Developmental Psychology
When I started in the field as a counselor, my supervisor Marie preached about understanding where a person was developmentally. Working with the learning disabled you’d see an adult and then realize they operated as a child. Up to this point, I understood that early childhood trauma caused mental illness later in life. It was in our early years we tried to create a strong sense of self. If...Learn More
Partial Hospitalization – Discharge Insights
When someone finishes our program, we make a big deal out of it. Our Partial Hospitalization program runs 4 weeks and goes 5 days a week for 6 hours a day. It is the equivalent of residential treatment, but you don’t need to get locked away from family and friends. Facing yourself for an entire month to me is the hero’s journey. Who wants to deal with the worst parts of themselves? Here we do...Learn More
The Blank – How Am I with Myself?
It finally happened! After years and years of writing articles, I am finally blank. Who knew? My past program clients would be in shock because after four weeks of treatment I still had things to discuss. When I was in graduate school, we used to counsel one another. By the time we graduated, we were pretty seasoned therapists and clients. Session after session, there was always something to...Learn More
Changing for the Better
This article should be entitled personal responsibility since in changing ourselves, it has to be done by ourselves. So often people want to have others swoop in and rescue them because we feel it is their fault, they are making me feel this way, when the truth is, it is all about us. In taking personal responsibility, we are no longer victims of what others do or say. In all actuality, it is...Learn More
Woundology – Bonding in Our Wounds
The theme of this last week has been on people imagining the worst-case scenarios. You know, “What is the worst thing that can happen?” It is almost as if we were weaned on this. How often have you focused on the worst thing? The surprising thing is that when we fantasize about something, reality and fantasy register the same in the brain, and a thought can feel like something is really...Learn More
My Battle with Covid
My have I changed. As a child, we never talked about the things that were going wrong with us. We put on the “I’m Fine” mask and pretended to be great. To my family, outward appearances were very important. When Covid first came on, a client came in, got the whole staff sick, and we didn’t know what it was but after 10 days were all better and things were, more or less, back in order. Then...Learn More
Top 10 Steps to Treating a Problem
When you are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired what should you do? Most people wait and hope for the symptoms to go away, which will only push the inevitable away. Eventually, you have to face the facts that your efforts aren’t working and need to do something about them, but what? Depending on the ailment, it is important to address the symptoms head-on. If you have a physical ailment,...Learn More
Luxury Intensive Outpatient Program Really Treatment?
Our Intensive Outpatient Program isn’t easy. Different from most, the emphasis is on healing underlying core wounds. The aim of our program is to teach people how to be a counselor to themselves. Are we successful? It depends on what measurement you use. But when graduates of the program call years later just to say hi and give a report of their current lives, to us that is the greatest...Learn More
Scheduling Alone Time
For many people, life is but a blur. Activity, activity, and then the big crash – or is there one? Often when we are too busy it becomes difficult to unwind. Did you know that relaxation is a necessity in life? So is time away from the electronics. Do you give yourself time to simply let your mind go to where it wants to go? It’s true that Psychology is the study of relationships, but have we...Learn More