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Parenting when you have a trauma history
I remember how healing it was to have my first child. I went through PTSD and had difficulty bonding, but I held him, nursed him, basically he was in my arms 24/7 because he cried so hard when I put him down. Then one day, the world had color – like the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.” I fell madly, head over heels with this little boy who grew in what I had believed was a corrupted, defiled, hideous body, but it did the most wonderful thing, it grew a baby. Oh, the healing I received. And, to be totally, unreservedly in love with this little boy was an amazing…
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Pandemic Resources for Mom (well for anytime!)
On this Mother’s Day, I’ve included a somewhat diverse set of imagery depicting mothers and children. But is it truly representative of our experience of motherhood? I couldn’t find images showing mothers trying to juggle working from home and managing online schooling. I couldn’t find mothers comforting crying children, or mothers in the middle of the night after a day of work outside the home or work inside the cooking, cleaning and doing laundry. I couldn’t find images of mothers who feel the loneliness that the pandemic has imposed on us. For mothers, there aren’t play dates to get together for support. In labor, for a period of time some…
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Addiction, Anxiety, attachment, Coping Skills, COVID, Depression, Mindfulness, Postnatal, Pregnancy, Somatic, Trauma
I can say NO? No Way! – Boundaries
How did you feel after you read through this list? Or did the title of the blog post simply kind of blow your mind off? The graphic above has some great prompts to think about when you are trying to establish some healthy boundaries. When we have grown up in homes where there was substance abuse, mental health struggles, financial issues, domestic violence, incarceration, physical, sexual, verbal or emotional abuse, we often develop a set of faulty beliefs about what we can say no to. We may become people pleasers, always molding ourselves around what we think others want of us. We may develop avoidant attachment styles where we simply…
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ACT, Addiction, Anxiety, Coping Skills, Depression, Mindfulness, Postnatal, Pregnancy, Relationships, Trauma
FACE COVID – An ACT Approach
I thought this was an incredibly helpful video that incorporates a number of key concepts of Acceptance and Attachment Therapy, ACT. Being mindful of what’s going on inside you now, committed action, being open to all the emotions that may rise up when we think and feel our thoughts about how COVID has and is affecting our lives, values – look for ways to sprinkle values throughout your day so that in spite of COVID, we are still focused on living our lives with meaning and purpose. If you think that you could benefit from individualized counseling using ACT, or you find that COVID has triggered some old traumas or is…
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Struggling with anxiety, depression or other “negative” emotions and disorders
I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with a lot of my clients who struggle with issues like depression, anxiety, OCD, social phobia and more. ACT gives us a path to help you move out of a stuck place into a life filled with meaning and purpose. This short little video demonstrates a technique used in ACT to “defuse” from the cycle of negative emotions that we can find ourselves caught in. We may notice that we’re having that familiar feeling of depression. As soon as we notice it, something like a switch goes off and we get all tangled up with our depression. We may then begin to feel angry that…
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How is COVID affecting your mental health?
At this point, I do not believe that anyone can deny that COVID has dramatically affected their lives. I hear of stories of adult children who are unable to visit their elderly parents in nursing homes. I know of another family whose mother was hospitalized, and they were unable to visit her during the hospitalization. Visits via online options like FaceTime were attempted, but often the visits did not happen. Nurses were busy and unable to assist elderly clients with the technology needed to facilitate the visits. So loved ones were separated not just by distance but even technology was unable to assist in keeping them connected. The statistics for…
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Grounding Box
Physical Grounding Box I’m going to give you two suggestions, a physical grounding box and a virtual grounding box. With a physical grounding box, find a box to contain items like this: small smooth rocks textured fabrics small sculptures fidget toys like fidget spinners, blocks, magnetic sculptures therapuetic putty or play dough or silly putty squishy ball squishy string essential oils like peppermint or lemon Include pictures – pets, safe places, friends Feel free to bring the box with you to in person sessions; and even more importantly, have the box with you for virtual sessions. Virtual Grounding Box music calming photos of the beach or nature photos of you…
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Stress Reduction Techniques
Here are a few of my stress reduction techniques – of note… I don’t include alcohol :)!!! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Notice 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste. If you need a printable document, click the link. Notice 5 things that are red or some other color in your room, or 5 things that are circle or rectangles Do square breathing – breathe in for 4, hold for 4, breathe out for 4, hold for 4 Do 7/11 breathing – breath in for 7 and out for 11 Notice…
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Addiction, Anxiety, Coping Skills, COVID, Depression, Mindfulness, Postnatal, Pregnancy, Trauma, Uncategorized
COVID-19 Response for Georgia
In my Marietta office, we are seeing clients face to face. Cleaning procedures are informed by the best practices described by the state of Georgia and the American Psychological Association (APA.) I clean the room in between each sessions which means I need to maintain a 55 minute session time. We do not require a form to be filled out as yet. But please check your temperature before you come for your appointment, verify that you and your household members are not sick with COVID and that you have not been exposed to the best of your knowledge to anyone who has tested positive. I will ask you all these…
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Addiction, Anxiety, attachment, Coping Skills, Depression, DID, Dissociation, Mindfulness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Somatic, Stillbirth, Trauma
What does “bottom up processing” mean?
A lot of effective therapy is considered “top down.” As in we talk, using our brain, cognitive work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a tried and true and effective method for therapy. I happen to use “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT ( pronounced like the work “act”) to do this cognitive work. But we know from research (in fact the more research that is done, the more it confirms this fact) that trauma memories are stored quite differently than regular memories. Trauma memories when re-experienced can feel here and now, and unending. Often times, they are experienced as “emotional flashbacks.” That is a feeling that has no words or explanation of…