Blog Archives
Mary-Lauren O’Crowley, NCC, LPC The inner critic is an opinion or inner voice, that has a negative and critical pattern of thoughts about ourselves and others. Inner critics are the distressing and disturbing thoughts or voices that lead to self-destructive and maladaptive behavior. Inner critics are like dialogues in head that only criticizes and notices faults of own self and others. The gushing of self-damaging thoughts makes an anti-self that demoralizes and disheartens the individual from giving…
Amanda Ann Gregory, LCPC, EMDR Certified Relationship closure is the experience of acceptance and resolution once a relationship has ended. Closure is an important experience, but it can be difficult to achieve if one or both partners are unable to participate in interactions that promote closure. There are many factors that determine whether former partners are able to achieve closure together. Here are a few components that need to be present: Safety. Both partners feel…
Amanda Ann Gregory, LCPC, EMDR Certified Meditation is one of the most popular methods to improve emotional health. Yet, what if you don’t you have the time to meditate? In that case, you need meditations that are fast and simple: meditations that can be done anywhere – not just at home or in a quiet place – but on the train, at work, or waiting in a line at a store. Here are a few fast and…
Abby Hauer, MC, LAC Self-Compassion and Mindfulness, Part II: How Do I Put It in Practice? More on Mindfulness Mindfulness does not have to be five minutes of silence or a guided meditation. Mindfulness can be incorporated into your life anyway that you see fit! The most important part of being mindful is bringing your awareness to what’s happening in the moment. Not thinking about what you could be doing in five minutes or what you did…
Steven Topper, LCPC My depression is too bad to leave the house. This anxiety is crippling me. Every time you do that I get overcome with anger and lash out. I can’t handle this. Each of these statements has something in common. They’ve likely been said, in some form, by many people, especially those carrying real pain in their lives. And each one shares a particular quality in how we talk about our experiences: metaphor. This is…
By: Andrea Gargano, LCPC, Symmetry Counseling Chicago
Trauma is an event that causes psychological injury or pain. What is traumatic for one person may not be traumatic for another. Trauma is not always necessarily the effects of being in a combat zone, surviving a car accident, or suffering from physical abuse. While it can be those things, trauma shows up in a variety of ways. So it is best not to assume that something is traumatic but instead to look at the effects that the trauma has on the person; namely on their brain and nervous system.
Written by: Meghan Emerson, LMFT
Being engaged to be married is an exciting time in an intimate relationship. Ready to move forward and actively commit to a life together, partners are soon swept into the wide world of wedding planning. One of the first and highly important decisions a recently engaged couple needs to make is setting a financial budget.
By Andrew McNaughton, LCSW, CADC
Symmetry Counseling Chicago
The stigma of mental health treatment continues to dwindle, but there are still commonly held misunderstandings. To wit, therapy is not:
Many people use multiple social media platforms on a daily basis, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. People turn to social media to learn about world and national news, learn about big life transitions for their social networks (such as engagements and having children), as well as to share information about what is going on their own lives. Got a promotion at work or a new job? Make a Facebook status. Your partner proposed to you?Take a…
Written by: Colleen Lennon, LCSW
Would you call what you do a job or a career? Do you wake up dreading going into work or do you look forward to each day? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a job is defined as “a piece of work; something that has to be done,” while a career is defined as “a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling; a field for pursuit of consecutive progressive achievement especially in public, professional, or business life.”