Category: Uncategorized
-
Addiction Counseling
Empowering paths to recovery and healing. Rubin Khoddam Ph.D. Approximately 20 million Americans aged 12 or older battled a substance use disorder in 2020. Addiction counseling is a specialized form of therapy designed to address the underlying causes of addiction. Addiction counseling can increase self-awareness, strengthen coping mechanisms, and help prevent relapse. Addiction is a…
-
Here’s How to Stay Happier as You Get Older
Those who see aging as an evolution, rather than a loss, stay healthy longer. Loren Soeiro, Ph.D. ABPP Were you born between 1982 and 1994? If so, that makes you a millennial; it also means that you’ve likely just entered your 40s. For many people, this may also mean you’ll start to feel old —…
-
Surgeon General Warns That Social Media May Harm Children and Adolescents
By Matt Richtel, Catherine Pearson and Michael Levenson The nation’s top health official issued an extraordinary public warning on Tuesday about the risks of social media to young people, urging a push to fully understand the possible “harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” In a 19-page advisory, the United States surgeon…
-
Health Anxiety: Inflating the Likelihood of Serious Disease
Brittney Chesworth Ph.D., LCSW With health anxiety, we tend to overestimate the likelihood of severe disease. Learning how to challenge thinking errors is critical to see the probability of a threat more accurately. Examining the evidence is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique to help reframe thoughts. It is well-known among health anxiety researchers and clinicians…
-
Calm Your Mind With Micro-Meditation
L. Kenneth Zweig M.D. I’m sure you’ve heard about the benefits of meditation and probably had someone suggest you try it. Meditation is touted to help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression, as well as improve attention, memory, sleep, and energy. I’ve heard this mantra (cue “groan”) for years, but never really got into it myself. That is, until I heard…
-
An Antidote for Hope-ium: Mindfulness
Chelom E. Leavitt, J.D., Ph.D. False hope impedes growth and relational connection. Mindfulness may help. “Hope-ium” describes a harmful behavior that looks for small moments or experiences to bolster false hope. Hope-ium is a druglike response to avoid the hard realities of a problematic relationship. Mindful acceptance is the first step in sorting through the…
-
Improving Baby and Toddler Mental Health
Rahil D. Briggs PsyD Co-authored by Sarah MacLaughlin, LSW. The importance of mental health is widely recognized for teenagers, adults, and even older children, but what about the mental well-being of babies and toddlers? You might think, “What could possibly cause a baby to have mental health struggles, they just got here?” However, because human infants…
-
Schizophrenia and Hiding Away
Bethany Yeiser Schizophrenia involves chemical neurobiological changes in the brain, which can lead to bizarre decisions, poor insight, and even risk-taking. Classic symptoms of schizophrenia include paranoia (irrational fear) and delusions (fixed, false beliefs). And a manifestation of both paranoia and delusions is hiding away. There are different types of hiding away. Many cut off all friends and…
-
Should Therapy Make Us More Productive?
Nicholas Balaisis Ph.D., RP “Optimization” or “productivity” goals can often obstruct therapeutic progress. Negative symptoms need to be explored and understood, not simply overcome. The psyche is an imperfect system whose symptoms we often have to learn to live with, manage, and accept. I finished teaching a class this term that looked at the origins…
-
C-PTSD: What Is Complex PTSD?
Making sense of differing descriptions of C-PTSD. Shauna H Springer Ph.D. Complex PTSD refers to different things for different people. Among clinicians, C-PTSD is often used to refer to someone with both Axis I and Axis II disorders. For trauma sufferers, C-PTSD validates their experience of multiple layers of trauma. The two perspectives can be…