How anxiety, irrational fear, obsessions and compulsions are maintained When we experience anxiety, fear, obsessions and compulsions that keep us from being our usual, charming selves, we are curious about “how we got this way?” Sometimes the answer can be obvious, for example, a trauma or the presence of a long-lasting stressful time could be…
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Setting SMART Goals
Setting SMART Goals This time of year everyone is talking about their New Year’s resolutions and trying to maintain a New-Year-New-Me attitude. While it is important to set goals for ourselves and to strive to be better with each passing year, we must also know how to maintain our motivation [see our blog on motivation…
Read MoreFacing Your Fears
Facing Your Fears Common sense seems to hold that we can best overcome fears by facing them head on. Admonitions like, “If you get bucked off, you got to get back up” encourage us not to give up due to fear. Recently, Jessica Cleveland and I presented a workshop to about forty other counselors on…
Read MoreDid I do something that caused my kid to have this anxiety or OCD?
Did I do something that caused my kid to have this anxiety or OCD? The answer would almost always be “no” to this questions. Some parents do place a lot of pressure on their children. Some are emotionally or physically abusive to their kids and these actions can cause fear or anxiety reactions. OCD or…
Read MoreAre you a perfectionist?
Are you a perfectionist? Do you find it difficult to do certain things less perfectly? I know I am, and I do from time to time. Being a perfectionist is not “bad” or as problematic as one might think, says researcher, professor and stock analyst, Philip Gnilka. In his research he talks about “adaptive” perfectionism,…
Read MoreComplete Treatment of Adult ADD
Complete Treatment of Adult ADD Look around at the people with whom you work, hang out with, or join on the freeway. About 1 in 20 of those people suffer from attention-deficit disorder. Making careless mistakes, having difficulty sustaining attention, and being easily distracted are three symptoms that can be dangerous on the freeway. As…
Read MoreMaking Every Day Heroes
Everyday life will be hard for everybody who lives, rich or poor, black, white, Latino, Asian, straight, gay, middle-class. You will experience or know tragedy and hard times. We will cope with illness, tornadoes will hit, we’ll lose jobs, somebody we care about will die. Life, as much as we love the good parts, will…
Read MoreExposure Still Proves To Be The Best Therapy for Panic
Panic is severe anxiety with extreme fear that comes on unexpectedly and makes a person feel “out of control.” In the latest copy of the Psychotherapy Net Worker, Dr. Reid Wilson, at the UNC School of Medicine discusses his successful exposure practice and protocol. Counselors at Behavioral Sciences of Alabama have also found this protocol…
Read MoreBody Image Obsessions in Children and Adolescents
Research Eating disorders and other body image difficulties are on the rise in young children. Many counselors around the world are reporting clients as young as 7 years of age talking about body dissatisfaction and dieting. In my own practice I have seen emerging concerns of this same nature. (1)In her article “A National Obsession,”…
Read MoreDisciplining Children in an Undisciplined World
Google child discipline and you get a long list of options that provide anything from information on parenting styles (i.e. authoritative, authoritarian, permissive) to DVD programs that claim to transform your children. Day after day I am asked by parents, “how to I get my child to behave?.” As the interview continues I discover…
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