The Benefits of Virtual Counseling: Therapy That Fits Your Life

by | Counseling for Adults, Counseling for Teens

WRITTEN BY: JENNIFER PATRICK, LMSW

Have you ever felt like life’s challenges are piling up, leaving you stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed? Maybe you’ve considered therapy but hesitated because of the time commitment or the thought of going to a therapist’s office. That’s where virtual counseling, or telehealth counseling, comes in. You can use your computer, phone, or tablet, right from the comfort of your own home. This is especially helpful when you’re strapped for time.

Easy Access, Anytime, Anywhere

One of the biggest perks of virtual counseling is its accessibility. You can easily connect with your therapist at a time that works for you. Whether you’re at home, at work, or even on the go you, as long as you have a device you can have your session. This flexibility makes it easier to fit therapy into your life than to fit your life into therapy. This means you can get the help you need without the added stress of time constraints.

Comfort and Privacy

Talking about your feelings can be tough. Doing it in a space where you feel safe and comfortable can make a big difference. Virtual counseling allows you to choose the space that feels best for you. This could be your favorite chair at home, your car where you know it’s quiet and secure or any other private space. Plus, without the worry of running into someone you know in the waiting room, you can focus entirely on your session. For those with social anxiety or a fear of being in public, virtual counseling is a great option. It lets you have therapy without the extra stress of being in public. You can be yourself more easily in a private and cozy space.

Consistency, Even in Uncertain Times

Life can be unpredictable. Sometimes circumstances make it difficult to attend in person therapy sessions. Virtual counseling ensures that you can stay connected with your therapist, no matter what’s going on in the world. Whether school aged kiddo is home unexpectedly or you’ve only got an hour to attend therapy before your own work commitments, virtual counseling allows you to still have therapy without missing other important commitments. However, it’s important to be sure you are in the state where your counselor is licensed, even for virtual sessions. Our counseling doesn’t cross state lines which means you can’t be out of state when you have your therapy session.

Proven Effectiveness

But does it work? The good news is, YES! Research has shown no statistical difference in outcomes between virtual and in person counseling. Virtual counseling can help you manage stress, anxiety, depression, and other emotional challenges. It’s just as effective as in person sessions. It’s a great tool that can help you learn new coping skills, gain insight into your thoughts and emotions, and improve your overall well-being.

A Therapy Experience Tailored to You

Virtual counseling isn’t just about convenience. It’s about creating a therapy experience that works for you and your busy schedule. It allows for a personalized approach. Whether you’re looking for a deep dive into your emotions or a session with a touch of humor to lighten the load. Your therapist can meet you where you are (literally and figuratively). This helps you navigate your mental health journey with the support and guidance you need.

As you start your therapy journey, we would encourage you to think about the words from Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” In times of hard times, these words can be a source of comfort, reminding you that you are not alone. Whether through your faith, your therapy, family or both, there can be hope and healing ahead.

If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, or just need someone to talk to, give virtual counseling a try. It’s an accessible, private, and an effective way to take care of your mental health, all while fitting seamlessly into your life. Virtual counseling could be the key to feeling better and living a more balanced, fulfilling life- whether you’re in your pajamas on the couch or dressed in your best business casual during a lunch break.

Anxiety Attack Symptoms

Anxiety Attack Symptoms

by | Counseling for Adults, Counseling for Children, Counseling for Teens

Anxiety attacks are scary and confusing. Your mind races, your body reacts negatively and you fear something is wrong. Many go to emergency rooms, urgent care clinics or hospitals to see what’s going on. This article will talk about common symptoms of an anxiety attack and how to calm down before getting some extra help from a mental health professional.

What is an Anxiety Attack?

An anxiety attack is a problem that begins in your thoughts. I know, strange right? The thoughts you create in your mind can come out through your emotions, which then comes out through your body. If you think anxious thoughts, you feel anxious feelings, which then leads to anxious actions or in this case, an anxiety attack. An anxiety attack is felt in the body, but starts with the racing thoughts. 

Common Symptoms of an Anxiety Attack.

The following are symptoms of anxiety attack:

  • increased heart rate,
  • increased temperature,
  • heart racing,
  • feeling on edge or fearful,
  • racing thoughts,
  • shortness of breath, and/or
  • feeling as though you can’t breathe.

