• Dramatic People: Are Their Lives Really a Never-ending List of Crises?
    So there’s this test you can take. About your need for drama. It’s all very scientific and published. Totally evidence-based and meant to assess that thing dramatic people have inside them. You know, that inner tendency to make chaos a routine occurrence in their daily lives. Psychologist Scott Frankowski really wanted to know what that ...
  • Living with Your Spouse’s PTSD: 4 Ways to Cope
    With political campaigning in full swing, we’re hearing phrases like “taking care of our vets and their families, who have sacrificed so much.” But for those who are family members of someone who is, or has been, in the service, these are more than just political buzzwords. It is a fact of everyday ...
  • Your Teen, Social Media and Low Self Esteem: What’s the Connection?
    Think back to when you were a teenager. Most likely, it was a challenging time in your life. Sure, there were the fun times that you had with your friends and the beauty of not having to worry about paying bills. However, you may also recall the cliques at school and deciding how ...
  • Healing After an Affair: You can Do It & Couples Counseling Can Help
    ‘If my partner had an affair, I would leave.’ That’s what many people say before it happens. But your marriage doesn’t have to end there. Couples counseling is a proven, research-based approach to healing after an affair. Your couples counselor has no preconceived ideas about you and how your relationship should develop. The counselor is there ...
  • Coping with Co-Occurring Di​sorders: ​Anxiety & Depression​
    An individual may have two chronic disorders or illnesses at once, a situation known as comorbidity. The interactions between the illnesses frequently impact the way one or the other affects the individual and certainly makes them even more challenging to heal. In many cases, comorbidity happens with someone who has a mental illness and ...
  • Did the Sizzle Fizzle? 7 Ways to Get the Romance Back in Your Marriage
    Are you missing the heat and passion of the early days in your relationship? Married people often talk of reigniting the spark, fueling the flames, and getting back that loving feeling. Take heart, romance is not as far out of reach as you may believe. Check out these 7 ways to get the romance back ...
  • EMDR: Why It’s Such an Effective Treatment for PTSD and Other Trauma
    You deserve more than a daily struggle with emotional pain, old wounds, and fractured relationships. Trauma can turn you inside out. It can drag you back and weigh you down. Navigating your story of abuse, tragedy, sudden change, or the confusing, persistent signs of PTSD is not a solo venture. Trauma that won’t let ...
  • When Talk Therapy Is Not Working, Consider EMDR
    What do you do when talking about your painful experiences won’t release their hold on you? Talk therapy works for some people. Others, not so much. Exposure therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are common talk therapies designed to help sufferers work through descriptions of their remembered pain and traumatic experiences. Talk therapy generally assumes ...
  • Fighting Fairly: Take These Steps When Disagreements Arise
    Most couples fight. Sometimes we forget to do it fairly. Some of us never learned how. What happens when you go too far and say too much? Do you have a strategy to work things out? When sarcasm, harsh accusations, or the silent treatment color disagreements, resolution and reconnection may be a hard sell. It’s okay ...
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Lifts Depression
    If you are living with depression, you probably know that a good night’s sleep, a night out with friends, and the ”bright side” of anything are hard fought victories that don’t come often, if at all, anymore. You want to tell everyone you can’t just “cheer up.” You want to explain that you’ve stopped seeing ...
  • 7 Ways You Can Help Your Loved One Cope with Anxiety
    Take a good look at your anxious friend or family member. Has worry shaken his or her confidence? Does fear or regret cause him or her to pull away from people who care? Are overreaction and negativity shortchanging his or her best life? Anxiety can make life very small and scary. From the outside, you want to ...
  • What is Verbal Abuse and How Can You Cope with It?
    You know that you shouldn’t be spoken to that way. You fully understand that last comment was an insult, not a “joke.” You didn’t deserve the silent treatment or misunderstand that “you’re so stupid,” look. Still, do you wonder what exactly it is that you’re dealing with? Is it abuse? Or are you just too often in ...
