Educational Blogs from Our Mental Health Therapists

Learn about common challenges, including depression, anxiety, relationships,
trauma, and more, written by Maryland therapists!

Resources, Online Counseling, Depression, Anxiety Melissa Wesner Resources, Online Counseling, Depression, Anxiety Melissa Wesner

🎧 Starting Therapy: Your Podcast Guide to Beginning Counseling

If you’re thinking of starting therapy for the first time, you might know how to get started or what to expect.  At LifeSpring Counseling Services, we understand these concerns and have created the Starting Therapy podcast series to provide clarity and support. While we have lots of content on our website, we also wanted to make our content available in audio form.  Here’s a summary of this private, mini podcast series and the content you can expect to find.

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How to Find a Baltimore Therapist the Modern Way: Tips for Finding a Therapist That’s a Good Fit Without the Overwhelm

Looking for a therapist in Baltimore or anywhere in Maryland? If you’ve never searched for a therapist before, you might not be sure where to begin. In fact, the process can sometimes feel overwhelming, especially if this is your first time seeking therapy services. Whether you’re searching for someone who “gets it,” hoping to work with a therapist who shares your background, or just trying to figure out where to start, there are more resources than ever to help you find the right fit.

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How Busy Adults in Maryland Make Time for Therapy

For many adults in Maryland, the idea of starting therapy sounds great in theory, but the reality of carving out time for sessions feels overwhelming. Between work responsibilities, parenting, caregiving, and simply keeping up with life, therapy often lands at the bottom of the to-do list.

At LifeSpring Counseling Services, we work with a lot of busy professionals, parents, college students, and caregivers. Have you ever caught yourself saying, “I know I need support, but I don’t know when I’d even fit therapy in.” If this sounds familiar, you’re in good company. Here’s the good news! People are making therapy work, often in creative, flexible ways that fit into their real lives.

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Therapy for Men in Maryland: 5 Signs It’s Time to Talk to Someone

You might be holding it all together at work, at home, with friends, but still feel like something’s off. For many adult men in Maryland, stress, burnout, and emotional struggle go unspoken. Whether you’re in Towson, Silver Spring, or Baltimore, therapy offers a confidential space to release some of the pressure and reconnect with yourself.

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Resources, Online Counseling, Depression, Anxiety Melissa Wesner Resources, Online Counseling, Depression, Anxiety Melissa Wesner

Feeling Overwhelmed? 5 Signs It’s Time to See a Therapist (Especially for Busy Adults in Maryland)

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m just stressed. It’ll pass,” you’re not the only one! But sometimes, what we call “stress” is actually chronic overwhelm, and left unaddressed, it can take a serious toll on your mental and physical health. For many adults in Maryland, juggling work, family, and life’s curveballs, therapy offers a space to decompress, gain clarity, and reconnect with yourself.

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Online Counseling, Men's Issues, Depression Melissa Wesner Online Counseling, Men's Issues, Depression Melissa Wesner

No, Seriously: What Can Therapy Do For Men?

As therapists, we try to encourage clients that our spaces are places where we can be vulnerable, share stories with one another, and develop a sense of trust between the two of us. But, what happens when you meet a client who has learned that speaking about their problems isn't the right answer? What if a client walks in that has been told to be tough all of their lives? What if this client views themselves as someone independent from others, who can control any emotional state that they are in? What do therapists do with clients whose values conflict with the therapeutic principles at its core?

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Top Reasons Why People Choose Private Pay Therapy in Baltimore

When it comes to therapy, many people conclude that using insurance is the way to go or that all mental health providers accept health insurance. But did you know that many individuals–right here in Baltimore and across Maryland—choose to invest in private pay therapy instead? While insurance can be a helpful tool for accessing mental health care, it also comes with limitations that don’t work for everyone.

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Resources, LGBTQIA, Biases, Trauma and PTSD Melissa Wesner Resources, LGBTQIA, Biases, Trauma and PTSD Melissa Wesner

Remaining Resilient Through Adversity as an LGBTQ+ Individual

With the current anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation from our current administration, LGBTQ+ people are being faced with a slew of issues, such as barriers to obtaining gender-affirming IDs, free speech bans, healthcare restrictions, and the dismantling of Civil Rights Laws. This is why we build resilience: so we can bounce back from these challenges and stand stronger than before. Here are some ways to build up resilience and seek out hope in the face of despair.

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Triple Consciousness: The Intersection of Athletes’ Identities

The concept of “double consciousness” was first introduced by W.E.B Dubois in the early 1900s. It proposes the idea that Black men were (and still are) at war with the idea of being American while also being Black. This question arises of how can you stay true to who you are as a Black individual while doing what is necessary to conform to white culture for the sake of survival?

