My name is David Shanley, and I am a therapist specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders for adults and adolescents in Denver.  I have my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) from the University of Denver.  As an anxiety therapist, I use only research-based cognitive-behavioral interventions to help you approach, rather than avoid your anxiety.  This has been proven to be the most effective way to treat anxiety disorders.

Engaging in therapy for anxiety can be a scary process, so it is helpful to know what therapy will be like before you start.  I am a Behaviorist in the Psychology world.  This does not mean that I ignore thoughts and emotions, but rather I focus on the use of evidence-based, behavioral interventions to effectively treat anxiety and other mental health issues.

I practice from an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT (pronounced like the action, to act) theoretical perspective.  ACT is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy that incorporates the use of strategies such as Exposure with Response Prevention, Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Committed Action to help clients learn to tolerate, sit with, and most importantly, APPROACH rather than AVOID, those thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations, behaviors, and situations that are unpleasant.

This is done in service of living a more flexible, meaningful life. This may seem scary at first, but the MORE you approach the things that make you anxious, the EASIER it gets.