DANA PIESTANSKA M.A.
Psychologist
MY SPECIALTIES
INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING
Whether you are looking for some advice or longer term counselling, individual therapy can be a great tool to gain self-awareness and a healthy perspective on your current situation. Individual private counselling can help you understand the difficulties you are facing in your day to day functioning and also understand what behaviours maintain these difficulties reoccurring in your life.
COUPLES
Some of the reasons why couples seek therapy, among others, are trust issues, destructive and frequent arguing or poor communication, avoidance, feeling stuck, emotional codependency and toxic relationships. If you feel your relationship is troubled, couples counselling may help you with changing the views of your relationship, improving communication and modifying dysfunctional behaviour and emotional avoidance.
STRESS AND BURNOUT
Daily we are exposed to stressful situations in our lives, at work, home, relationships or when making difficult decisions. Prolonged stress response can manifest itself to be harmful physically and psychologically. Recognizing the triggers and causes can help change the perception of certain types of situations you are exposed to and minimize the effects of stress and possible burnout.
ANXIETY AND FEARS
Anxiety and worry are normal reactions to stressful situations. However, it can become excessive and eventually may cause you to dread everyday situations. Symptoms may include panic attacks, shortness of breath, muscle tension and insomnia. Learning how to overcome your fears can change your ability to deal with your circumstances and improve your life in general.
CULTURE SHOCK & ADJUSTMENT
Living in a culture significantly different from your own might be exciting but also very challenging. Regardless of the country of origin, one will always go through a period of adjustment. Understanding the adjustment process and getting a support through the transition may help with having a richer experience both personally and culturally.
DECISION MAKING
For many of us, making a decision can become extremely demanding from time to time. Weighting out options, what steps to take and how to accept our decisions might be a lengthy and uneasy process. Making a wrong decision can influence our future approach or we might just simply avoid any decision hoping the situation will solve itself. By acquiring responsibility and trusting our decisions the process might become less stressful and dreadful.
CAREER COUNSELING
Finding a fulfilling career is crucial to our mental wellbeing. When one's job proves to be stressful or frustrating, gaining a better understanding of one's personality, skills, strengths and talents can help with choosing or changing current career. Career guidance is designed to help with finding the right fit and a satisfactory job.
DEPRESSION
Depression comes in many forms. It can be situational, seasonal, or it can be connected to underlying issues to more serious disorders. Depression might not be recognized for a long time and thus can hinder our daily performance without us understanding what is happening to us. The earlier the treatment begins the more effective and the higher probability reoccurrence can be prevented.
SELF-ACCEPTANCE &
PERSONAL GROWTH
We all have tendencies to judge ourself and sometimes we might not be able to accept some parts of ourselves. Self-acceptance, becoming aware of one's strengths and weaknesses, recognizing one's talents and one's own worth is essential to our happiness and well being. Improving our self-esteem and securing a more positive sense of who we are promotes our personal growth as well as mental and physical health.
TRAUMA
Trauma could be a specific incident such as natural disaster, rape, death, terroristic attack and so on. Or, it could be an ongoing pattern of extreme dysfunction that could be emotionally or physically harmful such as domestic violence, verbal or physical abuse and neglect. We all perceive traumatic events in different ways. If we do not learn how to cope with it, it can not only hinder our daily lives, relationships or our future responses but also our health in general.