Therapy Chicago

Let’s face it – no matter how helpful our coping skills, self-care, supports, and therapists can be, we are all be bound to have an emotionally or mentally overwhelming week (or month(s)!). We are human beings and life stressors, triggers, and transitions can all interfere with our balanced day-to-functioning. Sometimes, there is simply no avoiding or suppressing an emotional or mental breakdown. These breakdowns can look very different from person to person. For one, a breakdown may…

I work with many clients who see me before they start work, during their lunch break, or directly after work. Many times, clients like to come directly after work or during their lunch break, due to not wanting to ping pong from work to home, and then back to therapy. Some clients discuss one of their stressors is due to their long work commutes; I have heard some people have up to a two-hour commute from work…

In part I of this blog series, I outlined first steps you can take to reduce the amount of time you spend on your smartphone and its harmful effects on your health. To boost your physical, mental, and emotional health, you can start by using your “do not disturb” functions liberally, especially while you’re driving and while you’re sleeping at night; silencing audio and vibration notifications; putting your phone away while you’re eating meals with family and…

By now, we all know that it’s better for our health and our relationships to limit the amount of time we spend glued to our smartphones. By being attuned to our screens instead of the world surrounding us, we’re missing out on connections with our loved ones and peaceful moments. I can’t count the number of times a client has made a disparaging remark about their relationship with their cell phone, noted the difficulty in staying focused…

Moya Sarner from The Guardian unpacked envy in the digital age; summarized below are her findings. Envy is a universal emotion, ubiquitous enough to be one of the seven deadly sins. Humans have always struggled with envy (defined as feeling a resentful longing for someone else’s possessions/attributes/etc.), but the ways in which envy is stirred and expressed have evolved with technological advances. Thanks to the Internet, we are now connected to the rest of the world by…

It’s 7pm on a weeknight. You’ve just gotten home from a long day at work and are absolutely exhausted. Unfortunately, you have a meeting in the morning you need to prepare for. Before starting to prepare you think to yourself “I should take my dog out for a walk”. When you get home from your walk you make dinner for your kids then start to get them ready for bed. While you’ve been productive with these tasks,…

Steven Topper, LCPC Most of us would agree that the world would be a far lovelier place with a little more compassion. And while many of us work to extend compassion toward our pets, families, and friends, so many struggle with self-compassion. In the Podcast “Psychologists Off The Clock,” Dr. Christopher Germer discussed the role of self-compassion and how to increase daily self-compassion. He asserts that self-compassion is a practice in moving toward acceptance, and that, “You…

I work with many clients who struggle with being a people pleaser. My job as their clinical therapist is to help the client understand possible reasons why they struggle with the need of wanting to please other people and then possible coping strategies on how to start saying “no” to others. I recently read an article from Fast Company that touched on this very topic, “How to stop your people-pleasing behavior from limiting your success” by author…