Seeking Growth

Feeling stuck? Try EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. EMDR is an eight-phased, scientifically validated, integrative psychotherapy approach based on the theory that much of psychopathology is due to traumatic experiences or disturbing life events. These result in the impairment of the client’s innate ability to process and to integrate the experience or experiences within the central nervous system. The core of EMDR treatment involves activating components of the traumatic memory or disturbing life event and pairing those components with alternating bilateral or dual attention stimulation. This process appears to facilitate the resumption of normal information processing and integration. This treatment approach can result in the alleviation of presenting symptoms, diminution of distress from the memory, improved view of the self, relief from bodily disturbance, and resolution of present and future anticipated triggers. In the broadest sense, EMDR is intended to allevi...

It's that time again.....THE HOLIDAYS. For many people this congers up either excitement or dread. In my business, it's most often the dread that we talk about. I think the dread comes from a hopefulness that THIS year will be different. This year my life and the people in my life will act, treat me, remember, etc, etc..... and be exactly like this image I hold in my mind of the "perfect" holiday. Unfortunately, for most people that haven't experienced great years of holiday memories, this year will most likely not be that much different if you continue to associate with those difficult people. Why do we set ourselves up for this fall every year? I think it's because by human nature, or our neurological hard-wiring, many of us are optimists. We want to believe that this year, people in our life will grow up, take responsibility for themselves, have a moment of clarify about their dysfunction, treat us kindly, or change for the better. We want to live in that...

In addition to my work as a psychotherapist, I am a career counselor at a local technical college. In this role I have the pleasure of working with students from around the world. I am so in aware of the students that I meet that have left economically or politically oppressed countries to come to the United States to try and start a new life. Some of the most awe inspiring stories are those individuals who are very well educated and held professional careers in their home countries, yet come to the US and have to work in positions that are the bottom-rung in a profession where they were at one time in an advanced standing. I spent the morning today with a woman from the middle east, who worked as a physician in a hospital for 9 years before coming to the US. Here, she needs to work as a nursing assistant, making probably $10.00 an hour, because she loves working in healthcare and this is the only position that she is licensed to do here. She told me she is spending the next two-three ...

Most women don't know a whole lot about menopause. The focus on women's health during adolescence is how to avoid pregnancy and during adulthood it's how to achieve pregnancy. When midlife rolls in, I'm finding that so many physicians don't have a lot of offer women regarding support for the midlife, or perimenopausal transition. According to my favorite women's health authority, Dr. Christine Northrup , menopause typically occurs between the ages of 45-55. I think most women have a sense of this. What I feel most women and many of their physicians don't realize is that perimenopausal symptoms can occur for a full five to ten years BEFORE that. So, when I see a women in her mid-to late-thirties who is having perimenopausal symptoms and I discuss this with her, the response is usually one of shock and disbelief. She usually has no idea that things such as mood swings, irritability, difficulty sleeping, and "fuzzy thinking" can all be early men...

The days are getting shorter and the sky is darker during the day. I've been noticing it myself, but in the past few weeks so many of my clients have too. I've had many people sigh and say, "Winter is coming and it's SO long!". Last night at 5:00 it was dark, thanks in part to going off Daylight Savings time. The number of people that have commented to me recently about the winter, the cold and the lack of sunlight coming, make me more acutely aware of the anxiety some people experience related to the beginning of our "dark season". Thinking about this, I did some research recently. I wanted to present lots of helpful information for ways to combat the "winter blues". There are many treatments that have been tried and found to be effective for treating Seasonal Affective Disorder, but unfortunately, there have been some recent studies which have questioned the efficacy of them. What I'm referring to are: full-spectrum lamps and Vitamin D. P...

My youngest child is off to Kindergarten this fall. It's a full day program in our district, so it's been an adjustment for both of us. I know he was ready to go--his little brain was on overdrive, hungry for the stimulation of school. I too, was ready, with a list a mile-long of projects that had gone unfinished for years while chasing little kids around the house. The first week of school felt very surreal. I had the sensation that I had to keep looking over my shoulder. The house was too quiet which meant he must be into no good, then only to realize that he wasn't here but at school! It's taken me a few weeks to lose the hypervigilance that one assumes with an active child in the house. Now it feels that the one remnant of this change which still feels odd, of all things, is eating lunch alone. The mornings, afternoons and evenings are filled with work at home or the office, and shuttling kids to and fro. It's lunch time which has a melancholy feel. I someti...