By Debbie Devine MS, LPC Diplomate

Click here to contact Debbie and/or see her GoodTherapy.org Profile

“I just can’t do ANYTHING right,” my client sighed as she settled further into the couch. ‘I should just accept that I am fat, depressed and a failure at relationships. Nothing will help me.”

And as long as she chooses to continue talking to, and about, herself that way, she WILL be overweight, depressed and alone, and most importantly, unable to change, regardless of her therapist’s skills. For the fact is that every cell in our body responds to what we think and say about ourselves. Read the rest of this entry »

By Mary Ellen Barnes, Ph.D., RAS

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Alcohol rehabilitation treatment providers are nearly universally wedded to the outdated 12-Step model that only works for approximately ten percent of the men they were designed for, much less for women. Women, and their usually differing needs, motivations, and solutions, are merely lumped into this one-size-kinda/sorta-fits-all category with predictably poor results.

Many women find it impossible to access help that addresses their particular circumstances, life stages, degrees of alcohol involvement, and other relevant factors. This isn’t surprising, because there are very few programs available that offer these services. Since women generally are more comfortable talking about problems rather than actively making the changes necessary to solve them, we tend to shy away from newer models of treatment that ask more of us. This is unfortunate. The older, 12-step model of treatment, that is readily found in group meetings, undermines our strengths and plays into the “victim” mentality that society imposes on women who drink too much, rather than addressing individual women and their unique situations. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Noah H. Kersey, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Noahand/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

It’s a bit disturbing to talk with engaged couples to hear all the various reasons why they choose to marry.

What many will not admit is that, sometimes, they are more in love with the “idea” of marriage than they are in love with the person they are about to marry.

Let’s examine this process from a physiological perspective.

When two people meet and begin their courtship they typically evaluate the relationship from their five senses. They might like how the person looks, how they smell, how they feel when they touch and so on. Then, they evaluate how the other person behaves in a variety of situations. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dr. Noah H. Kersey, Ph.D.

Click here to contact Noah and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

There are four key steps to being successful in the counseling process:

Willingness

Many who need counseling either will not seek it or they come for therapy and are not willing to make any changes in their lives. They want others to change; they want their environment or circumstances to change but they are resistant to doing anything different themselves. It is surprising how much emotional pain a person can endure because they have difficulty embracing the idea of change.

Many individuals have difficulty with the process of change because it can create much anxiety getting outside one’s comfort zone. For some, it’s just being a creature of habit and the known is more preferable than the unknown. New habits, new methods of doing things, and changing thinking patterns or behaviors take a great deal of energy and time, as well as courage. Read the rest of this entry »

By: Stefanie Luna, LMFT

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I just finished reading Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Fertility Doctors, An Oscar, An Atomic Bomb, A Romantic Night, and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother, by Peggy Orenstein. Now that’s a title! And a perfect one for the memoir that follows. Read the rest of this entry »

By: Jennifer B Baxt, LMFT, LMHC

When a family history of depression gets you down <!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

It is not uncommon for a family to have a history of depression. There are many cases where an individual who is suffering from depression does not appear to have an actual reason for suffering the depression. This is where this person’s family history can help them out. There are some people who appear to be genetically depressed, meaning that their family history shows that previous generations appear to have suffered the same problems. Genetic depression is still far from being fully understood. Studies are still being done in order to understand how genetic depression is passed down and how it can be treated in people before it becomes a real problem. Read the rest of this entry »

By: Jennifer B Baxt, LMFT, LMHC

It is often thought that depression more commonly affects older teenagers, adults and seniors, but children suffer from depression as well. Many suffer in silence without proper treatment because their parents don’t understand the signs and don’t seek help for their child as a result. This means that the child does not get the proper treatment they need and this can have a negative impact on the child’s future; how they interact with other individuals, the level of confidence they develop and so on. Many parents will instead become frustrated over their child’s behavior, mostly as a result of their lack of understanding of child depression. They are not familiar with the signs that would normally alert someone that the child is depressed and think that the child is just acting up for no good reason. Read the rest of this entry »

By: Jennifer B Baxt, LMFT, LMHC

Despite the common misconception among many single people, marriage is not easy. It takes a lot of work because life takes a lot of work. Life can be difficult and complicated enough for a single person, so when another person is involved it can become more complicated. Money is one of the many reasons that a marriage can break up, especially if times of financial distress has continued over a lengthy period of time. In fact, financial stress appears to be the cause of about 80 percent of all divorces. This goes to show just how stressful financial trouble can be for a couple who are both affected by it.

Read the rest of this entry »

By: Jennifer B Baxt, LMFT, LMHC

Anyone being asked how someone with anthrophobia could get help would probably provide a deceptively easy answer, especially if they are not familiar with what this type of phobia is. They would probably suggest that a person suffering from anthrophobia go in to see a therapist or a counselor. While this may seem like the obvious answer, it is one that might not be a choice for someone suffering from severe anthrophobia. Why is this? A person who has anthrophobia has an intense fear of other people, so leaving their home to go and see their therapist means that they will have to be near other people as they pass by them to get to the therapist’s office, then they will probably have to wait in a waiting room with other people until the therapist is ready to see them, and then they will be in a room alone with anther person when they go to talk to the therapist. This can all seem too traumatizing for a person with anthrophobia to do, so they will instead try their best to stay home and this means that they don’t get the help that they need.

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By: Kent Toussaint, MA MFT

Click here to contact Kent and/or see his GoodTherapy.org Profile

If you let your kid (and some of you probably do), I’ll bet he would sit in front of the TV or computer screen and blast mutant aliens, adventure to far away lands or score touchdowns all day long. In fact in his ideal world, all he needs is a feeding trough and a catheter and he’d never have to leave the couch! This is why video games can be your best friends. Read the rest of this entry »