Self-esteem is in essence a measurement. We rate ourselves against a variety of criteria to come up with a value of our worth. The big problem is that we often rate ourselves against impossible criteria and judge ourselves too harshly and produce an inaccurate picture. I have been offering online therapy for over 10 years. During that…
“I used to love running, but I gave it up when my depression got too bad.”. Such a sad statement, and one I hear often from psychotherapy clients: its often just at the moment #fitness would do someone the most good that its most difficult to start or continue. Fitness really does boost your mood…
These days we throw the words “narcissist” and “codependent” around like confetti. It is easy to label someone who appears self-centered as the former and one who gives a little bit too much as the latter. Despite the fact that we can easily recognise these traits in people, it is always dangerous to label people…
I recently had a deep and rather philosophical conversation with a client concerning how much we can truly exercise free will in our lives. Him, going through a difficult period in his life, preferred to believe that we have limited free will and most things that happen to us were predetermined in some shape or…
With the rapid increase of child and adolescent cases of anxiety, parents are scrambling trying to help their children from falling deeper. Some of the most widely used methods of coping with anxiety are cognitive behavioral therapy and art therapy as well as common medications. Although there is evidence that both approaches work, only half…
As we all know, puberty is a very stressful time. It’s a time of change in multiple facets of adolescent lives: physiological, physical, psychological and social as well. It takes some time to get used to all the turmoil. Some of the most shocking physical changes are the growth spurts, new growth of hair and…
How many times have you said to yourself I need more self-control to (fill in the blank: eat better, get to bed earlier, have a challenging conversation, workout more and the list goes on)? It is often a discouraging and frustrating process because you feel like you should be able to do it and you…
This is a great blog from our therapist, Melanie Rodrigues on how to lower stress on those high stress days. I am sometimes baffled by the array of “simple” self-care tips that I see floating around in the mental-health field. According to many sources, it is essential in addressing your depression or anxiety to be…
The point of trying something new is to try something new. I frantically repeat this Radically Open DBT principle in my mind while standing with wobbly legs and then falling from my paddle board into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This wasn’t even my idea! Embarrassment knocked at the door of my…
Recently I made the trek to our pediatrician’s office to participate in the time-honored tradition of getting flu shots for my kiddos. Fun, right? There’s nothing I like more than holding my babies down, one after the other, while they scream and kick. Ugh…miserable! The entire drive to the office, my oldest child was making…