Licensed Family Therapy, Family Counseling and Divorce Mediation in Suffolk County Long Island

 

"Live for what tomorrow has to offer...not for what yesterday has given up."

 

 

 

 

COUNSELING FOR INDIVIDUALS

Michael A. Scarpa is a licensed therapist for individual counseling specializing in working with individuals experiencing Anxiety, Depression, and how to better handle life's overall stressors.
 

Types of Anxiety

General Anxiety Disorder (G.A.D.)

GAD affects approximately 6.8 million adults in the United States. Individuals typically feel anxious most of the time, many without knowing the root cause. These individual often have more physical than emotional symptoms.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder affects approximately 6 million adults in the U.S. alone. This disorder includes panic attacks, and fear of having one. Individuals often become stuck in a cycle of panic and being in a constant anxious state, due to fearing another panic attack. These can feel up to the extremes that you are having a heart attack, and this can also be accompanied with Agoraphobia, which is a fear of public places and being somewhere you can’t escape.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

OCD affects a reported 2.2 million adults in the U.S. This type of anxiety involves intrusive and repetitive thoughts and patterns that the individual feels unable to stop. It is constant worry and fear that something bad will happen if they do not repeat patterns or take part in compulsions.

Phobias

Phobias of various sorts affect approximately 8.7% of the U.S. population. This is fear of objects, people, activity, places, or specific situations. People go to great lengths to avoid their phobias, which actually serves to make those phobias stronger.

Social Anxiety Disorder

Affecting 15 million people, or 6.8% of the population, Social Anxiety is the belief that no one likes you, or no one will like you in new social or work situations. Some people think of this as shyness, but do not understand what is going on in the person’s mind. Performance anxiety falls into this category.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD impacts approximately 7.7 million adults, or 3.5% of the population, in the United States. This is the type of anxiety that an individual has after they witness or experience a traumatic event. This typically has the additional anxiety symptoms of nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance, isolation, and avoiding situations that remind the person of the event.

 

Types of Depression

Major Depression

Major Depression often has constant symptoms with an episode lasting up to 6 months if left untreated. This can be moderate or severe, and often includes feeling hopeless/helpless, lacking energy or motivation, intrusive negative thoughts, thoughts of death or suicide, increased fatigue, loss of interest, changes in appetite, and poor memory/concentration/focus among other things.

Dysthymia (also known as Mild Depression)

This affects an individual more days than not, and untreated episodes last up to two years. It is the symptoms listed above to a lesser level, but individuals with mild depression struggle to live a life where they feel like they have happiness and true meaning. 

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

This is found in areas that experience winter weather with months lacking natural sunlight. The individual will start to feel depressive symptoms of depression as winter progress, and they can range from mild to severe. If the person already has underlying depression, it can be made worse during this time of year.

Bipolar Disorder

This is when individuals cycle between manic episodes, and episodes of depression. The manic episodes often include little need for sleep, impulsivity, flight of ideas, and rapid speech. They then come to an episode of depression that resembles a major depressive episode, as described above.

 

Types of Stress

Acute Stress

This is the most common form, and is typically short term. Stress signs include emotional distress, physical tension throughout their bodies, gastrointestinal issues, and physical issues of the heart, head, and chest.

Episodic Acute Stress

This is for individuals who suffer with recurrent bouts of acute stress, most commonly due to disordered living. Their lives often involve frequent chaos and crisis. They will most often display the emotional symptoms such as irritability, tension, and anger. 

Chronic Stress

This is the type of stress that always seems to be there. It can wear people down, and have significant emotional and physical tolls on the person suffering with it. It is the type of stress that most often leads to suicide, violence, heart attacks, strokes, and potentially even cancer. This feels like it will never be resolved to the person suffering, and sometimes stems from childhood trauma.

 

 

*All stats are taken from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

"The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else's highlight reel." - Steven Furtick

 

In the Individual Therapy setting, counseling focuses on effective principles of cognitive behaviour, psychodynamic ... and family therapies when working with children, adolescents, families and parents. 

Do you have questions about Individual Therapy?

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As a graduate of SUNY Binghamton’s Baccalaureate Program in Psycho-Biology and Hofstra University’s Master’s Degree Program in Marriage Therapy, Michael A. Scarpa is fully accredited and licensed in the State of NY to practice as a family and marriage counselor, and also a certified divorce mediator.