Long Island EMDR provides a safe space where clinicians are able to truly care for their patients.
The Importance of Family Therapy
The Importance of Family Therapy The common reasons why families go to family therapy are emotional and behavioral problems. These problems are not a child's fault alone, but rather a product of their environment, which is the family. Although the term family is often associated with blood relatives, it also refers to those individuals who […]
Mental Health Benefits of Cleaning Out and Tidying Up
With the holidays looming near, we often feel overwhelmed in a variety of ways. This time of year can often bring added feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression. It seems like there is always something to do between gatherings, shopping, and preparing for our own festivities, and little time to focus on our own mental […]
Depression is a challenging mental health diagnosis, to say the least. It is a complex mental health disorder and disease of the brain, occurring when certain brain chemicals become imbalanced. Depression has social, psychological, and biological origins, and can be triggered by many factors, including stressful life events, genetics, illness, and more. Due to the […]
Sometimes we convince ourselves that taking time to recharge is a luxury we can’t afford. However that is not true. Whether we can proactively allot an hour a day for ourselves or we have an unplanned ten minute gap between two meetings, we have time to take for ourselves.
deep meditations in a forest somewhere. These are both wonderful practices but may not resonate with everyone. Mindfulness is the practice of doing one thing, with your full attention, at a time. When we allow ourselves to focus solely on one thing and permit ourselves to be in the present moment, we give ourselves the opportunity to be fully engaged in the here and now moment rather than having one foot in the present and the other in whatever our mind is thinking about. This can sound challenging at first but with effort, we can give ourselves the tools to enhance our concentration, decrease our stress and fully attune to what is going on around us.
We all give and receive love differently. This makes connecting with a partner, friend or family member with a different love language challenging if we do not realize what our different love languages are. In 1992, Gary Chapman wrote The Five Love Languages: How To Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate, where he outlines each form that we can give or receive love and affection from meaningful people in our lives. You can have more than one love language and most likely identify with each, however we all express love primarily through one of the five languages of love below. By understanding our love language and that of those around us, we can begin to develop a map of how to enhance or maintain our connection to important people in our lives.
A traumatic event is an occurrence that overwhelms our stress response system. When we endure trauma from someone close to us we can develop a trauma bond, especially when we experience trauma repeatedly by an attachment figure. A trauma bond occurs when the abused develops sympathy or affection towards their abuser. This can happen over any time period and rarely, if ever, develops into a healthy relationship. A trauma bond can cause the abused to experience guilt, confusion and self-judgment when analyzing their feelings towards their abuser, however this type of bond, while unhealthy, can originate from a protective place in the abused person.
5 MYTHS ABOUT DEPRESSION As with most mental health diagnoses, there is a significant amount of misinformation that is circulating among the general public. Centuries ago, individuals with mental health issues were looked down upon by society, thought to be of weak moral character, purposefully deviant or difficult, or possessed by evil spirits. Although we […]
Rest and relaxation is a large piece of self-care needed to keep our mental health in check. The saying “you can’t help others unless you help yourself” is really true. We need to restore ourselves and fill our cups before we can take care of those around us. But for many “resting” can seem like a luxury or even uncomfortable. This post is a reminder of the many different ways we can “rest” and restore our selves.
Are you familiar with that that voice that is just below the surface, undermining your accomplishments, diminishing your strengths, and playing off your deepest insecurities and fears? This voice may follow you to work, accompany you to social gatherings, be by your side when attempting to accomplish your daily responsibilities, and whispering in your ear […]
I often hear form clients frustration about so many things beyond their control. Believe me, I am also frequently annoyed at things beyond my control. But knowing what things are within and out of our control can help us to feel more in control. Sounds strange but I promise it’s true. What Happens When we Focus […]
Flashbacks are our brain’s way of processing traumatic events that we’ve experienced. Our subconscious taps into those important memories but they are not contained- meaning they tend to spill out everything related to the traumatic event. For many individuals, this experience can be just as terrifying as the initial event. Flashbacks usually happen without warning. […]