Live Better. Love Better. Work Better.

Danielle Bertini

Categories

Working Through Partner Conflicts

January 2, 2020

Danielle Bertini Conflicts are inevitable in all types of relationships. However, whether a fight brings down or builds up the relationship depends on how the couple behaves in the aftermath. There are couples that fight frequently and strongly, only to fall in love harder when things are done. And then there are couples that go cold—not necessarily fighting, but have large amounts of lingering resentment and no progress toward resolving the issues. So what is the best…

Read More

How to Repair Saying the Wrong Thing

December 8, 2019

Danielle Bertini Have you ever been in an uncomfortable situation of saying the wrong thing? Maybe you asked a friend how their job is going who was just recently fired. Maybe you asked a family member about a relationship that just ended. Even though you apologized for the honest mistake, you can still tell they are hurting. These situations are a common, yet difficult, part of being social creatures. What make these situations different than, say, accidentally…

Read More

The Emotional and Physical Impacts of Facebook

December 2, 2019

Danielle Bertini A recent study done by researchers from UC San Diego and Yale have some advice for you to stay emotionally and physically healthy: limit the amount of time you spend on Facebook. Although this statement might sound like a broken record, this study has some impressive research to back up this claim. The study spent two years following 5,208 adults who are part of a Gallup long-term study. With permission, the researchers monitored these subjects’…

Read More

The Relationship Between Optimism and Longevity

November 11, 2019

Danielle Bertini According to a decades-long study that was published August 26, 2019, men and women with greater optimistic tend to live longer than their pessimistic peers. The research identifies a strong correlation between optimistic and “exceptional longevity,” which is described as living to age 85 or older (Bergland, 2019). So what is an optimist? And would you consider yourself one? Generally, optimists tend to look on the bright side of things and have positive expectations about…

Read More

Dealing with Persistent Worrying

October 28, 2019

Danielle Bertini Worrying is a part of human nature. If people didn’t have the ability to worry, they wouldn’t be able to anticipate and prepare for life’s challenges. However, for some people, worrying gets to be overwhelming and can even lead to depression due to such a negative outlook on life. In this day and age, it can be easy to get wrapped up in anxiety and a negative outlook with recent world and domestic events. Nevertheless,…

Read More

Strategies to Quit Worrying

October 18, 2019

Danielle Bertini Many people know all too well the feeling of joy from something positive in their life being contaminated by the stress of feeling like it’s only a matter of time before the pendulum would swing the other way. Unfortunately, this is a very common occurrence. When driven people care about something and finally experience whatever they have been striving to achieve, they’re unable to savor the good times. However, taking yourself out of the moment…

Read More

Being Distracted in a Digital World

October 6, 2019

Danielle Bertini As I sit down to write this blog, my phone, laptop, and iPad all light up and simultaneously ding with notifications. It’s hard to imagine life before our world became dominated with smartphones and other devices that make us so accessible, but more importantly, so easily distracted. Although this constant fragmentation of our time and concentration has become the new normal, more and more experts are telling us that these interruptions might be eroding our…

Read More

A Parent’s Guide to Sibling Battles

September 29, 2019

Danielle Bertini Parents are often seeking ways to make sibling conflict stop, and understandably so. Unfortunately, this is generally unrealistic as sibling conflict is normal and to be expected. Home is a safe testing ground for social dynamics, and it can take skill and patience for siblings to learn to play together, especially when they are difference ages. Psychotherapist Heather Turgeon writes about the importance of being a Sportscaster rather than a Referee when it comes to…

Read More

The Mental Health Benefits of Owning a Pet: The Pet Effect

September 23, 2019

Danielle Bertini, LPC It is no secret that living in today’s world it can be easy to get caught up in the high-demand, fast-paced environment. Smartphones, social media, Internet, and constant text messages can quickly become overwhelming. Aside from some of the more “traditional” ways to fight daily stressors, such as yoga, meditation, exercise, etc., there is another way to be able to find help right at home, in the form of a wet nose or a…

Read More

I’m Mad at My Therapist

September 18, 2019

Danielle Bertini, LPC Evidence suggests that the therapeutic alliance is the strongest predictor of outcome in psychotherapy (Alexander & Luborsky, 1986). However, what happens when the therapeutic relationship falters? Does this mean there is no hope? Actually, research has shown that when the therapeutic alliance falters and is then fixed, therapy can continue to flourish. This process of experiencing, discussing, and solving problems in the therapeutic relationship provides a unique opportunity for learning and behavior change (Goldsmith,…

Read More