Dr. Medina's Counseling

                               Anna Medina, PhD

Dr. Medina is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist.  She offers a variety of evidenced based therapies for a number of mental health problems. Evidenced based therapies means that research shows that these therapies are effective and efficent in the treatment of specific mental health problems.  Some of the evidenced based therapies are the following: Cognitive Behavior Therapy for insomnia, anxiety, or depression.   Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for a variety of treatment resistant mental health problems.  Cognitive Processing Therapy for various traumas related to PTSD.  CPAP Desensitization Therapy is offered for clients who struggle with wearing their CPAP machine.  Lastly, Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills groups are offered for Bipolar Disorder clients.   Please feel free to contact me for an appointment.  Clients are welcome to attend either individual or group therapies.

                           Suffering from Insomnia?

Do you have difficulty falling sleep? Do you have difficulty staying asleep?  Do you wake up earlier than intended? If your answer to these questions are all yes, than you maybe suffering from insomnia.  It is normal for some people to have acute insomnia (temporary insomnia that lasts for less than four weeks).  Acute insomnia is typical when a person is going through adjustment issues such as the following: death in the family, recent illness, moving, new baby, job promotion, or job loss.  Chronic insomnia however is when a person suffers from a loss of sleep for a long period of time (more than four weeks). When a person has chronic insomnia they often feel exhausted or fatigued the next day, they have decreased attention and concentration, they feel unmotivated and unproductive, and they feel irritable. Most people with chronic isomnia attempt to compensate for their loss of sleep by drinking energy drinks, drinking a lot of coffee, taking naps, sleeping in late, or going to bed early.  These compensatory strategies perpetuate the insomnia. Many people with chronic insomnia may have other issues that are complicating their insomnia (such as depression, anxiety, PTSD) or a medical condition called sleep apnea may also be contributing to their insomnia. 

                            Is your Insomnia related to

                                    Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a condition in which the person wakes up repeatedly during the night because their airway is being cut off while they sleep. Often times people with sleep apnea stop breathing in their sleep (apnea episode), snore loudly, wake up gasping for air, wake up feeling a choking sensation, and they often feel exhausted the next day.  If you suspect that you have sleep apnea you will need to ask your primary care doctor for a sleep study to assess if you have sleep apnea. If you suffer from sleep apnea you will most likely need to wear a CPAP machine.  Sleep apnea is a serious condition that can lead to further helath problems, a condition called hypoxia (which can lead to death of brain cells), and sleep apnea can even result in death.  There are many people who are required to wear a CPAP machine and they feel anxiety related to wearing their CPAP mask.  CPAP desensitization class will assist you in increasing your CPAP compliance. Compliance with your CPAP machine will help you to get better sleep (and your insomnia will decrease with CPAP compliance).

              Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia 

Research shows that Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is the treatment of choice for people suffering from chronic insomnia.  CBT therapy will target your thoughts and behaviors that are interferring with your sleep and that are perpetuating your insomnia.  The client will get an initial sleep intake (which is required prior to taking the insomnia therapy).  In the sleep intake we will assess the various issues that might be contributing to your insomnia.  Dr. Medina will provide you with community referrals as needed (for other issues that might be contributing to your insomnia).  After the initial intake the client will participate in a small group CBT insomnia therapy class (3-4 people per class) to learn how to improve their sleep efficiency in the bed. The group therapy class will be six sessions.  The fees for these services are $120 per class session and the fee for the initial intake is $120 (fees are due at the beginning of each session).  Clients who do not call to cancel 24 hours in advance will be charged the full session fee.  

 Cognitive Behavior Therapy for CPAP Desensitization

The CPAP desensitization group therapy classes will assist clients to increase their overall compliance with wearing their CPAP mask.  Most people who do not comply with their CPAP mask feel anxious putting the mask on or feel claustrophobic wearing the mask.  Dr. Medina will assist clients with exposure therapy and help them to desensitize to wearing their mask so that they can comply with their CPAP mask and get better sleep.  The CPAP desensitization group therapy  is three sessions and typically this therapy has a class size of 5-7 people.  The fee for this group therapy class is $120 per group session. All fees are due at the beginning of each class session.  Clients who do not call to cancel 24 hours in advance will be charged the full session fee. There is no need of an intake for this class. Clients are welcome to attend at the beginning of session one.

         Other Therapy: CBT-Anxiety, CBT-Depression,

           CPT for PTSD, and DBT for Bipolar Disorder 

There are other symptoms that maybe impacting your ability to sleep.  For example, chronic pain maybe interfering with your ability to initiate sleep or to stay asleep.  Dr. Medina recommends that if a patient has chronic pain the patient should seek CBT for chronic pain prior to seeking CBT-Insomnia.  Dr. Medina can refer you to a local therapist who can provide you with CBT for chronic pain.  A person maybe suffering from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or PTSD and these symptoms may also interfere with the onset of sleep.  Dr. Medina is trained in various evidenced based therapies that treat these above listed symptoms.  One option is CBT-Anxiety (an evidenced based therapy for the treatment of anxiety).  Dr. Medina can work with you to decrease your anxiety which can help you to get symptom relief from anxiety and than you will get better sleep. Another option is CBT-Depression (an evidenced based therapy for the treatment of depression).  If you suffer from PTSD, Dr. Medina can provide you with CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy).  CPT is an evidenced based therapy for PTSD and will help in the recovery of PTSD.  Another therapy option is ACT therapy (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). ACT is a therapy for treatment resistant symptoms. So, if you have done multiple therapies for a long time and still suffer from chronic (depression, anxiety, or PTSD) than ACT might be the treatment for you. Lastly, Dr. Medina offers DBT group therapy (DBT stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy) for bipolar clients who suffer from bipolar disorder.  The DBT group is a skills group that teaches various skills to the client suffering from bipolar disorder, such as:  emotion dysregulation skills, distress tolerance skills, and interpersonal effectiveness skills. If you are interested in either ACT Therapy, CBT-Anxiety Therapy,  CBT-Depression Therapy,  CBT-Insomnia Therapy, DBT Therapy, or CPT Therapy for PTSD than please call Dr. Medina for additional information.

                            Dr. Medina's Counseling

3350 Shelby Street, Suite 200

Ontario, California 91764

(909) 437-9966

                            Prices for Therapy