Many people feel stress wrapped up along with their holiday cheer. The holiday season, as wonderful as it can be, can also be full of demands, expectations, financial strains, resurfaced grief and fatigue. Here are five ways that you can prioritize your well-being and manage these stressors effectively.

The out transgender and gender non-binary (TGNB) populations are among the fastest-growing populations in the United States. What this means is that you are likely to know someone who identifies as TGNB. They could be your neighbor, a family friend, they could even be your child.  So now what? How do you treat them with dignity, respect, and worth as human beings? How do you learn to respect their individuality and be a supportive person in their life?

According to the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics, we are responsible to respect the dignity and promote the wellness of our clients. What does this mean for therapists when working with TGNB clients? This means that we must make it a priority to have at least a baseline understanding of what it means to be TGNB and an understanding of how we can support their well-being.  As with most marginalized communities, the TGNB community is often discriminated against, mistreated, misunderstood, and faces psychological trauma as a result. In light of this, what can we do to be trans-inclusive and gender-affirming therapists?

Holidays are generally associated with family and friends gathering. For many, it is a time for love and connection. However, in reality, it is inevitable to experience ups and downs throughout one’s life. And as we all know, life does not have a schedule for happy/painful moments. 

“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.

This post is a valuable resource to parents looking to make changes at home to best support their children while in therapy and beyond. Many of the recommendations that are discussed in this blog are overarching routines and practices that can be beneficial for all children, no matter the current difficulties that they are experiencing. Please keep in mind how valuable it is to have open communication with your child’s therapist, identifying any stressors that may be affecting your household, so that you may receive additional individualized, tailored advice.

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?

A good night’s sleep helps the body and mind recharge; improving mood, increasing one’s ability to concentrate and think clearly. It has been proven to lower anxiety levels, elevate mood, and improve overall functioning. As one can imagine, better relationships are formed due to clear minds and elevated moods. So how is it achieved? Here are some tips that I have found in research and within my experience in working with children and adolescents.

This post is for the parents on the edge, wondering if their child would benefit from therapy and what therapy for children and adolescents even looks like. I hope that this article will answer any questions that you may have, keeping in mind that every child and family is unique and should you need a more personalized conversation, please call our office for a more tailored conversation. 

With the increased access to telehealth services, parents now have more options available to them when looking for a mental health provider to work with their child. Telehealth, however, won’t necessarily be a good fit for everyone.  Within this post I hope to address any questions you may have in determining whether telehealth services will best meet the needs of your child. 

Do you notice your mood goes down when the weather gets colder? Have you ever been told that you were too “sensitive” to feel that way? The truth is, many people (three million people in the U.S.!) experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD). So, it is no joke.

Successful child therapy asks for a mixture of trusting your child to make best use of time within the privacy of sessions, while communicating and collaborating with their therapist to nudge the use of coping skills and behavior changes outside of sessions. It is a unique balance!

This post encapsulates how valuable your role can be within your child’s time in therapy, while also spotlighting the autonomy your child can hold within their own treatment.

As parents, we are accustomed to frequent communication for our children’s teachers. Getting recommendations for how to do our part at home to help them become independent readers, well-practiced musicians, competitive athletes, etc. The same level of communication is important in maximizing your child’s time within therapy as well. They are your world, we know! You are seeking therapeutic services for them because you want to strengthen their emotional well-being, see them achieve their goals, and grow up to be healthy, well-rounded individuals!

Sports tend to be a long-term commitment and a significant commitment of time. Being dedicated to sports can become something that feels like a lifestyle and can shape the way you live your life even outside of practices and competitions. Therefore, adjusting to life after sports can be a significant change and a tough adjustment for many people.

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. 

Unresolved trauma may be a reason people seek out therapy. Trauma occurs when we experience an unexpected event that is threatening to our survival. Trauma impacts our brain, our nervous system, our body and the myriad ways these parts interact in order to regulate our whole selves.

There are biophysiological reasons for why this not knowing occurs. It is okay and your body is doing what it was designed to do. I will offer a very simplified explanation below as to what happens in the brain and body.

When someone has been impacted by a traumatic experience, they may begin to experience emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, and reactions that were not typical for them prior to the traumatic event.  As a result, people begin to believe that there is something wrong with them.  This is where I like to remind people that they are having normal responses to an unusual circumstance. 

“I hate that I want someone. Can’t I just be ok being alone?, ” a client of mine used to complain about her “being so needy”. In therapy, it was not uncommon to hear people feeling ashamed about needing someone. – In that sense, my client was not alone. Even among mental health practitioners, early training on mental wellness heavily emphasized independence – you are responsible for what you feel, no one else.