Therapy and Counseling Articles

Here are some ideas to help you continue to make a difference for stressed, maladjusted, troubled, frightened, and vulnerable students during school vacations. *** Extend Your Reach: For some kids, their teacher may be the only sane, sober, caring adult they know, and then summer vacation comes. To extend the reach of teachers and other school-based youth workers who provide invaluable stability, safety, direction and nurturing, use this intervention: Address pre-paid post cards to the teacher (or other key school worker) at school, and give themr

Diets don't work. Hating your body doesn't work. Most people don't realize that prolonged "dieting" can contribute to a higher ratio of fat to muscle in your body. But what is the alte ative to dieting? Simply letting the old pattern rule? No! There is a peaceful way to work in harmony with your body and its neurobiology. Intuitive eating develops with simple skills anyone can learn. Why Dieting Doesn't Work

Until the last 10-15 years, scientist believed that our brains were essentially hardwired and we were not able to change them much over our lifetime. More recent research has proven without a doubt that we do have the ability to change our minds; that in fact we can actually change the neurons and neuronal networks in our brains.

I am a mother of two wonderful young adults, my natural born son and my daughter, who was adopted fifteen years ago from Kien Giang province in Vietnam. I write as a mother in search of information and connections specifically to families with children from Kien Giang, and as a professional sharing amazing stories about the power of thought, intention, and intuition, because I have another remarkable tale to tell.

For those who have grown up in less than ideal families subjected to one or more forms of abuse, some describe a defining moment that lifts them up and out of what feels like living hell. An intuitive insight or an amazing event creates a breakthrough clearing an emotional escape route towards the light of a healthier life. Have you had such a moment?

They’re here again! The wonderful days to gather with our friends and loved ones. The days of sharing stories over a cacophony of food items and exchanging gifts that somehow represent a physical manifestation of our love and adoration for others. While there are many reasons to feel uplifted during this season, many of us experience deep amounts of stress and anxiety. In this article I’ll list the most common holiday stressors and 6 ways you can say “Hell No!” to holiday stress so your days can be…Merry and bright.

Do you or your child toss and turn at night and experience daytime sleepiness? Have you or your child been diagnosed with ADHD, depression, or anxiety. Fifty percent of children in a recent study that had been diagnosed with ADHD had difficulty sleeping. They felt tired on awakening, had nightmares, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, trouble getting up in the morning, and significant daytime sleepiness. And stimulant medications further impaired their ability to sleep.

This time of year, we are often inundated with diets, cleanses, fasts, and programs that state outrageous claims saying they will “Change your life in 30 days,” “Lose 50 lbs in two weeks,” “Have the perfect body in 2 months,” and etc, all of which are, first and foremost, ridiculous claims and second, leading us to a very skewed view of health and happiness. Diets and weight loss don’t make us happy and outside of extreme situations, weight loss does not change anyone’s life.

Past life memories are not always totally accurate. Sometimes it is quite clear that a recalled description is inappropriate for the particular time and place being described. Other times, there may be obvious inconsistencies. This in no way negates the validity of these memories. Nor does it make all that is recalled untrue. There are several reasons why some of the past life memories may be inaccurate. First, the accuracy of the recalled memories is dependent on the level of trance achieved and the degree to which the client is immersed in the past life.

Coherence therapy is based on the premise that whatever difficulty you are having makes sense on a deeper emotional level. In other words, it is coherent and not a sign of dysfunction or irrationality. Discovering this hidden sense is the key to deep and lasting change.nnIt was developed by Bruce Ecker and Laurel Hulley in the 1990's as they sought to understand what makes certain therapy sessions so much more effective than others. They undertook a detailed study of all sess

Giving Voice to The Inner Parts Emotionally, we are made up of many different feelings, patterns and habits, which can be looked at as separate aspects of our personality. They can be called sub-personalities or personas, or just patterns. Each of these inner voices has an important message for the whole being, and a role to play.

In our increasingly complex and disturbed world it is clear that new methods are called for if we are to produce educated, well balanced young people who can take their rightful place as adults in society. Dance and education is a partnership which is finding a growing number of advocates. An ...

In cafés, restaurants and at the water cooler women complain that men don’t talk about their feelings. Admittedly, this is a stereotype.. Some women don’t talk and some men do. In any case, what do you do when your partner doesn’t talk? Some of the most difficult things to talk about are ...

Just how does one measure the value of therapy? It’s tempting to think the results are “intangible,” like “I’m less depressed or anxious about things tha I used to be,” or “I’m getting along with my co-workers better now.” Here’s another one: “I feel better about myself than before.” But ...

