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Bottom Line – Healing Through Effort
I was looking through my files and came upon this article that hadn’t been published. Perhaps something more important was on my mind. Re-reading this I realized that, bottom line, this article is very important because it gets down to the root of my therapy strategy.
For almost 30 years I’ve struggled to find “the solution”. You know, something that will fix everybody, so that they won’t...
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The Importance of Self-Care for Us Counselors and Clients Too
After 29 years in the mental health field, the most important thing I learned was to take care of myself first. In the helping business, it can be easy to get attached to people you treat, and worry about how they are doing. When this happens, it is a clear sign to stop whatever you are doing and take a break. Why? Because if we are not in balance, it is difficult to take care of others....
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What to Expect from Therapy
If you have never gone through counseling and wondered what happens in sessions, then this article was written for you. I remember the first time I went to a counselor and could feel my heart pounding in my neck and was looking for an excuse to sprint out of there. Though to be honest, I just found myself talking about myself, which was strange since at that time, all I wanted to do was...
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The Epic Battle of Right vs Wrong
Way back in 1890 Sigmund Freud was developing the science of Psychology and popularized “Ego Defenses” or the mechanisms we used to keep the mind free from shattering. “Denial” makes us believe something didn’t happen, and “Repression” makes us believe the bad events that happen to us will go away if we don’t think about them. Sigmund Freud started a revolution that is common in our everyday...
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Breaking the Barriers
Have you ever felt like you are destined to deal with the same issues over and over again, to the point where you just give up hope for anything better to happen? That used to describe me in dealing with my anxiety. I just assumed that everyone had to deal with anxiety, you know, cope with it forever. In this article, I’ll discuss ways to push past, heal, and move forward.
I’ve looked at...
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Using Your Innate Power
In graduate school, they kept on telling us that our mind is very powerful and we just needed to learn how to channel this energy. Coming from a background of powerlessness it was hard to imagine, but as I started to use the tools they were teaching us, things in my life began to shift for the better.
I remember the first time I realized this when standing in line at the bank. I hated...
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Relationships 101
Psychology is basically the science of relationships. One of my licenses is for Marriage, Family Therapy. As you can see it deals with the relationships between two or more people, however, our relationships with others is a reflection of how we are with ourselves. Therefore, we need to improve our relationship with ourselves to see improvements with other people in our life.
Let’s face...
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Reframing – A Positive Twist
Reframing is a major tool that helps to keep me centered. Reframing is basically looking at a situation that may be bad and putting a positive twist on it. In school, they told us that Reframing is basically seeing a problem as a blessing for learning and growth. Can you think back to a situation or event that was painful when it happened, but as you view it now, it was perfect for your...
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Becoming an Equal
We are all the same. Nobody is above or below us. Until we realize that we are all in this family of life together, we can learn to bridge the gap between people, countries, and this world. Such a lofty way of looking at life, many would think, but when you get right down to the fact that we are all 99.999% the same the only difference is what we think.
I recall an episode years ago on a...
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Me Pleasing
Things are back in full swing at Basic Steps Mental Health and the popularity of our IOP program has been steadily increasing. Our IOP program is conducted Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 9:00 am to noon. What is beautiful about the group experience is that I as a therapist don’t have to work as hard because the group supports and inspires each other.
A new person started this week and...
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