  • 7 Ways Hypnotherapy for Anxiety Helps You Cope
    Hypnosis is often portrayed as a parlor trick in which the subject can be easily manipulated through the power of suggestion. Hypnotherapy, however, is a real and established practice among therapeutic professionals. Hypnotherapy can be used to help treat people suffering from anxiety. 1. A Different State of Consciousness Hypnotherapy for anxiety is utilized by creating ...
  • Loving Life: A Lifestyle Change AWAY from Addiction Will Do It!
    Living a life free of substances doesn’t have to mean being a hermit in your house for the rest of your life. Addiction recovery means making a lifestyle change, but you can find ways to move away from addiction and love your life. Clean and Organize Your Living Space One place to start making a ...
  • Your Mental Health is Important: Why Therapy is a Good Investment
    An investment, according to Investopedia, is “an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” Therapy is an investment in yourself and your mental health. The future returns are your ability to live in the present, to fulfill your potential, and, ultimately, to find ...
  • Addiction Has Many Faces: Beware of These Signs
    Addiction is a habitual, compulsive, and physiological dependency. – On what? It would be wrong to think of addiction only in connection with drugs or alcohol. Food can become an addiction as well, for example. In addition to substance addiction, there is also addiction to activities, such as work, TV, computer, gambling, and others. Considering the ...
  • Technology and Kids: How Too Many Screens Interfere with Your Parenting
    Technology and kids have been associated with each other for a long time. Since the introduction of the personal computer in the 1970s, kids have been at the forefront of new ways of communication and new ways of entertainment. All delivered through a screen. And kids often know a lot more about those new technologies ...
  • Is Negative Thinking Damaging Your Life? 5 Tips to Calm Your Thoughts
    Do you feel like you are always having negative thoughts and that they get in the way of your success? The problem with negative thinking isn’t having these thoughts, it is when you believe them that they have an effect on your life. However, there are some tricks you can use to prevent ...
  • 7 Tips to Help You Deal with Anxiety at Work
    Having to live with anxiety can mean a daily struggle to stay focused and on track. This is even more so at work, where dealing with anxiety poses its own set of problems. Consider these tips to deal with your anxiety and be more effective at your job. 1. Have a Daily Routine to ...
  • Adult Attachment Issues? Look to Your Childhood for Answers
    Have you or someone you know been diagnosed as having attachment issues as an adult? The roots of attachment disorders can reach all the way back to childhood. It is often connected to specific events in the child’s life that have an effect on emotional development. Left untreated, this can have a negative ...
  • Overcoming the Shame of Sex Addiction
    Do you wonder how you could have gone so far? Looking at the havoc wrought on your life, your relationships, and your self-esteem by your sex addiction, are you struggling with devastating shame? How in the world can you get through this? You probably knew that, eventually, your double life would catch up with you. But ...
  • Using Mindfulness to Cope with Anxiety: See These 4 Tips
    Unnecessary and unproductive worries, negative thoughts about the future, and a general fear of what the world can do to you – these are just some of the debilitating symptoms of anxiety. Unwelcome thoughts and emotions can intrude at any time. You end up feeling distressed and helpless. You have probably tried to talk yourself ...
  • Brain Smart but Feeling Dumb? It’s Your EQ!
    Carlos couldn’t figure out why he kept getting passed over for promotions. His boss even seemed reluctant to give him a raise, citing that his “people skills” were somewhat lacking. Carlos was frustrated. He had a strong degree from a well known school and a wealth of applicable training, but “people skills” were holding him ...
  • Overcoming Eating Disorders Holistically
    Many therapists and treatment centers proudly state that they use a “holistic approach” to care for and help individuals overcome eating disorders. Yet, the same individual may receive somewhat different treatment at any of these “holistic” care providers. What does “holistic” mean in this context and how does a “holistic approach” to overcoming ...
  • Why Guys Hate Therapy — And What to do About It
    Google search “therapy” and see what comes up. Words like “sad,” “help,” “depressed,” and “emotions” are likely sprinkled among a bunch of  sentences that, to most guys, read like this: “Blah, blah, blah… seek support. Blah, blah, blah…talk about your feelings… blah blah blah…you’re not alone.” To most guys, all that therapy language sounds…well, weak. And guys, ...
  • Types of Depression: What is Bipolar Disorder?