How much do your youngsters know about the risks of Meth dependency? Don't you suspect that your teenagers or their close friends might be addicted to Meth? Meth is one of the most addictive banned substances currently available. Sad to say Meth addiction has been becoming increasingly popular amongst teenagers across the country for several years now. There are various theories about the reason for this, all coming from conditions that young people often feel, including: * Anxiety * Melancholy * Low Self-Esteem * Lonesomeness or Fear of Rejection

Is this really ballet? I asked myself after watching video clips of the Cuban dance company Danza Voluminosa (Voluminous Dance) most of whose dancers range in age from 23 to 41and all of them weigh more than 200 pounds. This group was formed in 1996 by Juan Miguel Mas, now its' director and ...

Agoraphobics and those with social anxiety and shyness issues are often searching for more self-help tools and strategies to help them better manage their anxiety. Often, they are highly motivated to overcome their anxiety, but are afraid of venturing out of their safe zone. Online counselling and therapy provides a convenient and effective solution.

Start Doing This Immediately to Train Your Brain for Success! What I’m about to share with you in this article cannot be ignored. It has literally made the difference in my clients’ ability to gain control over their lives in remarkable ways.

Healing the impact of childhood abuse is a difficult yet hopeful process. If you were physically or sexually abused as a child, you may often feel fragmented, confused, vulnerable, and somewhat chaotic inside. You may have difficulty with trust and intimacy in your relationships, and your ...

I don't know about you, but I hate losing things. Losing things wouldn't be so bad if finding them wasn't such a chore. There's always the chance you'll never find what you were looking for. I was in this exact predicament today. I was at a store purchasing screwdrivers. I know, not the most exciting thing in the world, but it had to be done. I knew what store I was going to because I have their store credit card and also earned rewards to use for the purchase. I just couldn't find the credit card.

Our internal hidden memories live in the neurons of our brain. The more that we expand our thinking mind the more we connect with our hidden memories. When we have a belief in living only one physical life, we cannot comprehend the concept of how our hidden memories can and do dictate our physical behaviors through the control of our thinking mind. Our thinking mind can become conscious of the stored hidden memories in our brain, accept them as our present reality, and allow

Resolving your eating disorder means that potentially you will be without a way a coping with difficult and challenging experiences. It is therefore important that you develop alte ative coping strategies in parallel with working to resolve your eating disorder. This will feel difficult for a two reasons. Firstly, up until now you have been using your eating disorder to cope and so have not needed to explore alte atives.

Recently I was the Keynote speaker at a National MS Society Luncheon for caregivers; those persons who were involved with a family member with Multiple Sclerosis. In preperation for the luncheo I searched for information to add to my material. I found plenty of information for the family on the ...

Most of us probably do not realize that when we meditate or fast for a spiritual reason we are partaking in asceticism, one of the oldest known spiritual disciplines. Asceticism is the practice of rigorous self-denial and active self-restraint performed as a spiritual discipline. The origins of asceticism are traced to prehistory, to primitive and archaic society.

Today, we’re glad to be able to avail from so many different means of treating our problems or mental illnesses. There are all sorts of different therapies ,and depending on your personal choice, or your capabilities at the moment, you can choose between the different ways of helping yourself.rnThere are individual therapies, in which you and the therapist are the only people participating. There are a lot of different types of group therapy as well, for particular problems

Even if you use a wheelchair exercise is vital to health. Making time amongst the continual stuggle of balancing ones life may be difficult but it is not impossible. Working out and balanced nutrition go hand in hand. Many people are simply not naturally attracted towards physical exercise. For ...

Panic disorder affects between 3 and 6 millio Americans, and is twice as common in women. We all experience panic at some time in our lives, but those suffering from panic disorder experience panic attacks on a daily basis, and this form of anxiety can severely reduce the quality of life, making even simple activities like grocery shopping unmanageable. In its most severe form this crippling form of anxiety can lead to agoraphobia, a very intense fear of going beyond the safety zone of one’s own home. In such severe cases, it is wise to seek medical help.

Emotional distress is a part of life and serves a necessary function in terms of alerting us to problems that need to be resolved. Everybody therefore needs to be able to experience and tolerate a certain amount of distress. Trying to avoid unpleasant thoughts and feelings can actually lead to an increase in the experience of them, the more you try to avoid an experience the more it seems to pursue you. This more than likely has an evolutionary purpose because as long as the distress is avoided the source of the pain remains unresolved.

We often hear about Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) in our lives today. Have you ever wondered if you have it, or perhaps your child or spouse? In fact, ADHD was diagnosed in approximately 8%-10% of the school-age population in the 2000 census, 60% of whom eventually become adults with ADHD. This translates into approximately 4% of adults. That’s a lot of people.

As anyone with a fear of flying knows being afraid of flying can put real limitations on your life. Whether it’s affecting you at a personal or business level. The first important thing you need to know The first important thing you need to know is that fear of flying is a learnt behaviour and I am going to explain how and why you can overcome fear of flying. Humans are born with only 2 natural in built fears and they are the fear of falling and the fear of sudden loud noise

Featured in the Globe & Mail business section, Wednesday, March 9th, 2011r

My 14 year old son, Dakotah (the name has been changed to protect him, whether he's innocent, or not!), borrowed my eyeliner last week without asking me. Apparently, it is part of his *new* look. Hours in front of the bathroom mirror allow him "hang with his friends" feeling his absolute best. ...

