The experience of anxiety is very similar to the experience of fear. The latter is a highly adaptive response to a situation that threatens our own survival or the survival of a loved one. Anxiety brings about identical physical responses, yet the trigger for these reactions is internal and often unconscious such as a memory, a feeling or a desire. As long as these internal triggers remain unconscious, patients may perceive an external situation (social phobia, driving phobia) or object (mice, bugs) to be the cause of their anxiety. The therapeutic process requires initially a systematic noticing and identifying of the symptoms of anxiety so that you can begin to regulate these maladaptive danger signals. Dr. Rosen-Bernays will guide you towards developing a clear awareness of your internal emotional triggers and help you process and digest anxiety provoking emotional experiences with calm and competence so that you may liberate yourself from chronic anxiety and phobic responses.

In most cases depression is the result of automatic and highly self critical responses that often thoroughly undermine a person’s competence and confidence. These habits are likely pervasive and long standing and leave the depressed person with an experience of internal emptiness, flatness and hopelessness. Dr. Rosen-Bernays will guide your attention to habitual responses that solidify your depressed experience. She will then point out healthy alternatives in your own way of responding to yourself. Healthy response patterns allow for emotional experiences to emerge which you may previously have been unaware of. Dr. Rosen-Bernays will guide you in processing these experiences safely so that you may begin to experience and see the healthy choices available to you.

Our longing for intimate experiences is powerful. Our desire to spend time with loved ones in ways that make us feel close, connected and loved make for a healthy motivational force in our daily experience. Often however, daily schedules and old routines work against our desire for intimacy, leaving us disconnected and lonely even in the midst of our families. Dr. Rosen-Bernays will guide you in exploring specific internal experiences that work against your healthy wishes and hopes. In many cases, a resolution of these internal inhibitors leads to new perceptions of the external reality and a new assessment of possibilities in addressing your longings for intimate experiences.

Dr. Rosen-Bernays has been very successful in helping clients seeking assistance in developing productive and healthy ways to experience and express their anger. Psychotherapeutic treatment with Dr. Rosen-Bernays will focus your attention to reading your own physical cues which enables you to be aware and clear about your emotional experience. This awareness will bring forth new possibilities of containing emotions and feelings calmly and thus respond in a thoughtful and productive manner in difficult and conflicting situations.

Dr. Rosen-Bernays understands obesity and overweight not so much as a problem of will power but as the result of emotional eating which occurs when you consume without actually feeling hungry for nutrition. Instead, she recognizes overeating and obesity as a person’s way of dealing with past and present stress such as ongoing painful emotional experiences. For example, if you have endured abusive relationships, unresolved feelings might still influence you. Dr. Rosen-Bernays will help you deal with and experience these emotions in a healthy and direct way so that you may liberate yourself from the compulsion to eat at moments when you are not seeking nutrition but using food as a comfort.

Expectations of today’s women in their personal and career paths are higher than ever, making their choices and decisions sometimes feel overwhelming. Many women become fatigued by the burden of managing their responsibilities on a challenging schedule with limited support and resources. Women often need to reinvent themselves several times over the course of their lives and they grapple with symptoms of PMS or menopause and issues such as setting boundaries, addressing conflicts productively, assuming a leading role at the home as well as the workplace. The perpetual balancing act easily lends itself to an ongoing sense of guilt in shortchanging personal, family and professional goals. Dr. Rosen-Bernays has empowered many women to create a quality of life that they truly can become comfortable with and value.

Pregnancy and childbirth affect a woman in profound ways. The months immediately following the birth of a new baby often are an emotionally vulnerable time in a woman’s life. In addition to taking care of a new baby, women are often challenged in handling difficult issues such as the loss of independence and the parting with an already established rhythm and structure of life. This transition readily elicits feelings of self doubt and insecurities that may lead to a state of postpartum depression. Dr. Rosen-Bernays specializes in guiding young mothers through these potentially trying times.

To read Dr. Rosen-Bernays’ article on Postpartum Depression, click here.

To read Dr. Rosen-Bernays’ article on PTSD after childbirth, click here.