Posts Tagged ‘anxiety’

Expressive Art – A Mindbody Practice

Using mandalas as a healing expressive art form is a merging of Eastern and Western practices and thought. “Mandala” is Sanskrit for “circle” and is a spiritual symbol used ritualistically to represent universal wholeness. It is used a focal point in meditative practice. In Western practice, the mandala has been adopted as a tool for healing and self-discovery. The endless interlocking patterns can be envisioned as a pattern of different connected levels of the spirit, self and consciousness.

Read the rest of this entry »

Evidence-based mindbody practices help alleviate pain, depression and anxiety (Istock/Zen)

This year, 2014, Maasumeh Kaviani, Faculty Member at the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and her team of research scholars conducted a study to see the effects of using lavender aromatherapy during childbirth on pain intensity perception, duration of labor, maternal contentment and Apgar scores. The researchers found the use of the lavender aromatherapy lowered the perception of pain, improved maternal contentment, but did not reduce the duration of labor. Safely using lavender aromatherapy in the birthing room is inexpensive, has no side effects and may be a holistic way to help women manage their births.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many people in my psychotherapy practice struggle with coming to terms with childhood sexual abuse. Flashes of their silent past and the effects of the splitting of the self in order to survive, intrude on their present day life, so they come for support. I’m humbled to witness their heroic, creative work through their inner labyrinth of pain and love gradually towards integration and wholeness.

Istock/SergeyIT

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I’m participating in Kathy Bender’s of Bereaved and Blessed “Time-Warp Tuesday” exercise. The idea is to reflect on a past blog post. This month’s theme is Decisions.

Beginning to process this enormous event

Read the rest of this entry »

Spring was a great time for Women’s Reproductive Health events in New Jersey. I was fortunate enough to attend and also was invited to present at La Leche League of the Garden State’s Annual Conference in Jamestown, New Jersey. I also went to an event hosted by St. Clare’s Hospital and the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey.

I had so much fun meeting and seeing some virtual colleagues/friends, such as Ruth Callahan and Colleen White at LLL and Ivy Shih Leung and Irina Polanco-Ventura at St. Clare’s, and of course meeting new ones! Apparently, St. Clare’s has a kick-ass postpartum depression group. I was so glad to get pointers on getting my group in Wayne, NJ going to be as kick-ass as that one!

Read the rest of this entry »

There are no easy tips for coping with the tragedy

of the loss the families in Sandy Hook, Connecticut are experiencing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you live under a rock and don’t go out at all, you have to know that Jersey Shore’s Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is a mom!

Her baby boy, Lorenzo, was born this August. Snooki has been showing him off in beautiful pics on her official Twitter and Facebook feed.

Snooki became famous as a fightin’ boozin’ bad-girl with her group of pals on the show, Jersey Shore. Millions scrutinized her as she rumbled with her frenemies living in their Jersey shore rental house, partying it up, just like the rest of us Jersey-ites did as twenty-somethings (say what???).

Read the rest of this entry »

My Birth Story: Reliving, Rehashing, and Now Rewriting

by Brandy Ash Myers, NCC

Today is a beautiful guest post by Brandy Ash Myers, a wonderful on-line friend of mine.  She experienced postpartum obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress (childbirth onset) during the birth of her first child.

Now, during her second pregnancy, she was moved to write her birth story, as a facet of her own healing, and to help others heal.

Read the rest of this entry »

Benedetta Leuner, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio State University, released a new study on Saturday, 10/13/2012, during a talk at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in New Orleans.

Istock/Elana Vizerskaya

I’d love to share with you a chapter from new book, BirthTouch: Shiatsu and Acupressure for the Childbearing Year.

It’s available on Amazon for purchase

So – good question – how much stress in pregnancy is too much?

Read the rest of this entry »