mental health
I work with many clients who have experienced grief in their life. Whether it is a loss of a family member, loss of an event in their life, loss of a relationship, or maybe a loss of someone they cared about who unfortunately passed away in a traumatic way. My job as my clients’ clinician is to help identify terms for them, such as traumatic loss, with the hopes that identifying terms, the client and I can…
Read MoreI work with many clients who are experiencing anxiety related to the current state of the world in 2020. Prior to the pandemic, many clients in sessions would speak to what their goals were, what success looked like to them, and how they could reach their goals. I recently have been speaking to my clients about the idea of redefining success right now. There are certain things in life that are much more challenging than prior to…
Read MoreAshlee Stumpf, LPC It’s unlikely you will go to a doctor’s office and come out with a prescription of J.R.R. Tolkien, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t help. Storytelling is an art form as old as time. We grow up on stories to learn morals, culture, history, and the human experience. Sometimes they may take place in a fantastical world or have characters living lives extraordinarily different to our own, however that doesn’t mean we can gain…
Read MoreBridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC Here we are still talking about that negative thought loop and thinking errors that we refer to as cognitive distortions. Remember my last blog post that included examples of ten common cognitive distortions? I left off discussing magnifying or minimizing, and here’s part two and the continued list of cognitive distortions. Mental filter With a mental filter, negative events are focused on and positive events are disregarded or filtered out. We have…
Read MoreBridgette W. Gottwald, LPC, NCC Next time you are experiencing negative thinking, take a moment to check your thoughts, notice, and make some observations. More often than not, you will find that your brain is full of negativity. There is a huge correlation between what we think and feel, and when are struggling or feeling unhappy, our thoughts can be rather dramatic or absolute – such as “I can’t do anything right” or “no one likes me.”…
Read MoreBy Eve Brownstone, LCPC These images came to me in meditation. I call them Guardians at the Gate. In meditation, these strong bird-like figures were perched on the gate of a medieval castle. I saw them protecting me and humanity from the Invaders at the Gate: Coronavirus. Invaders at the Gate I spent time painting first the Guardians at the Gate and the Invaders at the Gate. Then I dialogued with these images. I asked what…
Read MoreMary-Lauren O’Crowley, MA, NCC Despite what is often depicted in TV shows and movies, therapy involves much more than just laying on a couch and talking about your feelings. Widespread stigmatization of counseling can lead to misconceptions about what exactly therapy is and how it can be helpful. The fact of the matter is, therapy can be an incredibly powerful tool in helping to work through past trauma, better regulate and manage emotions, navigate grief and transition,…
Read MoreBy Eve Brownstone, LCPC Why write a book? We all have a story to tell. Doubts come in. Do I have a story to tell? I will bore people. I am not a writer. So we convince ourselves that we don’t have a story to tell and we push down our creative energy. I realize not everyone is going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but I believe everyone has a heartfelt story to tell and…
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What is self-awareness? It can be used as praise, “wow you’re so self-aware!” or as an insult, “she has no self-awareness.” But what do we actually mean when we label ourselves or others as having or lacking self-awareness? The official Merriam-Webster definition of self-awareness is, “knowledge and awareness of your own personality or character.” In other words, truly knowing yourself internally, individually, and within the context of relationships and the world. Being able to identify how you…
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Hannah Hopper, LPC, NCC There are many different reasons why people seek out therapy. Maybe there are things going on in your life right now that are causing you to feel anxious and stressed, or maybe there are some hurts from your past that you haven’t healed from yet. Some people come to therapy hoping to learn more about themselves, while others see it as a way to work on a relationship that is struggling. Whatever the…
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