Blog Articles

Depression: Understanding, Treating, and Managing It

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What exactly is depression? Depression is a mental health disorder described by persistent sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest or pleasure in activities. It is more than just feeling sad or down or experiencing temporary mood swings. Depression affects a person’s whole being, including thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, often interfering with daily life and functioning. Symptoms of depression Depression includes many symptoms, such as …

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Empathetic Phrases: Supporting Loved Ones in Hard Times

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Do you struggle with what to say to someone experiencing a tough time? When someone is going through a hardship, it’s important to approach them with empathy, understanding, and support. It is difficult to think about what to say, so here are a few phrases that help someone in a vulnerable place.  Everyone’s situation is unique, so it’s important to tailor your words and support …

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Effective Strategies for Managing & Reducing Anxiety

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Dealing with anxiety can be challenging, but there are several strategies you can use to help manage and reduce its impact on your life. From establishing an exercise routine, deep breathing, and relaxation techniques to prioritizing sleep, here are a few strategies to help manage anxiety. Educate Yourself Feelings of unease, worry, and fear characterize anxiety. While occasional anxiety is normal and can be helpful …

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Identifying the Signs: When to Seek Therapy

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Recognizing the need for therapy is essential in caring for your mental and emotional well-being. Therapy has many benefits, including emotional relief, clarity on big life decisions, encouragement, personal empowerment, and the ability to process emotions or thoughts in a safe, supportive environment. It’s not always easy to recognize when we need help from a therapist. This article outlines some signs that it might be …

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5 Topics to Discuss Before Marriage

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Introduction: Preparing for Marriage Have you met the love of your life? Are you considering marriage? Before marriage, open and honest conversations with your partner about various aspects of your life together is essential. Marriage combines two lives into one; both people must be on the same page. Here are five main topics to bring up before tying the knot. Topic 1: Understanding Long-term Goals …

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Dealing With the Effects of Childhood Emotional Neglect

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Understanding Childhood Emotional Neglect Childhood emotional neglect refers to the failure of caregivers adequately meet a child’s emotional needs, such as providing love, support, and validation. This can lead to experiencing trauma at a very young age, which has long-lasting effects on one’s life. Most importantly, childhood emotional neglect can disrupt the relationship with oneself at a very young age, instilling beliefs such as, “I’m …

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Healing from The Grief of Stillbirth

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A stillbirth is defined as the death of a baby from 20 weeks of incubation to attempted birth. What makes a stillbirth different is that the mother experiences the birth and death of her child in one single traumatic event within the entirety of her pregnancy. Surprisingly, experiencing a stillbirth is quite common. According to a 2020 study, about 1 in every 150 pregnancies ends …

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Social Exclusion in Adolescents: A Common Form of Bullying

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Social exclusion can be common for adolescents in middle and high school. Whether not being chosen for games or purposefully excluding kids in numerous situations, the consequences are extremely harmful. Salmivalli states, “Bullying can be direct, such as physical or verbal attacks, indirect (also referred to as relational bullying), such as social exclusion and rumor-spreading, or it can happen online. The adolescent period of life …

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How to Make a Decision

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Who has been there? Maybe you have found yourself choosing which career route to take, which city would be best to move to for you and your family, or which school to enroll your children. Life can and will throw several options toward us (yay for options, this means we aren’t stuck or trapped, and we are capable of creating our own futures!), but how …

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When Panic Attacks – Part 3: Advanced Anxiety Techniques

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Part 3 of 3 Part 1: Easy Anxiety Techniques Part 2: Slightly-More-Complicated Anxiety Techniques Part 3: Advanced Anxiety Techniques Hopefully, you’ve found some useful ideas in my previous two anxiety articles. This article covers some even more advanced techniques for dealing with anxiety. These techniques have aspects that are simple to learn, but they also tend to go a little deeper into examining the ways …

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When Panic Attacks – Part 2: Slightly-More-Complicated Anxiety Techniques

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Part 2 of 3 Have you tried and mastered the anxiety techniques in “When Panic Attacks – Part 1: Easy Anxiety Techniques”? Great. The techniques in this article are slightly more complicated and it may take more practice and experimentation to integrate them into your life. Nevertheless, learning and incorporating these ideas can help with not only short bursts of anxiety but with more persistent …

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When Panic Attacks – Part 1: Easy Anxiety Techniques

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Part 1 of 3 Part 1: Easy Anxiety Techniques Part 2: Slightly-More-Complicated Anxiety Techniques Part 3: Advanced Anxiety Techniques Anxiety is one of the most common complaints that bring people into therapy. It is estimated that in any given year, 18.1% of the population could qualify for an anxiety disorder diagnosis. As with any reason people come to therapy, effective treatment of anxiety will vary …

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What Should I Be When I Grow Up?

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Remember playing The Game of Life as a young person? I liked reading all the different occupations from which you could choose. Want to be a florist? Here’s your card. Prefer to be surprised? Draw from this stack of cards, and… you got teacher! Here’s your salary, here are your housing options, and here’s your car. Done. If choosing a career was as simple as …

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Healing Isn’t Linear: What to Expect in Therapy

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“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes. It would look like complete destruction to someone who doesn’t understand growth.” –Cynthia Occelli The Courage to Seek Help Asking for help and seeking support is one of the bravest and kindest acts of self-care you can do for yourself. Embarking on …

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3 Mindfulness Techniques That Can Help You Fall Asleep Faster

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Falling asleep can be challenging for many people, especially after a long and tiring day. Your mind may race with thoughts about uncompleted tasks and past events, making it difficult to relax and sleep. Despite the temptation to turn to electronic devices as distractions, their use can hinder your ability to fall asleep. This introductory article will explore techniques to help you calm your mind …

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Deprivation Versus Inspiration

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Therapist and writer Ken Page explores three ideas in his book Deeper Dating that are resonating with me right now: attractions of deprivation, attractions of inspiration, and core gifts. Attractions of deprivation are ones that reinforce painful relationship wounds. They ask us to disavow our core gifts. Being in such an imbalanced state triggers longing and need and keeps us from being intimate with ourselves …

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How to Get the Most Out of Therapy (With Me)

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Choose someone you like Choosing a therapist is a bit like dating. You can go on a date with someone lovely and still not click with them. Similarly, you can go to a therapist your friend loves and not feel you can work well with them. It’s not because the therapist is a bad person or a bad therapist. The relationship just doesn’t click for …

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Creating and Maintaining Routines – Why Is It So Hard?

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Routines are essential, yet some view them as traps that stifle creativity and foster complacency. Benefits of Routines Stability and Predictability: Do you know that feeling of comfort when you sip your first cup of coffee in the morning? That’s what a solid routine can offer you— a sense of calm that carries you through the day. It’s like having a reliable roadmap; you may hit …

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When Shame Shows Up

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If I feel in any way vulnerable, other people’s silence can feel like punishment. Yesterday, I had trouble breathing, concentrating, engaging in anything. This was my go-to response in childhood. The feelings of abandonment manifest as acute physical pain in my chest, and then I essentially go numb.  Yesterday morning and afternoon I spent in this state. I distracted myself mostly by watching movies and …

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