Wow, hard to believe but April 2024 marks the ten year anniversary of the formation of our practice! The journey into entrepreneurship and mental health care has been wild, but it's wonderful to reflect on the growth and success that our team has encountered along the way.
Anxiety disorders are very common in our culture. The fast pace of life, multiple roles that we play, and pressure to keep up with multiple demands at the same time can easily result in a diagnosable anxiety disorder. The most common anxiety diagnosis is called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which includes chronic worry about a variety of different topics, feeling on-edge and restless, feeling tense and having trouble relaxing. You also might notice sleep and appetite disturbances, and that your thoughts are sped up with GAD.
Depression is sometimes perceived as a character flaw, being overly emotional, or just having a bad day. It's not. It's a real condition with treatment options, and real consequences when untreated.
EMDR is a therapeutic modality that stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It was developed by a therapist named Francine Shapiro in in 1989, when she noticed a healing effect from side to side eye movements for anxiety and mental distress. The approach has evolved in many ways since that time. I recently attended a 3-day EMDR training to learn how to use this modality with my clients, and I am so excited to share it, especially for those individuals with either complex or single-incident trauma in their history. Complex trauma involves repeated exposure to abuse, neglect, life-threatening or terrifying situations. Single incident trauma, in contrast, occurs as the result of a one time traumatic event. EMDR is helpful for all types of trauma.
Let's give anxiety some consideration today. You've likely experienced it over and over. You may have heard about certain types of anxiety like phobias and panic attacks, or diagnoses like Generalized Anxiety Disorder or Panic Disorder. There are lots of levels and experiences of anxiety, and sometimes even different definitions of anxiety from person to person. Anxiety is essentially worrying, feeling afraid, overthinking, and sometime panicking.
The common thread is that anxiety exists and is real for all of us, because it stems from an innate human emotion...Fear.
I regularly encourage clients to develop a "self-care" plan as a way to manage the challenges and difficulties that life regularly presents to each of us. Self-care can be anything that provides a sense of ease and comfort, and varies depending on each individual. Sometimes we identify things like exercise, meditation, joining social groups, reading, watching movies, aromatherapy, hiking.
Have you ever wondered whether you or a loved one has post traumatic stress disorder? While an assessment by a trained mental health professional or doctor is required to diagnose any mental health condition, I'd like to share a few tools that can help you sort out your own experiences and learn more.
We just wrapped up our very first art therapy series at Flourish, and it was a great success. We found the physical and emotional expression of painting images, shapes, and colors on canvas to be a soothing exercise. Painting, drawing, and creating are ways to do something with emotional experience. Counseling is often about defining what you feel. And often clients ponder this question out loud, "so I know what I feel, what do I do with it?" Most often I answer, "accept". You don't need to do anything with the feelings, except acknowledge and accept.
April is Alcohol Awareness Month, and a good time to reflect about our alcohol intake and how it's affecting health and daily life. Drinking is often viewed as an integral part of socializing and even doing business with others. It's relied upon as an anxiety reducer and a social lubricant. It's no surprise then that it's easy to over-indulge and create unhealthy habits with drinking. Below are a few resources to help, if you think your alcohol consumption could be a problem.
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AuthorKambria Kennedy-Dominguez, LPC-S |