieves current symptoms and heals the underlying core issues to provide lasting freedom to fully enjoy life.
I bring 30 years of postgraduate experience and extensive training to create a personalized program tailored to your specific needs and situation.
My specialties include: 1) relationship issues and intimacy; 2) anxiety, depression, and social isolation;
3) men's issues and masculine roles; and 4) life transitions such as empty nest, divorce, and breakup.
I'm happy to guide you. Therapy works. Find someone you can work with. It's worth it. Whether it's working with me or somebody else, you owe it to yourself. If you'd like, schedule a free 15-minute consultation. I'm easy to talk to, and I'll help you get the ball rolling.
How Root Cause Psychotherapy Works
Phase 1
Relieve Your Current Symptoms
The first priority is to relieve the stress, pain, and suffering of your current symptoms. We'll work together to identify and understand your current symptoms. Then we'll design a personalized program that will alleviate your symptoms.
Phase 2
Heal the Root Cause of Your Symptoms
Now that you've identified your symptoms, we can trace them to identify your underlying core issues. Healing these core emotional issues frees you from future symptoms and helps you enjoy happiness, love, and freedom in your life.
Phase 3
Create the Life You Truly Want
Now that your symptoms don't define what you can and can't have in your life, you are free to create the life you choose for yourself. Ongoing guidance and support help you integrate the things you value into your relationships and daily life.
Root Cause Therapy Workflow for Anxiety, Depression,
and Social Isolation
This is for those of you who like to see things broken down in the specific work we will be doing together. For some, the above section of the three phases will suffice. Either way is fine. We will address what we need to as we proceed in our work together.
While each client's symptoms of anxiety, depression, and isolation require specific interventions, the following is a general therapy workflow to treat current symptoms and underlying issues to achieve lasting personal freedom.
Phase 1: Relieve Current Symptoms
1. Identify your Current Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and/or Social Isolation.
With your life history and experience and my knowledge of the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and/or social isolation, we'll compile a list of your current symptoms. During our therapy sessions, we will work together to identify ways to manage each of these symptoms.
2. Explore the Costs and Payoffs (or Secondary Gains) of your Anxiety, Depression, and/or Isolation.
What has anxiety, depression, and isolation cost you? Has it hijacked your ability to enjoy the things that matter most to you? Has it prevented you from having loving relationships? Conversely, what are the payoffs of anxiety, depression, and social isolation? Has it created a comfort zone? Have they allowed you to hide or avoid things? Addressing these opens the doors for change.
3. Understand the Behavioral Patterns of your Anxiety, Depression, and/or Social Isolation.
These repetitive patterns of your anxiety, depression, and/or social isolation rob you of your ability to choose what you want in your life because you do them over and over without realizing it. By becoming aware of these patterns, you can choose something different.
4. Create a Personal Program to Manage Your Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and/or Isolation.
Together, we will design a personalized program that will alleviate your current symptoms. This program will provide a new orientation for your life and will replace the previous orientation you were conditioned to rely on.
Phase 2: Heal the Root Cause
1. Trace Your Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Isolation to Their Underlying Core Emotional Issues.
Now that you have identified your symptoms of anxiety, depression, and social isolation, we can walk them back to identify your underlying core issues. Your symptoms point to your core issues if you know what to look for. By addressing your core emotional issues, you can free yourself from experiencing future symptoms and enjoy greater happiness, love, and freedom in your life.
2. Challenge your Limiting Beliefs Associated with your Core Issues.
We acquire various core beliefs about ourselves and the world in childhood, which are reinforced as we grow into adulthood. While these beliefs serve you for a while, they limit you as you grow and mature. We will explore the beliefs and stories you tell yourself that obstruct your life.
3. Disempower the Underlying Fear Associated with Your Core Issues.
Fear keeps limiting beliefs intact. It's directly correlated to anxiety, depression, and isolation- especially anxiety. Since fear is future-based, you can break each fear down to an if/then statement about what you believe will happen. This format clarifies how fear limits your life and presents it in manageable terms. As you challenge your fear by taking action, you see it for what it is: an illusion.
4. Heal the Core Emotional Wounds Associated with your Core Issues.
Beneath all the symptoms, core issues, limiting beliefs, and fear, deep-seated emotional wounds reside. They may arise when you become triggered by experiences. They often involve trauma, betrayal, abandonment, and loss. These wounds surfacing offer an opportunity to feel and heal them, creating lasting emotional freedom.
Phase 3: Create the Life You Want
1. Consider What You Want in Your Life Now that Your Symptoms and Underlying Issues No Longer Define what you Can and Can't Have in Your Life.
Now you have the freedom to choose and create the things you want for yourself. It helps to break down the things you want in your life into their core elements or essence. Examples of elements include love, friendship, abundance, community, intimacy, strength, and purpose.
2. Create a Clear Intention for the Life You Want.
When you offer your intention, it initiates and activates a new way of being. We work with what you choose to create in your life and boil it down to an intention for your life. This creates a crystal-clear focus for working with and integrating the things you want into your life.
3. Integrate the Things You Want into Your Life.
Taking action and practicing trial and error brings the things you want into your life. Introduce new approaches to your life, and notice what works and what doesn't. An updated personal program and therapy sessions provide the guidance and support to sustain these approaches long enough to integrate them into your life. The reward is enjoying the things in your life that matter most to you.
Word on the Street
"The real core of the work I did with Michael is seeing how I have always been looking outward to define myself. What I have found in working with him is that I already had the resources within me to actually create the changes I wanted to make. For me, this has been the pivotal change. I have to say, Michael held my feet to the fire and that is what I really needed. He helped me get in touch with trusting my heart and moving from that place."
Hassle-Free Steps to Your First Session
Step 1:
Consultation
Text/Call Office to Schedule Free Consultation
a. Text/Call our office to book Free 15-min. Phone Consultation to discuss your needs & determine therapy fit.
b. Office staff will Text/Call you to initiate your therapy journey.
Step 2: Register
Register Text Line
& Client Portal; Complete Forms
a. Respond to Spruce invite for text service. b. Respond to Therapy Notes invite to create Client Portal. c. Fill out forms in Client Portal. d. Notify office when forms are complete.
Step 3: Eligibility
Office Text/Calls on Insurance Eligibility; Book First Session
a. Office Staff will text or call you to discuss Insurance Eligibility.
b. Text/Call office to schedule your First Session. c. Receive a Video-Conference Link for your First Session.
Step 4:
1st Session
Create Your Personal Program in First Session
Together, in your first therapy session, we'll create a personalized program that resolves your current symptoms and explores their root cause for lasting relief & personal freedom.