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How to Manage Conflict with Your Parents (or as A Parent)

January 18, 2020
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We all have been in the position as a child and your parents just do not understand you. No matter how open and honest you are trying to be, they just have a hard time understanding who you are and what you want. How do you manage being able to get heard and being able to manage conflict that might arise. Continue reading to gain some tips to better manage conflict with your parents or even as…

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Common Bad Dating Advice

January 17, 2020
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Danielle Bertini, LPC Between family, friends, self-help books, and the media, there is no shortage of dating advice. Although some of the advice given from these different sources can be helpful, much of it is either mistaken or based solely on personal experiences and opinions rather than actual research. Siedman (2018) discusses five common dating advice fallacies. When you meet the right person, you’ll know right away. Many people offer this piece of dating advice as an…

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What’s The Deal With Self-Care?

January 16, 2020
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Today, “self-care” has become somewhat of a trigger word when discussing mental health. If you’re stressed, feeling down, or are having a crappy week people’s go to response tends to revolve around what you should be doing for self-care. While it’s great that more and more people are becoming aware of the necessity of self-care, I wonder if we really understand what self-care means. Is self-care using a facemask? Is self-care going for a run? Is self-care…

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How Attachment Impacts the Grieving Process

January 16, 2020
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Our attachment style is highly influenced by our early childhood and romantic experiences. There are many resources out there that explain attachment, the four core styles of attachment, and how each is displayed in individuals and in romantic partnerships. Interestingly, there is less research and discussion around how attachment influences our relationships with the deceased, and how our attachment to that deceased loved one will influence our grieving process. One thing to note about this is that…

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How Being an Overachiever Can Impact your Happiness

January 15, 2020
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It is not uncommon in today’s world to work extremely hard as still feel unhappy and unsatisfied. It has become the “norm” to work well over 40 hours a week, be consistently accessible via phone or email outside of work hours, and even put in time on the weekends. It’s vital to ask ourselves what is the motivation for working this hard and this much just to feel unfulfilled. In data previously collected by the Conference Board,…

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The Dehumanization Epidemic

January 14, 2020
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Matthew Cuddeback, LCSW There is an issue that we all experience and many of us unfortunately perpetuate. We do this sometimes to cope, sometimes we do it out of necessity and sometimes its done with intent to harm, whatever the case it often starts unintentionally. I am talking about how we can sometimes dehumanize others, to turn them into something less than human, something that feels easier to constructively criticize and sometimes attack. When we do this,…

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What’s Your Narrative?

January 13, 2020
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Matthew Cuddeback, LCSW Often times we experience something, think something, or identify with something and then take it and incorporate it into our story. The most obvious examples of this are when we were young and we heard a certain kind of music and suddenly decided that was a defining aspect of our character, we listened to Nirvana for the first time and went and cut holes in our jeans, stopped washing our hair, and got super…

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You Deserve Your Space

January 12, 2020
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Matthew Cuddeback, LCSW In therapy we often talk about holding space. This can refer to the art of allowing a feeling to just be, without judgement. This can also refer to the space we literally and metaphorically take up in the world and in our own specific lives. Regardless of the specific reason for discussing space in therapy, it is important to understand why it is so important to your mental health. The reason we spend so…

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Is Your Goal Too Big?

January 11, 2020
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Matthew Cuddeback, LCSW When working in the field of mental health, we often utilize SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. The reason we do this (as in many fields) is because we often have a great idea and a great goal and can’t wait to get there. However, it can be incredibly easy to get side-tracked, lose sight, or feel overwhelmed, when we have something big we want to accomplish…

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How to Stop Buying So Much Stuff

January 9, 2020
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If pressed, many of us would admit that we buy too much stuff and end up with a house full of things we don’t really need.  The phrase “retail therapy” points to why this can happen – shopping for things gives us a temporary ping of satisfaction and makes us feel good, like we imagine therapy will or should.  (Of course, we later realize that this is a temporary high, so we go seeking it again and…

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