mental health
Eric Dean JD, MBA, MA, MA, LPC, CADC Stress is universal: everyone at some point in their lives will experience it. Stress can stem from work, relationships, anxiety or pretty much anything. In fact, stress can happen without a direct cause, or stimulus. Stress, understandably, has a negative connotation. However, it is not always a bad thing to be stressed in certain situations. A moderate amount of stress is beneficial to athletic and academic performance, for example.…
Danielle Bertini, LPC It can be hard expressing needs directly to someone, especially when our wishes aren’t aligned with the other person’s. Asking for what we need is the principle behind assertiveness (Gillihan, 2018). Being assertive often gets confused with being aggressive, as if being assertive means demanding that others give you what you want. However, according to Alberti and Emmons, being assertive actually falls between being passive or being aggressive. It’s a fine line to walk,…
Megan Mulroy, LPC Single people are often stereotyped and stigmatized as miserable and lonely, when that could not be farther from the truth. Recent studies have found that married people become no happier after their nuptials than they were when they were single (DePaulo, 2019). Furthermore, research shows that if a couple divorces, they become less happy than when they were single (DePaulo, 2019). Although recent research found that singles are doing increasingly well amidst the stereotype,…
I work with many clients who are stressed and overwhelmed related to their jobs. My job as their clinical therapist is to better understand why the client is anxious at their job and then possible coping strategies to better manage their anxiety at work. One thing I often recommend to clients is utilizing a holistic approach in managing their anxiety, specifically using nature as a way to help reduce their anxiety. I recently read an article from…
Kyle Lawell, Licensed Professional Counselor It’s common for us to grow up being told to “look on the bright side” or “focus on the positives,” but this mentality may not be as useful as we always want it to. Susan David, instructor in psychology at Harvard University, suggests in her TED Talk on saying yes to negative emotions that the act of avoiding or suppressing our negative emotions actually impacts our ability to effectively interact and deal with…
Bridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC Interested in improving upon your life? According to NewsWire, 82% of adults within America plan to make changes to their personal well-being, so hopefully your answer to this question is yes. If your answer to your question is no, take five minutes to hear me out in regards to how The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz can make a significant positive difference within your life. With these agreements, you can rely…
I work with many clients who are excited about starting the next phase of their life by having children and becoming new parents. Many come to me both excited and nervous about what that could look like. Many clients who already have anxiety and/or depression voice to me that they are anxious about having postpartum depression due to suffering from depression in the past. As their clinical therapist, my job is not only to validate their concerns,…
Matthew Cuddeback, LCSW A common cause of anxiety for many of us is when we are juggling too many things at a time. We are thinking about all the things we have to do and it weighs us down. This act of trying to keep all the many disparate pieces of our thoughts, feelings, and things we need to do often leads to mental disorganization causes us to lose sight of what is most important and can…
Eric Dean Having worked with many clients who are struggling with addiction and decide to enter treatment, I have seen numerous examples of remarkable courage, strength, and resilience. When I talk with others about how they define resilience, I often hear a similar response: “the ability to bounce back.” This is partially correct. Absolutely, resilience is the ability to bounce back from adverse situations and experiences. But resilience has another component in addition to the ability to…
Shannon M. Duffy, MFT, LCPC Making the decision to enter therapy is tough enough and we intend to have an overall positive and impactful experience. However, when we get to a place where we feel it is not working for us that can cause more distress and bring on doubt about feeling optimistic towards getting better. Feeling frustrated within therapy can be helpful to assess what is not working and what is working but not at the…