Posts Tagged ‘Mental Health’

It was a few months before Sarah felt she trusted me enough to reveal what she felt was her deepest internalized shame.

Aromatherapy: Make Your Own Flower Essences

Think of flower essences as the Reiki of the plant world, as they work on the emotional and energetic levels of the body and mind. Flower essences are useful for people with highly sensitive nervous systems. Flower essences can also be thought of the homeopathy of the plant world. They were developed by a homeopath, Dr. Edward Bach. He believed many illnesses and ailments have emotional origins. Dr. Bach believed the health of the body depends on the health of the soul.

Herbal preparations come in different forms: fresh and dried herbs, tinctures, soups, teas, essential oils, hydrosols and flower essences. Essential oils are the most concentrated of the plant modalities, using a large amount of plants to create a small amount of concentrated plant oil. Because of the concentrated nature of essential oils, they must be used in dilution. I use them only in dilutions appropriate for sensitive people. 

You are busy! The office is humming! Things are totally running amok today! The phone is ringing and you’re working to finish details on a project due this week! You have people asking you questions and your boss asking you if things will be done on time….it feels like a tsunami of people, paperwork and computer work, all at once!

Attachment theory is a complex, broad theory that encompasses human, primate and mammalian behavior. It’s a biologically based relationship defined and strengthened (either positively or negatively) by the quality and quantity of social interactions with the baby’s immediate family and social environment.

A traumatic birth can be physically and emotionally devastating. Social support for those going through trauma treatment and for long-term survivors of trauma can improve quality of life, reducing anger, anxiety and depression.

Mindfulness skills can be applied to everyday life, used on an ordinary, everyday basis.

DBT’s Emotional Regulation Module teaches skills that help a person build up a base of positive experiences and regulate his or her emotions on a daily basis. 

Are You There Alone? is written by Suzanne O’Malley, an investigative reporter. She followed the tragedy in real time. She was present through Andrea Yates’ 5 weeks of court proceedings. To write this book, she read all of the transcribed trial testimony, 2000 pages of Andrea Yates’ medical records and interviewed nearly 100 people, including Ms. Andrea Yates and Mr. Rusty Yates, her ex-husband, to write this book.

Expressive Art: Creating Your Lifeline

The expressive art exercise called LifeLine is a positive tool in the therapy room. Getting an overview of your life can be a first step step towards self understanding and self acceptance.

David came in to see me because he had experienced a panic attack at work. The intensity of the physical and emotional feelings scared him.

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Joe’s a pretty emotionally balanced person with pretty good boundaries. And still, people got under his skin.  He came in to therapy to consciously develop and deepen his coping skills, so as to broaden and strengthen his emotional resilience. 

 In his personal life, Joe felt weighed down by negative gossiping.  His aunt called often to check up on him. He felt several ways about their relationship. He liked having an older adult to talk with. Yet, there was an (un)healthy dose of negativity served up with the caring as well. The mixed emotional messages were disconcerting. It was not something he had to cope within his own nuclear family.

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