Anne Strain, LCSW – Psychotherapist
Anne Strain, LCSW

People seek a psychotherapist for many reasons.

Although some sense of dissatisfaction may be a commonality, the way in which dissatisfaction is experienced is varied, and may be hard to reduce to words.

Perhaps one of these descriptions will resonate with your experience:

  • I wish I could discover the meaning of my life.
  • I don’t have the relationships I desire, or the relationships I have are a source of disappointment to me.
  • I spend a lot of time worrying.
  • I feel lonely even though I am surrounded by people much of the time.
  • My anxiety prevents me from doing things that I want to do.
  • I need to make decisions that I feel unprepared to make.
  • I am facing changes that I don’t seem able to manage.
  • Other people seem to be happier than me.
  • My work is unfulfilling.
  • What I want most in life always seems to elude me.
  • I have lost interest in or the initiative to pursue activities that I enjoyed in the past.
  • I wonder how my life would change if I wasn’t so _________ (anxious, depressed, bored, unhappy, unmotivated).
  • I am overwhelmed by my responsibilities. Nothing ever gets completed to my satisfaction.
  • I worry that people won’t like me if they really get to know me.
  • I repeat the same mistakes and encounter the same obstacles in different circumstances.
  • I feel as if my life is not really my own.
  • I can’t seem to make sense of the choices I have made, or of how my life has turned out.
  • I have dreams that puzzle me, and I would like to understand what they convey.
  • I feel as if life is just passing me by.
  • Everything about my life is more difficult than I expected and I don’t understand why.
  • I want to be different, but I don’t know how to make that happen.

If these descriptions capture something of your experience, you can be encouraged that psychotherapy can make a difference in helping you work towards lasting change. Finding a psychotherapist with whom you can feel comfortable is an important first step. Sometimes people tell me that they fear they have waited too long, but everyone has to start where they are. I am happy to talk to potential patients on the phone to gain an initial sense of what you are dealing with and how we might be able to work together before scheduling an initial consultation session. A phone conversation also gives you an opportunity to have a brief experience of talking with me.

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