What Causes Anxiety?

As we are at home more often lately and working from home, I have noticed my anxiety increase along with some of my clients. I struggle with anxiety and not being able to see friends and have to plan outings such as grocery shopping has increased my anxiety. So what is triggering your anxiety lately? …

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The Power of Pets

By: Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC “In an age of research when it is tempting to reduce emotions to biochemical reactions and to rely heavily on the technology of medicine, it is refreshing to find that a person’s health and well-being may be improved by prescribing contact with other living things.” — Michael J. McCulloch, MD,…

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The Anatomy of Gratitude

By: Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC “Today is a wonderful day…I haven’t seen this one before” – Maya Angelou  Recently, I listened to an insightful podcast titled “The Anatomy of Gratitude” with David Steindl-Rast, a ninety-three-year-old Benedictine monk and teacher on the subject of gratitude. He makes useful distinctions about experiences that are “life-giving” and…

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Recognizing Your Triggers Part III

By Eric Dean JD, MBA, MA, MA, LPC, CADC This is the third and final installment of this blog series on recognizing your triggers for substance use and/or emotions such as anger. In this post, I will present some more common internal triggers and ways to cope with them. This post’s acronym is FINE. FINE…

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The SWOT Analysis

By Eric Dean JD MBA MA MA LPC CADC To create plans for how we are going to achieve our goals, we need to know our starting point. SWOT Analysis, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is a tool used by organizations and people to evaluate their current positions. SWOT analysis can help…

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Mental and Physical Health Benefits of Dogs (And Other Pets)

As of about three weeks ago I officially joined the group of individuals who adopted a puppy during quarantine. For some time, I’ve been playing with the idea of whether getting a puppy was a good or bad idea based on my lifestyle. Switching to working from home gave me the final push to take…

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Simple Stress Guide, Part 2

If you read my last blog post titled, Simple Stress Guide Part 1, referencing The New York Times article, “How to Be Better at Stress” by author Tara Parker-Pope, you may be wondering about the additional tips about how to better manage stress.  Below are the remaining key points from Tara’s article touching about tips…

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Simple Stress Guide, Part 1

I work with many clients who are under a great deal amount of stress which leads them to either feel anxious and/or depressed. My job as their clinical therapist is to better understand why the client is stressed and then to provide coping strategies to better manage their stress. I recently read an article from…

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How to Find Joy When Life Gets Tough

It is no secret that life is a little strange right now. The world as we know it has been turned upside down and people are running into hardships they may not have encountered otherwise. In an uncertain environment, how do we find joy in our daily lives? It’s helpful to understand what the definition…

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Identifying Your Communication Style

Hannah Hopper, LPC   One topic that continues to come up in many of my sessions is communication styles. We are constantly communicating with those around us, and our communication style can either serve as a bridge or be a barrier to creating connections. Going to therapy is an incredibly effective tool for working on…

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