Live Better. Love Better. Work Better.

Psychologist Chicago

Categories

Is Compassion the Antidote to Anxiety?

October 14, 2019

Anxiety, the most common mental health struggle in the U.S, can be debilitating and influence all areas of the individual’s life. It can manifest both mentally and physically making individuals feel unsafe and uneasy. Anxiety affects over 25% of children ages 13-18 and over 40 million adults. The increase of technology has also increased mental health struggles throughout the U.S. As stated by James R. Doty, M.D., “chronic engagement of our sympathetic nervous system, depressing our immune…

Read More

How to Communicate with Parents/Families of a Different Culture

October 12, 2019

Marriage has been around for a very long time, but now interracial marriages are becoming more common than before. People are more open with expanding their horizons and meeting people of different cultures and also starting families with them. In marriage, often times, not only is one person marrying another, the concept of families connecting is also becoming truer. But how do you learn how to communicate with parents and even families of a different culture than…

Read More

What NOT To Do With Someone Struggling with Their Mental Health

October 10, 2019

Have you ever had a friend or family member open up to you about their mental health? Did you find yourself unsure of what to say or how to respond to them due to your lack of experience or knowledge of mental health? While mental health awareness continues to grow and stigmas continue to be challenged, many people do not know what to say or do when they are faced head-on with someone they care for experiencing…

Read More

Adverse Childhood Experiences: How They Impact You Today

October 7, 2019

Hannah Hopper We know that what happens to us as children matters. We still feel hurt by experiences we had growing up, and have trouble escaping the mistakes our parents made, whether it’s through repeating the same patterns we saw or because we can’t seem to get away from troubling memories. But is it possible that our negative early life experiences could also have an impact on our health and physical wellbeing today? Adverse Childhood Experiences, or…

Read More

Recognizing Signs of Loneliness

September 25, 2019

Cigna recently conducted research on loneliness and its impact on our health. Despite the ease with which we tend to joke about being lonely, it can wreak havoc on our physical and emotional health. The Cigna U.S. Loneliness Index, which surveyed over 20,000 American adults, found that around 50% of Americans feel lonely sometimes, around 25% of Americans rarely or never feel as if they have someone who understands them, and the youngest adults now (Generation Z)…

Read More

The Mental Health Benefits of Owning a Pet: The Pet Effect

September 23, 2019

Danielle Bertini, LPC It is no secret that living in today’s world it can be easy to get caught up in the high-demand, fast-paced environment. Smartphones, social media, Internet, and constant text messages can quickly become overwhelming. Aside from some of the more “traditional” ways to fight daily stressors, such as yoga, meditation, exercise, etc., there is another way to be able to find help right at home, in the form of a wet nose or a…

Read More

6 Ways to Find Fulfillment at Work

September 17, 2019

I work with many clients who are incredibly depressed related to not feeling fulfilled or happy at their job. My job as their clinical therapist is to help the client understand possible reasons why they are not feeling fulfilled at their job and then possible coping strategies to find some fulfillment at work. While I hope for people to be genuinely happy, I encourage clients to take a more flexible stance to find fulfillment instead of being…

Read More

Disconnecting from Others, Especially through Technology

September 12, 2019

With the world we live in today, we have a hard time disconnecting from all that is around us. We try to do “no technology days” or “no technology hours”, but everything is now on our phones. I feel like people do not own televisions or computers anymore because we can do everything that we used to do on a simple device that we can put in our pocket. Did you ever think we would get to…

Read More

Coping with Your Own Anger

September 11, 2019

Anger is an emotion that we all have, but do we cope with it properly? We might see a partner or a friend or even a stranger act out in a way that we identify as anger, and we tend to say, “wow they are one angry person”. But what is the best way to actually cope with anger that is healthy and does not make us angrier or not feel better at the end of the…

Read More

How Metaphors Set Traps, and How To Get Out

September 7, 2019

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 have a few things in common. One is that they’ve likely been said by many people, especially those of us suffering with immense pain in our lives. Each statement may look or feel slightly different, but they share this…

Read More