Posts in Adult Therapy
How are you coping? A Mental Wellness Check-in

Raise your hand if you are feeling frayed. Fatigued. Restless. Edgy. Gloomy. As we continue along the path of living our lives mostly at home, the signs of wear are showing up in therapy. In addition to the “usual” anxious and depressed experiences, we are hearing words like “unsettled,” “lazy,” “unmotivated” and “disconnected.” Even the folks who were initially quite comfortable with the separateness and social shelter of stay-home orders are starting to feel the impact.

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Boundaries Build A Better You

As Robert Frost writes in his poem Mending Wall, “Good fences make good neighbors.” It’s a metaphor for relationships (all kinds) that I can definitely get behind. Boundaries are our metaphorical fences, and they come in several shapes and sizes.

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How to Terminate Therapy

Terminate?! Most things in the therapy world are warm, accepting, and gentle. So why is the word ‘terminate’ thrown out there? For some it sounds kind of harsh. Termination is a fancy word for ending the therapeutic relationship. Termination can also refer to a break in counseling for a period of time as well.

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Insights from The Power of Meaning By Emily Esfahani Smith

Clients sometimes come into counseling seeking purpose and direction. More often than that, they come in suffering from depression and/or poor self-image, and may discover that the root of these issues is that they don’t have a strong sense of purpose or direction in their lives.

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The Month of Love

February is American Heart Month, and as it is important to learn about and take care of your physical health, we also need to make sure we are taking care of our mental health. This blog features Heart Month from a mental health clinicians viewpoint:

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Growth and Discomfort in Therapy

After approximately  two years of personal therapy with my counselor,  I had a session dedicated to what we would call my internal “friction.” You may know this feeling as internal conflict, turmoil or just plain anxiety.   I reached a point in my growth where I was able to withstand quite a bit of internal friction or conflict.

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Creating a Healthier You

We often begin the New Year trying to accomplish resolutions that are impossible to reach. We may want to make a lifestyle change – but our thought process around making lifestyle changes is often flawed. We get frustrated with how challenging the change can be, cheat a time or two, don’t see results fast enough and drop the resolution all together.

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Assertive Communication

When we practice assertive communication, we are implementing our boundaries.  With this practice, we state what we need and want in a clear and concise way.  It is important for us to take responsibility for our emotions and express them.  

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Top 10 Reads of 2019

If you know me as a therapist, you know how much I value bibliotherapy. While weekly or bi-weekly therapy sessions are a valuable gift to yourself and offer the potential for positive transformation, reading books that focus on your specific concern ups the ante, big time.

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Therapy is Not Just For Women

Recently a couple of my male clients have expressed how difficult it was to start counseling – and that it was something encouraged by their girlfriend, wife, or female friends. So, I decided to do some research:

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39 Journal Prompts to Practice Gratitude, Mindfulness, and Positive Thinking this Holiday Season

It happens every year.  One day I am holding on to the very last piece of summer and the next I am tripping over the unavoidable holiday decorations in Target wondering if I am already late on buying Christmas presents. 

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Sleep

Where does this one fall on your priority list?  We can likely all agree that we are much more efficient, tolerant, and happy when we have had sufficient rest, but “a good night’s sleep” remains a subjective idea.  How much sleep is enough?  What are the risks?  You feel okay, so why make any changes to your sleep schedule? 

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