Modern
Treatment for Anxiety and Stress
1400 E. Golf Road
Des Plaines, IL 60016
955 N. Plum Grove Road
Schaumburg, IL 60173
About Me
Hi, I am Joseph N. O'Donnell, PhD. I have been treating stress disorders and anxiety for over thirty years. My doctoral dissertation at Northwestern University focused on social anxiety. Since then as a Marine veteran, I have worked with veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, and other adjustment disorders linked to war experiences. I had also worked on a woman's program at Woodland Hospital (Alexian Brothers) dealing with PTSD issues. Anxiety is consistently comorbid with addictive disorders. I have a long history of working with addiction as well. I have consulted with numerous agencies and corporate entities and run workshops on stress management for the military, police, and firemen and others who endure the daily grind of exposure to anxiety-provoking events. Now with the corona virus, we are all overwhelmed with the threats that this epidemic exposes us to. We have the tools and expertise to guide you and help you develop the emotional coping skills to address the stressors of your life. We have the tools and techniques that really work!
Specializing in Anxiety Treatment,
and Stress Management
Anxiety
Anxiety along with depression is one of the most diagnosed disorders. At times our fears can be overwhelming and debilitating. In the age of Covid-19, anxiety is a universal phenomenon particularly with those who are the most vulnerable. Anxiety has many manifestations. They can be emotional, physiological or a combination of both. The consequences can be debilitating. We will discuss different manifestations of anxiety and treatment alternatives.
Depression
We all have had moments of depression, despondency, sadness. The triggers can be life events like loss of loved ones or of a job. Sometimes sadness may be a part of our emotional makeup. Regardless our depression may be manageable and we can continue to live our lives in sadness or severely debilitating so that we become nonfunctional and even suicidal. We have the tools to help you identify the reasons and causes of depression and the strategies to overcome them.
Phobias
We all have them. Fears of specific things or events that can prevent us often from functioning. A fear of flying, taking a test, speaking in front of large groups. How about a fear of dogs or events in which we have had bad experiences. .I had a client who liked a boy but was fearful of approaching him out of a fear she would be rejected. There are proven strategies that actually work in assuaging our fears. I have used them frequently with a high level of success.
Post Traumatic Stress
Stress Management
Our Strategies
I was a Marine during the Vietnam war. Many of my friends became emotionally ravaged because of their war experiences. Nightmares, surfacing, repressed memories, over-reactivity to normal events, and destructive emotional responses. I have seen the ravages of emotional and physical abuse on the human psyche in my career. And I have also seen the remediation of the pain of these experiences. We have tools that work.
Life is full of stressors. Some can be debilitating. The pressures of our job, having to take an important test. The demands of a relationship and the expectations that others put on us. To live a viable and functional life we need to learn to deal with them as we will always be confronted by them. Some of us are challenged by them, while others cannot cope. We all have moments of each. There are strategies for identifying appropriate coping mechanisms.
We are very eclectic in our approach. Through experience, we take what we know that works. We use it. Whether it is talk therapy in its many manifestations or sound behavioral approaches or alternative approaches that have shown efficacy we will adapt them to the needs that are specific to our clients. In what we do, the dictum one shoe fits all does not work. We will discuss our different approaches.