Therapist Blogs for March 2012
Tips from Effective Counseling.org
What is Adult Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?
Adult ADD is what we call any of several syndromes that interfere with adults' psychological functions such as planning, managing time and tasks, and making decisions. People with this problem may experience difficulty in the following activities:
avoiding distractions
remembering and organizing information and things
starting and finishing tasks
being on time
set and ordering priorities
acting and speaking out inappropriately
What to do if You Think You Have ADD.
ADD is believed to be associated with abnormalities in various parts of the brain, especially the frontal lobes. At the present time, there is no definitive test for the disorder. The diagnosis is based on a thorough assessment of a person's present and past functioning and, if possible, the observations of a friend or relative who has observed the individual's daily behavior. The severity of the symptoms and their impact on the patient's life are important factors to consider in...
5 Tips for Listening and Talking to your Teenager/Child (or anyone!)
1 - Be Present
-Be in the moment and not distracted when talking to him/her. Put down the cell phone, don’t text or answer the phone.
2 - Acknowledge and appreciate their emotional reality!
-Try to find out where their reality is before you do anything else.
3 - Ask good questions
-Help your child understand their situation better – Most people ask questions to help them understand the situation better. A skilled question helps your child understand their situation better so they can figure out how they really feel and think about their situation.
4 - Offer perspective
-It is always helpful to know that there are options and choices to choose from in any given situation. Help your child feel not alone.
5 - If solution is need, give it in positive way
-Tell a story about someone you know or a time you faced a similar situation. Help instill confidence in your child that they too can handle the situation!
Adapted from Brian Burchard’s 5 ...
Managing Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) So It Doesn't Manage You!
How does someone with OCD manage their obsessions and compulsions? The answer would appear to be commonsense, right? Just quit worrying, stop performing compulsions (rituals), or maybe distract oneself so you think about something else. The more a person focuses away from the obsession (fear), the less it will affect that person in the future, right? Actually, these methods not only don't work to reduce the fear, they tend to make the fear and the resulting behaviors significantly worse. The most effective behavioral treatment for OCD turns out to be quite counterintuitive and strange for most people visiting my office for the first time. Individuals with OCD must learn to correct their cognitive-distortions by practicing different ways of thinking about what they fear. Clients in my office also learn to slowly confront their fears and worries by performing "experiments" during the week to ...
DATE CHANGE - New 4-Week Course: Source Energy & Disease Transformation
DATE CHANGE/Starting April 3 - Source Energy Transforms Disease & Optimizes Life - 4 week course
with Dr. Michael Picucci
April 3, 2012, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Over three decades ago, amidst a sea of healthy, young gay men whose
consciousness and life-styles could be described as expansive, I celebrated a
hard-earned freedom some people will never know. Then suddenly, many
became very sick and started dying. I, too, became terminally ill. It wasn’t
even called AIDS then, and HIV had yet to be discovered.
This poignant history, and the unique perceptions I’ve drawn from it, are
what taught me that disease can become a teacher of love and wholeness. I learned
that through the opening to new perceptions of Source Energy that Disease
Transformation is the naturopathic shifting of our perception and
experience of a disease. It is cultivating a transcendent perspective about
our ailments that is nonlinear and multidimensional, evoking an experience of
peace and spaciousness.
Disease trans...
Tips to Raising Teens
Tips to Raising Teens
Miriam Koenig, M.S., M.F.T.
Many parents dread the teen-age years, but they can actually be the most rewarding years of parenting. As always, knowing your child is a key component to successful parenting. This becomes a little trickier during the teen years when kids are less open. It’s helpful to have a general idea of what is going on during these years.
Beginning at puberty, kids go through many changes that can be quite disconcerting. They often don’t feel comfortable in their own skin and hormones can make them moody. Additionally, the brain goes through major changes during adolescence. Right before puberty, there is a growth spurt where neural connections proliferate in the cerebral cortex. This process peaks around puberty and then the brain begins a pruning process where some neural connections are eliminated. This process will ultimately produce a better brain that will be suited to the demands of adulthood. It’s important for parent...
Shyness... Overcome it!
5 Pieces of Advice for Dealing with Shyness and Social Anxiety
I have very few friends...
I am quite often tense, nervous and anxous...
I don't know how to keep a conversation going....
I am very shy, self-conscious, quiet and insecure...
Do these sound like something you would say? Do they sound all too familiar? If so, read on! Shyness and social anxiety are very common disorders. The causes are many, but most people can overcome social anxiety without professional counseling. If you have social anxiety, and/or are painfully shy, the effects can be pretty unpleasant. You may feel isolated, self-conscious or nervous in group settings and may even experience physical symptoms as well. Some people get sweaty palms, trembling hands or feel discomfort or nausea in the stomach. There are several proactive steps you can take that may help in overcoming shyness and social anxiety.
Let's take a look at 5 different methods and tips. If you experience such a great degree of discomfort that...
Anti Depressants - do they really work?
Recently CBS Tv did a special report on 60 minutes which exposed that for Mild, Minimal or Moderate depression - anti depressants did not work any better than placebos (sugar pills). What has your experience been?
Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) in Solana Beach 4/17/12-6/5/12
Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) in Solana Beach 4/17/12 - 6/5/12
Thomas Gordon's award-winning parenting group for effective communication, cooperative problem-solving, and conflict resolution that builds closer relationships begins in Solana Beach on Tuesday, April 17, 2012. Emphasis is on helping both parents and children increase self awareness, understanding, mutual respect. Parents report finding themselves enjoying their children more as their children become more responsible, cooperative, even creative.
Class begins Tuesday, April 17, 6:30 - 9:30, runs for 8 sessions through June 5 at Santa Fe Montessori School, 1010 Solana Drive, Solana Beach, CA 92075. Tuition is $250 per person, $375 per couple, and includes a textbook and workbook.
CONTACT: Catherine Dickerson, LCSW
858-481-8634
cedickerson1@roadrunner.com
Dr. Gordon had a remarkable respect for the needs of both parents and children, and an ability to identify and teach essential skills to help parents meet those needs...
Understanding Secure and Insecure Attachment
Understanding Secure and Insecure Attachment
John Gerson, Ph.D.
It should be our goal as parents to raise our children to be secure people. Fortunately, most of us have implicit knowledge of the behavioral ingredients that combine to promote security. That implicit knowledge most likely comes from the lucky experience of having been parented by parents who were themselves “securely attached.”
Of course, not all of us have been so fortunate, and have experienced a particular quality of early mothering that deposited us as infants and toddlers in the category of “insecurely attached.” Richard Bowlby, the British Psychologist son of the father of Attachment theory, John Bowlby, notes that in theU.K.approximately 55-65% of the population are insecurely attached, and 45-55% insecurely attached.
These categories, securely and insecurely attached, are defined operationally through the observation of a toddler’s behavior upon separation and reunion with his mo...
What to do if Your Spuse Won't go to Counseling
What to do if your spouse won’t go to counseling
John Gerson, Ph.D.
The scenario of one spouse recognizing that therapy might be useful to look at a troubled relationship while the other is resistant has several possible explanations.
It may be that your partner has become too anxious as a product of interpreting your request for counseling as a sign that the relationship is in serious danger, and may only have the strength to defend against the anxiety by denial and non-participation. Your partner may also feel too threatened by the notion that he or she is to blame for your relationship difficulties, and visualizes a therapy session as one in which you persuade the therapist of this unilateral conception. The fear here is that of you being the complaining, “righteous” partner who co-opts the therapist in a biased alliance against him or her. In addition, your resistant partner may not feel as competent to present his or her case to the therapist as you might, sin...
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