What does an Anxiety Attack Feel Like?

An anxiety attack will make you feel you can’t breathe and like there is something pressing firmly on your chest. Anxiety attacks are described by many as a stroke or small heart attack. It feels like your chest is in pain and something is wrong with your heart or lungs. You can’t catch you breath and begin to hyperventilate. Others times you feel you can’t breathe and worry you will pass out. Worse yet, is the fear of dying. These are the reasons many often go to a medical place first.

It’s usually with loads of medical testing and negative results doctors find it was likely an emotional or mental issue. It’s easy to understand when you take a step back. Look at the list of anxiety attack symptoms above- much of it involves your heart rate and breathing. Key word, heart and lungs. While we don’t have direct control over our heart and lungs, we do have control over something that controls those things.

How to Calm an Anxiety Attack

Breathing. Seems so simple right? Breathing is a quick way to control your heart rate. Deep belly breathing or diaphragmatic breathing is really helpful, especially on the front end of an anxiety attack. While it’s helpful to use deep breathing during an anxiety attack, for better results, use it before hand.

Essentially, when taking a deep breath in you make your belly go out, but keep your chest the same. When letting the breath out, you deflate your belly (like an empty balloon) while keeping your chest the same. Belly breathing is only one of many coping strategies to control an anxiety attack. Your counselor can help you find more ways.

Remember the mind is where the anxiety is beginning. The body is just the innocent bystander who got dragged along. If you want to learn how to control your anxiety, reach out to us today. It can be very difficult to manage anxiety all by yourself. It doesn’t have to be an anxiety attack every day or nearly every day before you get extra help. There are ways you can control your anxiety without anxiety controlling you.

Am I an Anxious Person?

Am I an Anxious Person?

by | Counseling for Adults, Counseling for Teens

Ever wondered if you’re an anxious person? Have you questioned, does my anxiety feel like everyone else’s? Why does it seem like my anxiety is higher than most? Perhaps your loved ones around you have pointed it out. They’ve mentioned you seem uptight and have a hard time calming down. Maybe you seem lost in space almost like you’re zoned out. If this sounds like you, here are some ways to know if you are struggling with anxiety.

Anxiety versus Feeling Anxious

As a reminder, everyone feels anxiety to some extent or another. There’s a difference between feeling anxious and having anxiety. Someone who feels anxious, has a moment of anxiety that comes and goes like any other feeling. When someone has clinical anxiety, the feeling of anxiety is overwhelming, exhausting, and sometimes debilitating.

Duration, Intensity, Frequency

Clinical anxiety is something that gets in the way of every day life. For an anxious person we look at 3 things: frequency, intensity and duration. When a person is frequently anxious, anxious thoughts usually take up the majority of the day and happens every day. Intensity looks at how severe the thoughts are: are the thoughts realistically worried (ie: I’m worried my daughter will get on the wrong bus since it’s her first week of school) or irrationally anxious (ie: My husband and I should book two sepearate flights so if one of us dies in a plane crash our kids will still have one parent)? And lastly is duration: how long do anxious spells last? Hours? Minutes? Days?

For an anxious individual, the thoughts can be so overwhelming that it’s hard to focus on anything else but the anxious thoughts. Those around you may notice it’s hard for you to calm down or unwind. It makes it difficult to stay focused, organize, and on task with things you have to. For many, anxiety keeps you up at night. You have overwhelming thoughts of all the things that could go wrong tomorrow and highlights the things you feel out of control about.

Physical Symptoms of Anxiety

For many, anxiety can lead to physical symptoms like an upset, stomach, headache, and muscle tension. Many often experience, heart palpitation, earning creased heart rate, which feels a whole lot like a physical condition. Read more about that here.

Write Down Your Anxious Symptoms

One way to determine if you’re an anxious individual is to pay attention to the thoughts you are thinking. Take inventory of how often you experience these thoughts, how intense they are and how long the last. I know, this sounds like a counselor thing to say, and it is. Listen to your thoughts. Are they fear-based? Irrational? Overwhelming? Only you can tell. You are the only one who can hear the thoughts. Pay attention to the thoughts you think. Write them down and go from there. Email us if it’s seems too much to tackle alone.

What is Trauma?