    Everyone experiences normal, periodic emotional ups and downs. A person with bipolar disorder experiences them on a whole other level. What he or she endures is not usual or normal. It’s often out-of-control, upsetting, and terrifying. Bipolar mood swings are powerful. The shifts in energy, interaction, and behavior are sudden and confusing. The disorder is also referred ...
  • Post Traumatic Stress: 10 Tips to Help Your Family Cope with Your PTSD
    There are many people who experience traumatic events in their lives who live with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Whether it is from war, abuse as a child, or from a relationship as an adult, post traumatic stress disorder can feel like a burden for both you and your family. However, there are ...
  • Childhood Trauma: What To Do When Bad Memories Intrude
    Surviving childhood trauma is an incredible achievement. You may not even be aware that you’ve done it until, one fine day, you realize that you live, that you are finally free of the toxic environment. But then, sometimes, bad memories intrude. Childhood trauma, and particularly family violence (experienced as well as witnessed) and childhood sexual ...
  • Honoring a Rainbow Baby — Pregnancy and Birth After Loss
    The loss of a child is life changing. You are changed. Your loss is felt forever. But you’ve learned that joy can return after one of the worst storms in your life. A rainbow. You’re pregnant again. Your new “rainbow baby” is a gift of light and love. You’re finding that this child is joy and ...
  • Break These Bad Habits to Improve Your Relationship
    “The secret to permanently breaking any bad habit is to love something greater than the habit.” -Bryant McGill, author and motivational speaker The habits and routine behavior of your relationship matter. Bad habits have no good place in your good relationship. You love your partner. You want to love better. You want to be closer, happier, stronger. All ...
  • The Highly Sensitive Person: So Much More Than Being Shy
    Are you a Highly Sensitive Person? If the answer is yes, then you Are aware of subtle signals in your environment that others may not notice. Process information and sensory input more deeply and in different areas of the brain. Make excellent decisions based on slow, gradual evaluation of circumstances. Are able to perceive and process highly complex ...
  • Diet. Exercise. Therapy? Yes! How Therapy Supports Your Weight Loss Effort
    In a society saturated with diet pills, monthly gym membership specials, calorie-tracking apps, and hundreds of foods measured in “points,” the mental component of the weight loss journey often gets overlooked. For many who struggle to lose weight and to keep it off, therapy can be an important part of  developing a healthier lifestyle. In ...
  • PTSD Treatment: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
    Those who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often find that they struggle with memories regarding a single traumatic event or series of events. Even if the experience was relatively recent, they may find that their memory of it is foggy. They may feel that they can’t make sense of it no matter how hard they try. After trying ...
  • Personal Boundaries: Has Your Spouse Read Your Email?
    “When you feel yourself becoming angry, resentful, or exhausted, pay attention to where you haven’t set a healthy boundary.” — Crystal Andrus, empowerment coach and author of The Emotional Edge So, you noticed your email contains a lot of correspondence “marked as read” that you didn’t read. When you asked about it, your spouse ...
  • Effective Time Management Strategies for Young Adults
    Managing time isn’t easy. From the moment you are born into this world, time starts it’s steady, unceasing countdown to zero. This is true, not just of the time in your life, but of the time that you have available to you in a year, a month, a week, or a day. Compounding the problem, time seems ...
  • Tired of Rolling the Dice? How to Overcome Your Gambling Addiction
    The Internet is an all night, 24-hour casino for the gambling addict. Computer, tablet, and smartphone access to unlimited gaming forums is, in large part, responsible for the boom of gambling addiction in recent years. Fantasy sports and online poker have done significant damage to those who are susceptible. According to the National Council ...
  • Burnout or Depression? What’s the Difference?
    Alison sat at her desk. She stared at the computer screen. Out the window. At the alerts on her calendar app. She was done. Done with everything. Emails. Calls. Presentations. Working harder. Producing more. Enough. What am I doing, she wondered? Why aren’t I getting anywhere? Does this even matter? Maybe you’ve felt that way before. Maybe you’re there ...
