Did you know that on most days, the average person has between 25,000 and 50,000 thoughts? That’s an impressive amount of thoughts. But when happens when the majority of these thoughts are negative? Imagine the impact on your psyche and your life if you had thousands and thousands of negative thoughts each day? This amount of negative […]
Continue readingHealing from Childhood Emotional Neglect
Many of us were raised with the notion that kids are meant “to be seen and not heard,” meaning ‘don’t speak until you are spoken to.” While this idea may have only meant to keep the volume down at the Thanksgiving table, it can have negative ramifications on a child’s psyche. Worse still, there are […]
Continue readingOvercoming Addiction: How Loved Ones Can Help
For decades, individuals suffering from addiction have traveled the same route toward recovery with some measure of success. That route entailed combining a recovery program, such as AA, with therapy. The problem with this traditional route is that therapists and program leaders had only marginal potential for influencing patients outside the office or treatment center. […]
Continue reading3 Essential Listening Skills to Improve Your Relationship
One of the most important aspects of a healthy relationship is communication. When both partners understand how to communicate properly, they feel loved, connected and secure. But when effective communication is lacking, both people can become defensive, and the relationship can be mired down in distrust, misunderstanding and resentments. When couples are hitting rock bottom, […]
Continue readingWhy Anger is Different from Other Emotions
Of all the emotions, anger is perhaps the one that most people have the hardest time dealing with. That’s most likely because anger is not like the other emotions. It is unique. In fact, a 2017 survey by the Mental Health Foundation of 2000 people found that 28% are sometimes worried about the level of anger that […]
Continue readingWhat is PTSD?
Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that typically occurs after individuals have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a serious accident, natural disaster, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault. In the past, PTSD went by different names. During and right after the years of World War 1, the […]
Continue readingHow to Tell if You’re a Highly Sensitive Person
Some people seem to be born with nerves on the outside of their skin. These people tend to be more sensitive than their parents, brothers and sisters, or the kids in their class. They can’t get through a movie (even a comedy!) or a TV commercial without shedding a few tears. The slightest bit of […]
Continue readingCreative Ideas for Improving Communication in Your Relationship
Whether conducted in the United States or far off lands, many surveys find the number one reason for divorce is poor communication. Beyond having different communication styles, issues often arise when both partners are not comfortable talking about their feelings. The good news is, talking about feelings is not the only, or even necessarily the best, […]
Continue readingAre You Playing the Blame Game? Here’s Why You Need to Stop
Blame and game – two words that should never be joined together. The truth is, the blame game is no fun to play and there are never any winners. And, perhaps, the biggest loser of all is the one who is doing all the blaming. When we blame others, we lose our power. Remaining stuck […]
Continue reading4 Ways to Support Your LGBTQ Child When They’re Facing a School Bully
It’s easy for adults to forget what adolescence was like. The frustrations of figuring out the sometimes-foreign world around us combined with the cocktail of raging hormones that set our emotions off at the drop of a hat. Man, being a kid was hard! What can make an already-hard situation even harder for a young […]
Continue reading3 Ways to Communicate Better With Your Partner
If you’ve ever been in a romantic relationship, you know firsthand how frustrating it can be. Once two people start sharing more and more time together, perhaps even begin living under the same roof, arguments are bound to happen from time to time. Sure, you both started out on your best behavior – you both […]
Continue reading3 Ways to Minimize Seasonal Depression
Seasonal depression, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD for short, is a form of depression that typically impacts people during the winter months, when exposure to sunlight and temperature changes naturally occur. Research indicates that about six percent of the American population, primarily those people living in northern states, suffers from SAD. It is […]
Continue reading5 Signs That You Might be Struggling with Anxiety
It’s normal to feel anxious from time to time. Perhaps you get a bit nervous speaking in front of people or going on a job interview. But for some people, anxiety becomes a frequent and forceful occurrence that completely takes over their lives. Since anxiety comes in many forms, for instance panic attacks, phobias and […]
Continue readingHow to Reduce Fighting Over Money & Budgets
If you and your partner argue about money, you’re not alone. According to a recent survey, 27% of Americans said that disagreements about finances tend to erupt into full-blown arguments. This means couples fight more about money than they do about work, chores or the kids (http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2010/10/18/the-biggest-money-mistakes-couples-make). Perhaps even more disturbing is that arguments about […]
Continue reading5 Ways to Recognize Addiction Before it Takes Over
Drug and alcohol use in this country is on the rise, with over 23 million Americans addicted. To put that into clearer perspective, that’s one in every ten people in the United States over the age of 12 that are currently struggling with substance abuse. But what is addiction exactly, and how can we recognize […]
Continue readingLow Self-Esteem: What is it? What to Do About it
Self-esteem is an opinion we have of ourselves; a way of placing value on ourselves as people. While we may voice characteristics such as “I’m American” or “I have brown eyes,” these are facts that don’t carry a negative or positive connotation. A low self-esteem suggests we carry a negative opinion of ourselves. For example, […]
Continue reading3 Ways Individual Counseling Can Help Your Marriage
Even happily married couples can hit obstacles along the way. When this happens, couples can either go it alone and try to work through their issues themselves, or they can seek the guidance of a trained and experienced marriage counselor. While some couples feel their problems should be kept private, many more are finding the […]
Continue reading4 Ways to Better Understand & Cope with a Midlife Crisis
It is said that if you live long enough, you’ll eventually hit middle age. Once they hit that mark, many people begin to look around at their life and notice what is working and what isn’t. Unfortunately, some people notice much of their life isn’t working, at least not in the way they thought it […]
Continue readingA Few Causes of Low Self-Esteem & How to Improve
The origin of many human behaviors can be batted around in the nature/nurture debate. But when it comes to self-esteem, we know with absolute certainty there are always external causes of it. No child is born with low self-esteem; rather self-critical thought patterns develop over time as a result of external stimuli and input from […]
Continue readingTreat Yourself: The Importance of Putting Yourself First & Self Care
Most children are brought up to be kind and respectful of other people. They are taught to consider others’ feelings and help those in need. But when it comes to taking care of themselves, many people lack the ability to put their own needs first. To some, the concept of self-care is as foreign as […]
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