What is Trauma?

by | Counseling for Adults, Counseling for Teens

  • WRITTEN BY: MARQUIA CALDWELL, LPC
  • “Trauma is much more than a story about the past…trauma is re-experienced in the present, not as a story, but as profoundly disturbing physical sensations and emotions that may be associated with memories of past trauma”

    -Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma expert

    When mental health professionals talk about trauma and mental health, we are talking about an emotional or psychological injury. Trauma is a response to an experience that overwhelms an individual’s capacity to cope, often as a result of dangerous situations or life threatening events. This can be a single event or multiple events. These experiences cause a negative impact on the mind and heart. There are various forms of trauma such as, but can include the following: 

        • Abuse (sexual, physical, and emotional),
        • Life-threatening accidents or illnesses,
        • Violence in school or the community,
        • Domestic violence (witnessing or experiencing),
        • National disasters,
        • Acts of terror,
        • Public health crises such as COVID-19,
        • Loss of a loved one, especially when sudden or violent in nature,
        • Refugee or war experiences,
        • and Neglect.

      Noticeable signs when struggling with trauma can include:

        • Insomnia, 
        • Poor concentration, 
        • Intrusive memories and thoughts,
        • Isolation, 
        • Self-doubt, 
        • Mood changes, 
        • Detachment from reality, 
        • Nightmares and/or flashbacks, 
        • Panic attacks, 
        • Loss of hope, 
        • Lack of vision for future, 
        • Inability to regulate emotions or lack of emotional response, 
        • Paranoia, 
        • Hypervigilance, and more. 

      Trauma writes itself on the mind and body of survivors. This means our actions, reactions, and behaviors are a result of our painful experiences.  Each traumatic experience is unique and can manifest in lots ways such as PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, Substance Abuse, Eating Disorders, Chronic Pain, Increased chances of experiencing life-threatening conditions, Relationship and Social Issues.

      “Our traumas do NOT define us; they are just a PART of who we are.”

      Recovery and Support

      Recovery with trauma is a journey. Think of having a deep cut on your arm. There are options presented to us to heal this cut. You can leave it alone and let it heal on its own, clean it and cover it, or go to a professional to close it up. When it comes to emotional wounds, most cover it up and hope for the best. However, sometimes when we think things are healed, we realize it didn’t quite heal right. 

    • Re-opening wounds can be part of the process of healing, and with counseling, this is oftentimes the case. There are various forms of counseling and psychotherapy to help survivors cope with their traumatic experiences. Along with therapy, doing enjoyable activities/ hobbies and surrounding oneself with a positive support system is incredibly helpful in coping with trauma as well.
    • If you’re not sure where to start, but know you have experienced trauma, don’t wait for things to get harder or worse. Remember, getting help for trauma doesn’t have an expiration date. Even if traumatic things happened “a long time ago,” your heart can still find healing today. 

       

What to Expect When You’re Expecting…Your First Counseling Appointment

What to Expect When You’re Expecting…Your First Counseling Appointment

by | Counseling for Adults, Counseling for Children, Counseling for Teens

Thinking of your first session with your counselor can be scary. But rest assured, it’s not as scary as you think. This blog below will go over some expectations you can have for your first meeting with your new counselor.

How a Counselor is Different than a Doctor

To begin, a counseling appointment is very different than meeting with a doctor. A counseling session is a talk therapy session. You and your counselor will be conversating with the intent to go over as much information about you as possible. You will talk about what brings you to counseling and what you hope to get from it. Counselors do not prescribe medication, nor are we able to, so don’t count on us for that. We can, however, diagnose you with a mental health condition like generalized anxiety or post traumatic stress disorder. *If you are looking for medication for psyhological issues, you need a psychiatric appointment.

Counseling Paperwork

The first counseling appointment is about an hour or a little more. You will also have to complete loads of documents and forms (insurance info, informed consent, credit card authorization form, etc). Any good counselor will REQUIRE you to complete these before your session. 

Your counselor will spend some time reviewing the informed consent with you. This form goes through fees, what to expect from counseling, how to get a hold of your counselor, your rights, and limits to confidentiality. One of the most important things is that you know all of what you share in counseling is private and confidential—with the exception of a few things, mainly related to safety of yourself and others.