Therapy is not an easy endeavor, but it is well worth the effort. Sometimes it is helpful to have an action plan for exactly how to work with your therapist and what to expect. Therapists and coaches are not magic workers, but rather people who provide guidance and the tools to help you get where you want to go (and also help you figure out what you want). Here are some tips for working with your therapist or personal coach: 1. Trust your therapist or coach. Going into ther

I love my job. I am a Core Energetics therapist. Core Energetics is a body-based therapy that combines the best of traditional talk therapy with therapeutic techniques—such as movement, sound, posture, breathing, and exaggerated expressions—in order to help clients experience deep emotions that talking alone can’t easily access.nnEvery day that I work with clients feels invigorating, challenging, and full of potential. Our sessions are filled with energy, li

Have you ever tried to tell someone something that you knew they would be hurt by or take the wrong way? Of course you have, and so have I. Being misunderstood is a common pariah. We all hate it and yet we often can’t finish a sentence without the other person: falling apart, or jumping in, or getting defensive, or even running away. How do you get someone to actually hear what you have to say? In a previous article, “How to Say Anything to Anyone”, I disclosed the secret of showing conce for the person you are speaking to and had having compassion for them.

Obtaining and measuring happiness is something that the UK government has been actively researching for a while now. It's rather curious that at this stage of our advancement, the notion of understanding and incorporating something so fundamental as happiness sounds as challenging as sending probes to Jupiter to try and fathom its nature. It just shows us how clueless we are emotionally and spiritually regardless of our technological advancement. For many people the 'big' questions are not 'what constitutes a happy life?

The way we think about ourselves and how others perceive us can be well-aligned or light years apart. This is often the case for managers and leaders, who can believe that they know what they are doing simply because they have been given the job. They can have difficulty recognizing that what they believe about themselves is very different than the experience of their direct reports, and can have a lot of trouble receiving feedback about the negative impact of their leadership behavior. This is particularly true for the Leader Striving Style.

Not too long ago, four local elementary school children ended up on respirators in the ICU after they each took 20 Coricidin tablets to get high. It was a good 36 hours before they were out of the woods. What started out to be an afte oon of fun, turned out to be a life-and-death struggle for the children and their parents. So, if you think that people (including kids) do not abuse over-the-counter drugs, think again. In my practice, I’m seeing this kind of abuse more and more. Hey, it’s cheap and it’s accessible (and, therefore a real problem).

It seems that everything is getting easier in this technological age. There are apps to help us eat better, walk more and even do a little bit of yoga on the go. We can even keep our bodies strong by staying active and paying more attention to the nutritional benefits that we derive from every attempt that we can make to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Most people don’t change; they just become more the way they already are.

The hills are green, flowers are blooming, neighborhood yards and trees are beginning to show leaves and buds. We typically shake off the winter doldrums at this time of year. But not this year. This year, people are despondent despite the fine weather and promises from a new administration. ...

People who suffer from panic attacks experience symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating, loss of control, feelings of impending doom, disorientation, and feeling trapped. Although those who suffer from this disorder feel debilitated, it is one of the most manageable syndromes to treat ...

Can I get stuck in hypnosis? Impossible! When under hypnosis you are always fully in control and able to open you eyes at any time, stand up and continue your day as normal after the session. Will my secrets be revealed? Hypnosis is not a truth serum. You are always aware of the process and in control of what is said or not said at any time.

The Art of Letting Go People often find themselves irritated, operating at their max capacity, or weighed down. Perhaps some feel as if they are gripping on tightly to certain aspects in their life and cannot let go, or simply feeling sad. Many individuals can identify the feeling, but have no idea where the root of the feeling resides. Finding the root of the issue and healing the unpleasant sensations it causes can be accomplished with more ease by learning to let go.

American psychologist Henry Murray (1893-1988) described needs as a, “potentiality or readiness to respond in a certain way under certain given circumstances” (1938). Human needs are the source of intrinsic motivation for all behavior and social interaction. We all have needs that we strive to satisfy in a variety of ways based on a hierarchy of favorite needs. If the conditions are right, and an individual’s dominant need does get met, they are poised for growth and the exploration of how they can seek greater levels of self-actualization.

How in-tune are you with your body and overall health? The body-mind connection is truly phenomenal and for those of us blessed with good health this automatic signaling system is often taken for granted until our health becomes compromised. As we learn to pay closer attention we become more fluent in understanding the body’s language.

“We have been put on this earth to discover our own path, and we will never be happy if we live someone else’s idea of life.”rn~James Van Praagh

“Identity” is one of the terms we use more and more often to explain our own actions. Although the term is quite frequently used it is not easy to define because it seems to get another meaning every time somebody uses it in another context.