Managing Stress Around Election Day
It’s that time. Regardless of your personal beliefs and who you vote for, this time of year can be really stressful. I see the impacts of the upcoming election on individuals, families, and couples who come into my office, especially as election day gets closer.
Navigating Life Transitions: Allowing for Change and Thriving
Some of the most profound transitions people experience involve shifting their sense of identity, perhaps in regards to life expectations, faith, sexuality, or gender. These transitions can bring both deep fulfillment and intense emotional challenges. Allison Meakin, MSW Intern shares five tips to help you navigate life transitions.
Meditation 101: How to meditate
You’ve probably considered meditation to help with the overwhelm but may wonder how to meditate. Use this article as your meditation 101, or beginners guide to meditation.
Meditation and Mindfulness: Benefits and Methods
Meditation, or mindfulness, has vast benefits for mental health. Read this post to find the benefits of meditation and mindfulness plus tips on how to meditate.
Healing From Betrayal and Developing Healthy Intimacy
Humans need relationships. From infancy, we learn to depend on others for our wellbeing. As we grow we become more independent, however even as adults we need relationships to create a strong sense of self and a secure base we can fall back on when bad things happen. According to Dr. Freyd, “Betrayal trauma occurs when the people or institutions on which a person depends for survival significantly violate that person’s trust or well-being” (2008).
Navigating Alcohol Abuse in Your Partner
When a partner struggles with alcohol abuse, the emotional toll on the relationship can be overwhelming. As a marriage and family therapist, I understand the complexities and challenges that come with this issue. It’s important to approach the situation with empathy, compassion, and practical tools to foster healing and connection.
Child Social Skills Post-Pandemic
As a child therapist, I work with children of all ages who have a range of support needs. One area that almost all of my clients benefit from is social skills development. Social skills are crucial and can be learned through various channels: direct teaching from parents, guidance from teachers, therapeutic interventions, and everyday social interactions or play.
What Parents Need to Know When Taking Your Child to Play Therapy
Deciding to take yourself to therapy can be a vulnerable and scary step for anyone and is filled with lots of unknowns. Bringing your child to therapy can feel just as vulnerable and scary for both you and your child. Here are some things you can expect when you decide to bring your child to therapy for the first time.
Shhhhh! I'm Trying To Be Mindful!
Mindfulness is all the rage right now. The problem is trying to find the time to be mindful! This easy mindfulness exercise only takes five minutes or less!
How to Handle Being Rejected
Being rejected is never fun, but there is a healthy way to handle rejection. If you’ve ever wondered how to move past rejection or how to handle being rejected, this post is for you.
Technology Has Changed You!!!
According to a recent study conducted by the market research group Nielsen, American adults average 11 hours per day reading, listening, surfing, posting, or interacting with media. Find solutions and ideas for counteracting the negative effects of excessive social media us on families.
Tips & Ideas to Help Your Child Navigate Difficult Times
Stressful times can be challenging to navigate, and children do not always have the words to express their feelings. Children are perceptive, and they feel the effects of change. Here are some ways to help your child navigate difficult times.
The Power of EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (or EMDR) therapy is a structured approach to psychotherapy that aims to alleviate distress associated with traumatic memories. It was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s and has since gained widespread recognition as an evidence-based treatment for trauma-related conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and more.
I Just Want to Fix It: How to Help your Stressed Out Partner
Every person experiences hardships and stress from various sources, such as friendships, employment, health issues, or parenting. These stressors can create feelings of anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, confusion, and helplessness, and create physical health issues including breathing issues, inability to sleep, muscle tension, headaches, and so on. When people are struggling, it is perfectly natural to turn to our significant other to find relief and support. However, there are times when reaching out leads to pain or annoyance.
Embracing Radical Acceptance: A Path to Inner Peace
Radical acceptance is both a concept and skill that involves acknowledging and embracing reality as it is, even when the reality is difficult or painful. Radical acceptance is a concept utilized in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) as a distress tolerance skill. Understanding and implementing this skill does not mean that we approve of the blunt reality - we may hate it! What it means is that we are willing to lean in to the blunt reality in order to allow ourselves to more quickly and resiliently move on to focus our internal and external resources towards more values-consistent behaviors.
A Therapist’s Top Three Recommended Resources
If you happen to be on a journey of personal growth and self-empowerment, here are three titles I highly recommend to help you along the way.
How to “Ground” Your Child
While you won’t be getting any discipline tips, the mindfulness and grounding techniques for kids presented here pose many benefits for you and your child, including allowing your child to be more present especially when becoming behaviorally or emotionally dysregulated.
Turn to Face the Change: How Therapy Helps People Make Positive Change Daily
One of the most important factors of making change with therapy is the therapeutic relationship. The therapeutic relationship is the trust you have with your therapist. It is what makes you feel comfortable with him/her as you come frequently without judgment of what you have going on.
Emotionally Focused Therapy: A Compassionate Approach to Reducing Shame
Shame is a complex and powerful emotion that can have a profound impact on our lives. From the perspective of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), shame is often intricately connected to our sense of self and our relationships with others. In this blog post, our focus will be on understanding how shame arises when we perceive ourselves as different from those in our environment, and how embracing the principles of EFT can help individuals reduce shame and foster a sense of connection.
How to Help a Loved One Grieve
Losing a loved one is difficult, painful, and lonely. Watching someone you love grieve is also a difficult place to be in. This is for you if you’re trying to help your spouse through grief or a loved one who is grieving. Here are a few tips to remember when helping your grieving loved one.