  • How a Child-Centered Approach to Parenting Can Damage Your Relationship
    Being a parent is never an easy job and it can be easy to want to prioritize the needs of your child before your own. However, this could lead to child-centered parenting, which can have a negative impact on your child and your relationship with your partner. What is Child-Centered Parenting? Michael Mascolo, Ph.D., defines ...
  • 5 Ways to Cope with Your Emotional Trauma
    Carrying the burden of emotional trauma can be difficult for anyone. Whether the trauma comes from experiences in war, crime, or abuse, the emotions and feelings associated with these events can live well beyond the event. However, there are ways to cope with emotional trauma, and be able to heal from it as ...
  • When Worry Takes Over: 5 Ways to Control Obsessive Thinking
    If you suffer from obsessive thinking it can seem as if your thoughts are haunting you, never going away. Getting through life with obsessive thinking isn’t easy, but there are ways that you can control obsessive thinking and have a healthier life. Try Meditation to Control Obsessive Thinking There is research that shows that practicing ...
  • ​A Woman’s Guide to Surviving Infidelity​
    Did you know that twenty five percent of people admit to having an extramarital affair? That number seems awfully high until you consider than the divorce rate in the United States hovers at a little over fifty percent. However, infidelity is not necessarily grounds for divorce, though an instant separation might have been ...
  • Turn to Biblical Wisdom for Managing Anger
    The Bible offers instruction for anger management that is a comforting combination of common sense and firm instruction. We often need both when tempers flare. Consider the following kernels of wisdom: Slow down that quick temper. “A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.” -Proverbs 15:18 The Bible has a ...
  • What Causes Anxiety?
    How anxious are you? Are you anxious often? Are you often worried about being so anxious? If anxiety is constantly sneaking up on you, ruining your sleep and assaulting your peace of mind, you may wonder how to manage your worrisome thoughts. The first course of action is take time to understand what causes anxiety. ...
  • Leaving the Black Clouds Behind: 10 Ways to Ease Depression
    Is your depression blue? Possibly, but it’s probably darker than that. Maybe it’s gray and stormy. Maybe it’s black clouds, hovering over everything. Depression blocks out joy, pleasure, and most of the things you once found meaningful. It’s as though the distinct, vivid details of your life are blanketed in a dull, heavy haze. How long has ...
  • 8 Signs You’re a Facebook Addict
    Check the clock in the corner of your computer screen. How long have you been on Facebook? Two or three hours? All day? Is your smartphone in bed with you? Are you constantly “liking” posts or scrolling through fabulous selfies of countless “friends”? How much time have you spent composing yet another carefully-crafted status, designed to show ...
  • 10 Fun Ways to Renew Your Relationship
    Every couple has to work at keeping their relationship fresh after a while. Here are 10 ways to do just that: Rethink your smart phone: Use it or lose it. Too much screen time interferes with “we” time. Use it: Love tweets and sexy texts are a lot of fun. Lose it: “Facetime” should only ...
  • Dating after Divorce for Women: Three Ways to Know When You’re Ready
    What comes after divorce? What is dating after divorce for women really like? And… are you ready for it? Other people have a lot of advice. (When you’re divorced, there’s always plenty of advice…) “Come on, get back into dating right now” your girlfriends might say. But some popular psychology books will tell you that have to ...
  • How Trauma Early in Life Affects Neurodevelopment
    From the beginning, an infant can interact with his or her new world. The brain is ready and able to accept information from caregivers and the environment and, to some degree, regulate that input. Unless trauma gets in the way. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, childhood trauma may occur when a child ...
  • Phobia Treatment: What are Phobias and How are They Treated?
    Phobias are more common that you think and, for many people, a phobia can have a significant impact on their lives. This includes affecting how they interact with the world on a daily basis. However, there are phobia treatment options available for those who want help in addressing and treating their phobias. What is ...
  • The Emotional Abuse of Husbands: Underreported and Underserved
    Emotional abuse is not gender specific. Men have feelings too. All too often, men experience psychological assault as cruelly and unrelentingly as many women have endured. Unfortunately, men feel pressured to endure it silently. They feel confined by social norms and cultural ideas of what is manly and acceptable. Often, abused men will stay at work for ...