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By Eric Dean JD MBA MA MA LPC CADC In the first blog post of this series, I focused on topics such as: relative vs. absolute wealth, spending money on experiences vs. products, income vs. net worth, and financial insecurity during COVID. This blog post will focus on one prominent emotional driver of spending: fear. Fear is a powerful and universal human emotion that relates to worry, stress, anticipatory anxiety, catastrophizing, and negativity bias. According to Amy…
Read MoreAshlee Stumpf, LPC Sobriety is hard in the best of times; add a global pandemic in the mix and it can almost seem as if the world is wanting you to relapse. However, for many with substance use history, COVID-19 is not the most difficult time of their lives. They have and/or continue to battle against a more personal foe. And many people have adapted before to achieve a healthier, sober lifestyle, here are five ways to…
Read MoreAshlee Stumpf, LPC Being a mental health worker and movie lover can be difficult. Mostly because Hollywood is typically more preoccupied with telling a story than accurately portraying how addiction can impact those addicted and their relationships. Many times, the person with the substance use problem is solely defined by their substance use. Ignoring the complexities, experiences, etc. which makes up a person. Therefore, when I view a film which accurately shows people dealing with addiction, I…
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If you read my last blog post titled, “What is traumatic grief and how can I cope with it?” referencing the article from Funeral Basics titled, “7 Tips for coping with traumatic grief” highlighting Dr. Wolfelt’s grief counseling techniques, you may be wondering what the additional 5 coping mechanisms are. Below highlights Dr. Wolfelt’s remaining coping mechanisms. Don’t run or be scared of your feelings. It is encouraged to take a mindfulness stance when experiencing your…
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I work with many clients who have experienced grief in their life. Whether it is a loss of a family member, loss of an event in their life, loss of a relationship, or maybe a loss of someone they cared about who unfortunately passed away in a traumatic way. My job as my clients’ clinician is to help identify terms for them, such as traumatic loss, with the hopes that identifying terms, the client and I can…
Read MoreAshlee Stumpf, LPC It’s unlikely you will go to a doctor’s office and come out with a prescription of J.R.R. Tolkien, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t help. Storytelling is an art form as old as time. We grow up on stories to learn morals, culture, history, and the human experience. Sometimes they may take place in a fantastical world or have characters living lives extraordinarily different to our own, however that doesn’t mean we can gain…
Read MoreBridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC Here we are still talking about that negative thought loop and thinking errors that we refer to as cognitive distortions. Remember my last blog post that included examples of ten common cognitive distortions? I left off discussing magnifying or minimizing, and here’s part two and the continued list of cognitive distortions. Mental filter With a mental filter, negative events are focused on and positive events are disregarded or filtered out. We have…
Read MoreBridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC Next time you are experiencing negative thinking, take a moment to check your thoughts, notice, and make some observations. More often than not, you will find that your brain is full of negativity. There is a huge correlation between what we think and feel, and when are struggling or feeling unhappy, our thoughts can be rather dramatic or absolute – such as “I can’t do anything right” or “no one likes me.”…
Read MoreBy Eve Brownstone, LCPC These images came to me in meditation. I call them Guardians at the Gate. In meditation, these strong bird-like figures were perched on the gate of a medieval castle. I saw them protecting me and humanity from the Invaders at the Gate: Coronavirus. Invaders at the Gate I spent time painting first the Guardians at the Gate and the Invaders at the Gate. Then I dialogued with these images. I asked what…
Read MoreMary-Lauren O’Crowley, MA, NCC Despite what is often depicted in TV shows and movies, therapy involves much more than just laying on a couch and talking about your feelings. Widespread stigmatization of counseling can lead to misconceptions about what exactly therapy is and how it can be helpful. The fact of the matter is, therapy can be an incredibly powerful tool in helping to work through past trauma, better regulate and manage emotions, navigate grief and transition,…
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