“你对这个诊断怎么看？”我几乎每接待一位新来访者，都要问他们这个问题。尽管心理健康服务者早已对心理障碍的诊断习以为常，但每一位来访者经过初步咨询，得知自己所得的心理障碍是什么的时候，每个人的反应都是不同的，这背后是不同的想法、感受和经历。

“How do you feel about receiving a diagnosis?” That is a question I almost always ask when doing an intake with a new client. Although diagnoses are something therapists deal with on a daily basis, everyone may have different feelings, thoughts, and experiences around diagnoses, especially when they receive one from a professional during the intake meeting.

Coping skills are adaptive actions that people take to bring themselves comfort and control.

Many of the books listed feature coping skills being taught within therapy sessions. These include the utilization of breath, mindfulness, mindset reframing, utilizing support systems, and acknowledging worry rather than pushing it away.

Are you worried that your child is too worried? That in and of itself may suggest that scheduling an appointment with a children’s therapist is not a bad idea, but if you are still on the fence please read on. Everyone worries! Research suggests that in part, it’s evolutionary, a function of survival. As our environmental factors have changed in time, so have our reasons for anxiety. Anxiety stems from biological factors, psychological factors such as temperament, and environmental factors. The question is: when does worrying become more harmful than helpful?

In the counseling world, we’re big on teaching people new coping strategies that they can use to replace old, unhealthy ways of coping or to manage symptoms that are brought on by depression, anxiety, trauma, and other mental health conditions.  Implementing new coping strategies can be quite the challenge, and it’s something that we see often as therapists.  In counseling sessions, we’re often introducing new coping strategies, but we find that these coping strategies are not necessarily getting implemented between sessions. 

手心出汗、心跳加速、大脑中却一片空白……很多人在说外语时都有这些紧张不安的表现。尤其是当你忽然被提问，一瞬间无论怎么搜肠刮肚，也找不到合适的词表达。也许你眼前的人正一脸困惑，而你则感到颜面尽失……

对大多数人来说，用母语交流就像吃饭睡觉一样轻而易举，而相比之下，用外语来沟通，真的更费脑子——除了要费尽心思寻找合适的表达方式，还要克服心理上的焦虑。这个焦虑有个专门的词，叫“外语焦虑”（foreign language anxiety，简称FLA)。

Sweaty hands, racing heartbeat, mind going blank, uneasy, nervous, embarrassed… If you speak English as a second language, the above might not sound unfamiliar to you, especially if you are caught on the spot, struggling to figure out what words to use to save your face. Nevertheless, the person in front of you gets more and more confused…

While speaking one's native language seems so natural and easy, trying to command a foreign language requires extra mental resources — finding the right words and calming foreign language anxiety (FLA).

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is, “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” Based on this definition alone, you can see that mindfulness can be incorporated into our daily lives without consuming additional time.

Women are often raised with messages about being caring, nurturing, thoughtful, and family oriented.  These communicated values, as well as the behaviors that we have observed in the women before us, sometimes result in continued patterns of taking care of others while putting our own wants, needs, and self-care on the back burner.

There are a variety of things that can influence how motivated someone is feeling such as being overwhelmed, burned out, anxious, depressed, perfectionistic, rigid, fearful, and many more. One’s motivation (or lack thereof)  may depend on a number of factors. Here are some tips that you can use to help you increase motivation. 

College finals are an extremely stressful period of time. Final exams can be daunting, given the culmination of a semester’s worth of information. Multiple exams can add to the stress of finishing a semester. How you prepare for finals can have an impact on how you make it through them. Having a game plan and strategy for your finals can make a difference in how they go. If you are looking for some guidance to approach your finals exams, then keep reading!

Imagine that you are standing at a podium on a stage in an auditorium. The seats are filled. There are bright lights illuminating you. All eyes are on you. There is silence as the audience waits for you to begin. Before you open your mouth, you notice your heart racing and your body sweating…

If you are suffering from anxiety and/or depression, you may be relieved to know that there are many effective treatments that do not involve pharmaceutical medications. A combination of lifestyle changes and therapies can help alleviate these conditions and improve overall health and well-being.

Stress tends to seep into every aspect of our lives. When it is present, our day-to-day life can begin to feel increasingly overwhelming. It can take a toll on our relationships, mental health, and even our physical well-being.

At times, it may feel like you have no other choice but to endure the stress and brush it off as best as you can. You may want to push it down and ignore the problem, hoping it will just go away on its own. Other times, this stress may consume every waking moment and completely take over your thoughts. Making it hard to do anything else. Either way, addressing the stress and figuring out a healthy way to manage it is key to protecting your mental and physical health.

Have you ever been told to “stop being so sensitive” or “you’re overreacting”?! Recognize there is nothing wrong with you. You may just be wired differently than some others.

Being sensitive, you are more likely to be anxious, to be an overthinker, to be aware of subtleties, and to be self-critical. On the other hand, being an HSP, you are also more kind and empathetic, thoughtful and considerate towards others, as well as a deep and mindful thinker, someone who appreciates moments of beauty and contemplative reflection.

In a world where technology has taken over and everything is so readily accessible in the palm of our hand, it comes as no surprise that there are endless tasks we can manage by simply unlocking our smartphones. Banking, messaging, tweeting, and emailing. The list goes on!  But did you know that you can work on your mental health by downloading a simple app?

In this post, I’ll be going over some of my favorite, free mental health apps I like to use on a daily basis! Feel free to give them a try and see whether they’re the right ones for you!

If I had to pick one helpful piece of advice to print on a t-shirt, it would be “don’t believe everything your brain tells you!” The brain is a vital and fascinating organ that keeps us surviving, but it’s not perfect. In addition to all of the wonderful things the brain does, one of the brain’s jobs is to put out thoughts all day long, but not all of them are helpful, accurate, or true. These unhelpful thoughts and beliefs are called cognitive distortions.

Have you ever noticed that your anxiety spikes when you lay down to sleep at night? Have you ever wondered why this happens, or what you can do to stop that? Well, you are not alone! It is actually fairly common for anxiety to feel worse at night, and there are a few reasons for why that is. There are also a few ways that you can relieve anxiety at night so that you get a more restful night.

Teaching students under normal circumstances is challenging. Teachers juggle many roles as they motivate, engage and develop personal connections with their students to keep their students’ minds open to learning and developing. But what happens when the students and teachers alike are going through an overwhelming stressor as with the current pandemic? How does the situation affect student behavior, motivation and academic achievement? Here is a brief explanation of the mechanisms of stressors leading to trauma, as well as strategies to navigate the road ahead.

To my dear teachers and school staff,

There are so many things about this school year that are different. Dealing with rampant behavioral issues among your students. Dealing with administrators who may be short fused as they deal with a plethora of Covid related issues. Dealing with expectations from staff and parents that are not realistically achievable. These are some of the issues that have been arising. In all of this, you have received minimal training and have no previous experience with this. This is not what you signed up for!