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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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.

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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. (more…)

By David W. Earle

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

David Wright (Wright)- Interviewer

Our author today is David W. Earle, LPC, whose entire business is built around conflict. No, he is not a terrorist, but every one of his disciplines revolves around releasing the creative energy of conflict; use conflict correctly, and positive results are extremely likely. (more…)

By David W. Earle

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

“Watch me grow, Mommy!” the five year old daughter of Joy Irwin exclaimed. Her small child was tip-toeing up over the cabinet to see her little face in the mirror. After each stretching exercise she exclaimed, “Watch me grow Mommy!” Her mother was busy getting ready for work with lunches to pack, hair to brush, and changing the diapers on the youngest. “Watch me grow, Mommy!” She exclaimed again with the intensity and the receptiveness that only a five-year old can inflict upon parents. (more…)

By Patti Desert, LCSW-C, CEMDR, CP

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

People suffering anxiety often focus on fearful thoughts of losing control or going crazy.  Thoughts can trigger anxiety but it is the body’s response to the threat conveyed by our thoughts or our senses that accounts for anxiety.  In other words, anxiety is the felt sensation of our body reacting in some distressing way.  Some of those reactions include:  increased heart rate, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, choking sensation, tightness in chest or elsewhere in body, nausea, dizziness, numbness, chills or hot flushes.  Fortunately, it is through breath therapy that we have a means to calm our body and relieve the pain. (more…)

By: Greg Madison Ph.D.

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

Abstract - Community Care is often seen as an enlightened and
compassionate response to the needs of the mentally distressed.
However, a discussion of the development of community care
policy and a look at attitudes of the community to those
experiencing distress suggest that this is not so. Uncaring
community attitudes seem to be a result of current policy. The
tragedy at Dunblane highlights the urgent need for a return to the
original philosophy of care in the community. This philosophy
maintains that a policy of mental health care is inseparable from
social policy on the whole. This paper is presented in the spirit of
encouraging existential-phenomenological therapists to attend to
the realm of social critique by describing the nature of our
communities and their impact upon our clients and ourselves. By
developing a phenomenological way of addressing the context of
our interactions with others, could we develop a valuable social
dimension to our work as therapists? (more…)

By: Shawn

“Learn untold things about relationships that will absolutely boggle your mind - things you thought never matter.  You are going to discover what you don’t know… that you don’t know!” (more…)