Obligation – Stay or Go
Are we so entrenched in societal rules that we’ve lost track of our own well-being? For many people, they have married a person because it was the correct thing to do. Then they will remain in the relationship because of the children, and will see the signs that their partner is abusive, but if they ended the relationship what would other people think? I ask people how long in the...Learn More
Desire – Helping Others Before Myself
For Thanksgiving, I was about to do the typical “stay-at-home thing” like I had for the last few years but wanted to be with family. It had been a while, being caught up in running the facility, but now I needed a break and wanted to make my 90-year-old mother happy. I was getting back into the habit of making others more important than myself, burning myself out, and simply needing to get...Learn More
Give and Take
It finally happened, Basic Steps Mental Health now has a waiting list. All I can say is that I am honored by your testimonies and your recommending us to family and friends. Because of this, the way that we have been providing time during the sessions will need to change. From the beginning, we have always used the full 60 minutes to treat people. The beauty of our approach has been to allow...Learn More
Self Care
Most people think of self-care as taking care of our physical body. The focus is mainly on getting enough exercise, eating the perfect diet, and going for a treatment at the spa. Well, yes, this is a portion of self-care but it is not the full picture. To ultimately take care of ourselves we have to consider our whole self. This was news to me when I entered graduate school. I was so focused...Learn More
Confession – I Am an Addict
I have a confession to make. I am an addict. I guess that’s the best way to describe my binge-watching of the power washing and garden makeover channels on YouTube. I thought it was just a phase, but after 3 months I am still mesmerized by watching people clean up disaster areas and I wonder why. More often than not I am moved to tears. Have I literally gone mad? There is one man (or should...Learn More
Who Am I?
A common theme this week has been people trying to discover their own identity. Who am I? Why am I alive? Is there some special purpose for me? Or, am I destined to struggle day in and day out, simply exist, and then die? What is the point? Is there a reason that we are all alive? Deeper thoughts on this post than most. The big question is – do we even have time to ponder why we are even...Learn More
Some Advise to New Therapists
If you want to become a counselor, there are a few tidbits of information I can pass along that I’ve gathered in the last 30 years of fieldwork: Practice good self-care. Continue to work on your personal issues as they present themselves. Never work harder than the client. It is okay to let there be silence in the session as the client searches their mind. This process is the foundation of...Learn More
Life and Loss
We had a common theme this past week at Basic Steps Mental Health and that was with loss. The subject of loss has many facets. There is loss of life, loss of a relationship, loss of health, and loss of purpose – as with retirement – to name a few. When we go through an abrupt change it can be startling. There is the classic Kubler-Ross stages of grief that can be used as a guide, in which I...Learn More
Befriending Bipolar
Bipolar Disorder has its ups and downs. Actually, that is the definition of the disorder. Clinically speaking, it is a disorder of the Hippocampus in the brain, which is the center of our wake/sleep cycle. The Hippocampus impacts the body by releasing adrenaline into the system. When the valve opens, it bathes the body with adrenaline and perks us up, however, this valve may stay open too...Learn More