The Beginning of the Counseling Session 

Your counselor will ask you questions about things sticking out from your intake. Your counselor will get more information about how you grew up, your family and who is part of your family now. We want to know things that give you joy and things that really bother you. Most important, we want to know what brings you into counseling to begin with. Your counselor will talk with you and process different things to get a better understanding of your situation.

The End of the Counseling Session 

By the end of session, you and your counselor will be working to identify goals based on the reason you’re getting counseling. For example, the reason you are seeking counseling might be because of marriage problems and stress. The goal is geared towards what you hope to gain from your experience in counseling. An example of a goal for marriage problems might be to better control your emotions and temper with your spouse and work on stress relieving skills.

Counseling is Your Choice

Going to counseling is a voluntary decision meaning no one can force you to come. Your counselor will make recommendations about how often you should be seen or when to come back. But ultimately it is your choice to continue counseling or not. While others around may want you to come to counseling, it is your decision. If you’re under the age of 18, you and your guardian are in control of this choice.

Remember your counselor is a person, just like you. Your counselor does not have all of the answers, a magic wand, or a special pill to make all your problems go away. The goal is to change you: how you think, how you act, and how take control of your emotions. The focus will not be on changing your situation as much as it will be on changing you.

5 Easy Ways to Manage Anxiety

5 Easy Ways to Manage Anxiety

by | Counseling for Adults, Counseling for Teens

WRITTEN BY: KIMBERLY ALANIZ, LCSW-S

Do you feel like getting your anxiety under control seems too hard? Below are 5 easy things you can do today to get you anxiety under control– and each just take few minutes.

1.Step away from the caffeine

 Although coffee affects each person differently, it may not be the best choice if you struggle with anxiety. Coffee is a powerful stimulant that mimics natural functions in you body that happen when we are anxious and your body /mind may not be able to tell the difference. You may feel your heart rate increase, take shorter breaths or even a rise in temperature. Mentally, you may even feel restless, stressed or nervous.  Swapping your morning coffee for warm tea or hot cocoa may help reduce anxiety without abandoning the warm, calming routine.

2. Spend some time in nature

Evaluate what your average day looks like. Where and how do you normally spend your time? If the answer is indoors and in front of a screen it may be time to get outside. Spending time in nature could improve both your physical and emotional healthy.  Physically, time outdoors lowers blood pressure, releases muscle tension and decreases the creation of stress hormones. Activities like enjoying the evening on your front porch or hiking a trail could help calm the body and mind. In fact, research shows even viewing scenic images of nature can have similar effects.

3. Focus on your breathing

Deep breathing exercises can help create links between both sympathetic (kick starts fight or flight) and parasympathetic (influences relaxation) nervous systems. When you take a long, deep breath in, your sympathetic nervous system increases things like your heart rate and blood pressure. As you elongate the exhale, your body begins slow the heart and loosen tense muscles.

 Try this breathing exercise and enjoy the benefits!

*Box breathing- Sit in a comfortable, quite spot with your feet firmly planted on the ground. Draw your attention to your breath. Drag the tip of your finger along your leg to “draw” each side of a box using the following breaths as a guide. Exhale, inhale (count to 4 in your mind), hold your breath for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts. Repeat at least 4 times.

4.Grounding

Grounding is a practice that allows a person to refocus and redirect nervous thoughts, flashbacks or uncomfortable emotions to the present time and behaviors.  Here are two grounding activities to try.

*Place your hand underneath a running tap of warm water. Focus on the temperature and pressure of the water as it hits parts of your hand. Listen closely to the sounds of the running water. How do the sensations differ from your fingertips, palm and the back of your hand? Now try this with cold water and then alternate between the two.

*5-4-3-2-1

Counting backwards from five, focusing on your five senses, interact physically or list things around you.

5 things you can see

4 things you can touch

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

5. Exercise

Even though we may not always enjoy exercise, we almost never regret how we feel after. This is more than likely because of the endorphins released in our body after activity. No need to run to the gym. Things like a brisk walk with your pet, dancing in your kitchen as you cook dinner or riding your bike are all great alternatives to a gym membership.

If you begin to feel discouraged because it seems like everything you try doesn’t work, you’re not alone. Don’t feel as though you have to work through this silently. We are here to help you get your anxiety under control- reach out to us to schedule an appointment within a week.