Anxiously Awaiting Your Criticism…

Anxiously Awaiting Your Criticism…

Dominique Apollon, M.Ed, LCPC, NCC

Dominque Apollon LCPC, NCC

Member Since 2018

Dominique Apollon, M.Ed, LCPC, NCC is a clinical mental health therapist working at NVision You, a Chicago-based private practice in the Loop. Dominique is a member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and serves on their public education committee. Dominique also serves on the steering committee of the Social Isolation and Pets Consortium, initiated and supported by the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) and Mars Petcare.

Dominique applies evidence-based treatments, including mindfulness-based techniques, for clients who experience anxiety, depression, OCD, and other stress-related disorders. She strives to help her clients discover what it means to live intuitively, embrace their vulnerabilities and learn to challenge and face uncertainty with more confidence.

Dominique and ADAA

"I became involved with ADAA in 2018 and have been an active member of the Public Education Committee since. I chose to become a member of ADAA because of how resourceful and current they are with mental health topics.

I enjoy being a part of an organization that is constantly striving to be the best mental health resource worldwide. ADAA is genuine and thoughtful in its approach to provide helpful tips, resources and evidence-based research. I have personally enjoyed being able to write blogs and assist in hosting and presenting webinars as an effort to educate others.  

Being a member of ADAA benefits my work because I am constantly able to access helpful information to help me learn and grow as a mental health professional. I am grateful to be able to share ADAA as a resource to clients, friends and family and feel proud to say I am a member and advocate. 

I am thrilled to share that my most recent accomplishment allows me to give back to the mental health community! I started Shrink Designs, which is a newly launched Chicago-based company that works with therapists, psychologists and all healthcare workers on all things design. Shrink Designs' mission is to assist in cultivating a space to help with work/life balance for healthcare professionals while giving back a percentage of their proceeds to different mental health organizations worldwide. 

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Dominique Apollon, M.ED

Criticism has never been easy and people are finding that it’s getting harder to tolerate. From a young age, you quickly learn what is “trending” or “cool” and the pressure to buy into these social expectations becomes increasingly arduous for an individual to keep up with. The continuous pressure to perform at our best makes us more concerned that our chances of failing are more likely. Not living up to the expectations of our family members, friends, co-workers, bosses and most importantly, ourselves, throws  us into this cycle of re-occurring doubt, shame and embarrassment, which in the end, may develop into social phobia, or otherwise known as social anxiety.

Social Anxiety is an intense fear of being criticized, viewed in a negative manner or possibly being ridiculed or rejected. Due to the intensity of these overwhelming feelings, we find ourselves being hyperaware of our behaviors in social situations. We become overly focused on our actions in order to reduce any potential embarrassment or we just avoid social situations all together. This goes beyond shyness and has little to do with actually being in social situations, it is being afraid of how people will perceive you. People with social anxiety, crave the interactions with others but their fear gets in the way of these interpersonal experiences. What if I say something stupid? What if I forget what I am saying mid-sentence, or freeze up while talking? What if they can see that I am shaking and know that I am nervous? Realistically, people probably are not paying enough attention to notice that you are sweating or that your hands are shaking. A lot of the times our symptoms are actually beyond the human eye. It’s our increased heart rate or the butterflies in our stomach, all of which, you feel but no one sees.

So then, what do you do to feel better? How do you overcome social anxiety? Avoid all social situations right? WRONG. The key is actually to expose ourselves to the fears head on and train our brain to view these situations as less threatening. These 3 steps can help you move past your social anxiety:

Step 1: Engage in anxiety-provoking situation.

Step 2: Tolerate, sit with and talk back to your anxiety.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until anxiety has dissipated.

Once we get to a point where we can fully-embrace our anxiety, we’ll find that we are brave enough to talk back to our anxious thoughts and live the life we were meant to enjoy. 

Read Dominique's blog post at Light On Anxiety here

 

Dominique Apollon, M.Ed, LCPC, NCC

Dominque Apollon LCPC, NCC

Member Since 2018

Dominique Apollon, M.Ed, LCPC, NCC is a clinical mental health therapist working at NVision You, a Chicago-based private practice in the Loop. Dominique is a member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and serves on their public education committee. Dominique also serves on the steering committee of the Social Isolation and Pets Consortium, initiated and supported by the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) and Mars Petcare.

Dominique applies evidence-based treatments, including mindfulness-based techniques, for clients who experience anxiety, depression, OCD, and other stress-related disorders. She strives to help her clients discover what it means to live intuitively, embrace their vulnerabilities and learn to challenge and face uncertainty with more confidence.

Dominique and ADAA

"I became involved with ADAA in 2018 and have been an active member of the Public Education Committee since. I chose to become a member of ADAA because of how resourceful and current they are with mental health topics.

I enjoy being a part of an organization that is constantly striving to be the best mental health resource worldwide. ADAA is genuine and thoughtful in its approach to provide helpful tips, resources and evidence-based research. I have personally enjoyed being able to write blogs and assist in hosting and presenting webinars as an effort to educate others.  

Being a member of ADAA benefits my work because I am constantly able to access helpful information to help me learn and grow as a mental health professional. I am grateful to be able to share ADAA as a resource to clients, friends and family and feel proud to say I am a member and advocate. 

I am thrilled to share that my most recent accomplishment allows me to give back to the mental health community! I started Shrink Designs, which is a newly launched Chicago-based company that works with therapists, psychologists and all healthcare workers on all things design. Shrink Designs' mission is to assist in cultivating a space to help with work/life balance for healthcare professionals while giving back a percentage of their proceeds to different mental health organizations worldwide. 

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