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Resources, Anxiety Melissa Wesner Resources, Anxiety Melissa Wesner

Ways Therapy Can Help You Manage Your Anxiety

There are a number of different forms that anxiety can take. Maybe it's generalized anxiety, where you just have excessive worry. You're just constantly worrying throughout the day. And then more specific anxiety where it can result in a very specific fear, maybe something happened that has created a fear of driving. And then there's also panic disorder where you break out in a panic attack out of the blue.

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Resources, Anxiety, Children & Teens, Parenting Melissa Wesner Resources, Anxiety, Children & Teens, Parenting Melissa Wesner

How Therapy Can Help Your Child Overcome Phobias and Specific Fears

At LifeSpring, we work with children and adolescents and adults at our office. And one of the things that we are going to be talking about is an issue that Caroline does see come up with children. And that is the issue of specific fears that come up for children and specific fears that bring them into therapy. One of the things that Caroline specializes in at our office is anxiety.

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Resources, Anxiety, Online Counseling, Depression Melissa Wesner Resources, Anxiety, Online Counseling, Depression Melissa Wesner

Demystifying the Therapy Process

We’re talking with Sara Sacada-Lovio, LCPC, who is a mental health therapist at LifeSpring Counseling Services. She'll be talking with us about demystifying the therapy process, which can be a great topic for someone who's been considering therapy or someone who has strong beliefs about therapy, even if you've never tried it. So this will be an opportunity to check some of the information that you already have about therapy.

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Resources, Anxiety, Motivation, College Students Melissa Wesner Resources, Anxiety, Motivation, College Students Melissa Wesner

Overcoming Low Motivation and Procrastination

The biggest myth around if you're struggling with procrastination is that you're just lazy. You're just not trying hard enough. You just need to buckle down and make it happen. It must not be that important to you if you're not getting it done. But this isn't true. Procrastination is an active process. It's the brain telling you, current me is not willing to experience this discomfort right now, so I'm going to pass it off to future me. But the problem is that we usually don't identify with that future version of ourselves. So when that future time comes, we just kind of get stuck in the cycle of passing that obligation off to our future selves, and this actually exacerbates that feeling of discomfort because the thing is still there. It's still moving over you. It's still hanging around. It's just being put off.

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Resources, Anxiety, Depression, Online Counseling Melissa Wesner Resources, Anxiety, Depression, Online Counseling Melissa Wesner

What To Expect When You Call For Therapy

When you call our office, Sarah is the first person that you're going to talk to. If you send us an email, she is the person who's going to answer you. We also want to say that Sarah is someone who gets tons of compliments! We hear a lot of feedback from clients who are just so impressed with how she takes care of them and how she makes them feel comfortable when they call our office.

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College Students, Anxiety, Burnout Melissa Wesner College Students, Anxiety, Burnout Melissa Wesner

Why Mental Health Should be Part of Your Injury Prevention Plan

When an athlete steps out onto the competition stage and the rush of adrenaline kicks in, they aren’t usually thinking about playing cautiously or with hesitation for fear of injury. Imagine a goalkeeper thinking, “I’m only going to try to save the shots that I can reach,” or a gymnast saying, “I don’t want to attempt that skill, it’s a little too risky.” It is normal to have nerves on the field, but how do we manage those emotions if they show up in competition?

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College Students, Anxiety, Burnout Melissa Wesner College Students, Anxiety, Burnout Melissa Wesner

Sports Stress Me Out: Learning How to Address Stress as an Athlete and Bring Joy Back into Training

A notification pops up on your phone reminding you about practice tonight and all of a sudden, you feel a pit in your stomach and dread building in your chest.  You begin running through believable excuses for why you can’t go to practice and decide to text your coach that you won’t be attending tonight. Sure, maybe you feel briefly relieved, but then a wave of guilt arrives and you are confused why a sport that used to bring you so much joy now feels like a heavy burden of anxiety and stress.

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Resources, Anxiety, International Clients, Burnout Melissa Wesner Resources, Anxiety, International Clients, Burnout Melissa Wesner

Coping Strategies for Federal Workers in the Greater Baltimore Area: Managing Stress in Uncertain Times

The last past two weeks (or even months) for federal workers have been exhausting, fearful, confusing, and uncertain. With many executive orders filing in, there is a cloud of mystery and unknown with what is going to happen to all aspects of life in the coming days, weeks, and even years.

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A Baltimore Guide: Healthy Distractions for Distress Tolerance

Distraction is a skill that can be used, NOT to solve our issues but, to give us time to calm ourselves. By allowing our intense emotions to lessen over time, we can have more control and power in our lives. DBT uses an A.C.C.E.P.T.S model. While my last post focused on the outdoors, this one highlights indoor activities in Baltimore where you can apply this model. 

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Sensory Self-Care: How to Relax at Some of Baltimore’s Best Spots

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a skills based model that teaches tools to help people with many struggles. These range from depression, anxiety, and anger. One central concept is self-soothing. While these techniques aren’t the solution to difficult feelings, they can help serve as tools in your tool box. I often tell my clients we want as many tools as we can! I describe self soothing and free ways to engage locally in the Baltimore area. 

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