Spanish Speaking Therapist
Dr. Madeline Long's Specialization Areas

Dr. Long's San Diego practice specializes in providing therapy in the following areas in both English and Spanish for children, adolescents and adults on an individual or family basis:

Depression | Anxiety | Anger Management | Grief/Loss | Stress Management | Assertiveness | Parenting

Depression

Depression is one of the main reasons people seek therapy. Some statistics indicate that nearly 15% of Americans will have an episode of clinical depression. Children, adolescents and adults of all ethnicities can experience depression at one time in their lives.

Common symptoms of depression include:

• Emotional symptoms (sadness, loneliness, hopelessness, worthlessness)
• Physical symptoms (low energy, fatigue, changes in sleep pattern, changes in appetite)
• Behavioral symptoms (inactivity, withdrawal, reduced socialization, self injury)
• Cognitive symptoms (confusion, short-term/long-term memory, attention/concentration)

Cognitive therapy is an excellent form of treating depression. Therapy can help people identify and change dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving. Furthermore, therapy can assist individuals in learning how to effectively cope with their depression in order to feel peace and joy in their lives.

Anxiety

Everyone experiences some anxiety given the many stressors we are confronted with in our personal and professional lives. When anxiety becomes excessive and overwhelming, it can become debilitating.

Common symptoms of anxiety include:

• Emotional symptoms (terrified, worried, nervous, scared)
• Physical symptoms (dizziness, racing heart, tense muscles, indigestion, sweating)
• Behavioral symptoms (avoidance, escape, perfectionism, trying to control everything)
• Cognitive symptoms (distorted thinking such as catastrophic thinking, poor attention/concentration, memory problems)

Anxiety can be successfully treated in therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help an anxious person learn to challenge their catastrophic thinking and their avoidant behaviors in order to appropriately manage anxiety. Most importantly, CBT can help an anxious person control their anxiety rather than anxiety controlling the person.

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Anger Management

Anger is a common feeling/emotion but one of the most complex and confusing emotions. Anger can mobilize us to deal with problems but anger can also be disruptive and harmful if not dealt with appropriately. Anger management is about learning to appropriately express anger and how to effectively resolve problems and conflicts. Therapy can help a person learn more effective ways of dealing with anger in a healthy, productive manner by making better choices in how a person behaves when feeling angry.

Grief/Loss

Grief is intense emotional suffering caused by a personal loss. Everyone experiences loss at some time in his or her life. A person who is not able to process the meaning of their loss can become debilitated with grief and depression. There is no right way to grieve a loss but therapy can assist a person in appropriately grieving and healing from a personal loss.

Stress Management

In today’s hectic lives, stress is a natural part of life. Life without any stress might be boring and dull but too much stress becomes overwhelming and exhausting. Stress is a physical and psychological response to a demand, a threat or some kind of problem that requires a solution. If stress is not appropriately managed, it can cause emotional problems and health problems. Therapy can help a person learn how to manage stress in constructive ways and learn how to take care of one self emotionally, physically and spiritually.

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Assertiveness

Assertiveness helps promote fairness and equality in social relationships that is based on respect for self and others. It is a genuine and active attempt to find a win-win solution to a problem. Therapy can help assist a person in becoming more assertive, therefore feeling more self confident and empowered.

Parenting

Parenting can be one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences. A parent needs to be a good role model for how to handle negative emotions, conflict and anger. Therapy can help parents learn effective ways of dealing with their children. Areas that are commonly addressed in parenting training might include positive reinforcement, logical consequences, understanding normal child development and having realistic expectations.

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Contacting Dr. Long for Assistance

If you live in the San Diego area or can travel there and are in need of Dr. Long's assistance, contact her San Diego office for more information and an appointment. Contact information, including a map of Dr. Long's San Diego office location, is available on the San Diego area clinical psychology services page.