Polly Charette LCSW, BCD, ACSW offers counseling specializing in a spectrum of Anxiety Disorders; Combat Stress Reaction, Crime Victims, etc.

During and after the tragedy surrounding September 11th, Ms. Charette worked as a psychotherapist for the United States Naval Service at the San Diego Naval Base and specialized in military families. Ms. Charette focused on issues related to trauma, violence, unresolved anger, grief, loss, readjustment stress, separation and the extension of unresolved emotional anguish into relationships with others. Ms. Charette specializes in a spectrum of Anxiety Disorders; Combat Stress Reaction, Crime Vict...

During and after the tragedy surrounding September 11th, Ms. Charette worked as a psychotherapist for the United States Naval Service at the San Diego Naval Base and specialized in military families. Ms. Charette focused on issues related to trauma, violence, unresolved anger, grief, loss, readjustment stress, separation and the extension of unresolved emotional anguish into relationships with others. Ms. Charette specializes in a spectrum of Anxiety Disorders; Combat Stress Reaction, Crime Victims, Childhood Trauma Survivors, PTSD, Acute Stress Reaction, Panic Disorder, and agoraphobia. In extreme cases Ms. Charette will provide an in-home assessment for agoraphobia. Ms. Charette utilizes a variety of modalities tailored to treat the specific condition and symptoms of each person. Ms. Charette firmly believes in providing psycho-education to her clients as it is imperative they understand the biological process, development, patterns and rituals behind their symptomology. She utilizes a mixture of education, exposure, biofeedback, desensitization, cognitive distortion challenging and anxiety reduction techniques to decrease the disturbance level of her clients. This does include working with family members to provide education, support and work toward healing the family unit that may be affected.Ms. Charette has the ability to focus treatment on the biological processes of patients through utilizing biofeedback equipment to display patterns and rating of patient’s physical symptomology such as increased heart rate, skin temperature, and breathing. This displays the body’s overall heart and breath coherence. Through use of this technology clients are able to get immediate feedback on how their thoughts affect their body and can target *hot spots* in their thinking. Cognitive behavioral therapy will be utilized along with relaxation techniques. Beware: Decreasing heart rate and stress can lead to improved health! Week to week data comparisons can me made and the proof is in the pudding. To further advocate for healthy living, Ms. Charette can assist with insomnia issues that have been haunting people for months or even years. This takes commitment from the client to utilize a sleep journal and make some concrete behavioral changes that she will recommend after a thorough sleep assessment. Data will also be tracked and utilized to measure effective sleeping. Call for an appointment, today!