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On Being a Client: Guideposts for a Smooth Counseling Experience
Most clients are initially nervous about counseling. Some even report that they still feel lost mid-way through. And frankly, why wouldn’t you? Counseling is a somewhat mysterious process both in its nature, and in the notion that there simply isn’t a lot written...
Lessons from Alice in Wonderland: We’re All Mad Here!!!
One of the more common questions I'm asked in therapy is, "Am I crazy?!!" My clients tend to wonder how they compare to all those "normal" people out there. This question calls to mind Alice in Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic, Alice in Wonderland (or at least the 1951...
Caring For Yourself Through Grief: 7 Tips
When we suffer a loss, all of a sudden a million things demand our attention: making arrangements, handling business, making sure the children are ok and dealing with our own feelings of grief and loss. It’s easy during these stressful times to forget to take care of...
Therapists Get Depressed Too?
I’ve been a little depressed lately.
Wait…did I say that out loud?
Doesn’t matter. It’s true either way. That’s right. I’m a therapist, and I’ve been depressed lately. It’s actually remarkable how predictable this sort of thing is for me.
Positive Thinking or Plain Ol’ Denial?
Thinking positively about the people in our lives acknowledges that they have flaws and faults which may have an impact on us, and allows us to make informed decisions about how to interact while still choosing to think of them positively. We do this by learning to...
How to Say You’re Sorry
Most of us having trouble saying we’re sorry. If some of our nation’s politicians (or the way we react to them) are any indication, apologizing is practically un-American. It runs against the grain of a people who’ve prided themselves on being first place at everything (even though we’re not – pride makes you blind that way).
Make Eggnog, Not Expectations
Whether we’re celebrating Advent, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, the arrival of Saint Nick, or good old-fashioned family-togetherness, it’s only natural that we look forward to this time of year with hope and eagerness in our hearts.
But sometimes all of that hope and eagerness can begin to look an awful lot like expectations. You know, the kind that inevitably lead to disappointment, frustration, or sadness. They seem especially potent around the holidays.
If You Want to Sing, Sing Out
The world teaches us to be all kinds of things, but very rarely are we taught how to be ourselves. We are taught to be on time. We are taught to be moral. We are taught to be consumers. We are taught to be professional, attentive, apologetic, submissive, but by God...
Should I Meet With a Therapist That is Younger than Me?
At Change, Inc. St. Louis Counseling & Psychiatry, we’ve gone of out our way to build a superior team of mental health experts. One of the things you may notice about our team is that we are…how do you say it? Fresh-faced? Sprightly? Something like that. This too is a deliberate hiring strategy on my part as the founder and clinical director of Change, Inc. at-large and a 13-year veteran of the mental health industry.
Helping Someone Through Trauma: Do’s and Don’ts
In January of 2012, a man jumped into the back of my best friend’s car and put a gun to my head.
We’d just left a work event and I had parked on a dark side street. My friend had offered to drive me to my car so I’d “be safe,” but before I could get out of her car we were robbed at gunpoint.