The moment your body perceives a threat, the brain undergoes striking changes. Communication breaks down between the prefrontal cortex, where rational thought and judgment reside, and the amygdala, where fear rules the day. Your brain gets pumped up on hormones like testosterone and noradrenalin and epinephrine. It’s the latter two that pack the real emotional punch. But they
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger July 24, 2019
We must allow children to experience the consequences of their choices. A consequence is defined simply as “the natural outcomes of behavior”. Consequences teach a valuable lesson: we make a choice/take an action or we do not, either way there is an impact on the outcome of events. Logical consequences
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger July 24, 2019
Most people are responsible. Some go a step further and are excessively responsible. If someone is sad, those who take excessive responsibility feel it’s their obligation to make them happy. If someone is upset, they feel it’s their responsibility to calm them down. If two people can’t get along, they
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger July 24, 2019
You have a big presentation. You’re taking an important exam for your license. You’re defending your master’s thesis. You need to talk to your best friend about something that’s been bothering you. You need to talk to your boss. Or you’re about to do something else that’s making you nervous.
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Shared by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., Contributing Blogger June 26, 2019
The more aligned a couple is on certain crucial dimensions, the better off they will be in the long term. Below are questions that can help to start thinking about how compatible a couple is: • Do we expect our partner to tell us the amount of money spent on
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger June 12, 2019
Anger is a message from the body. It’s the body’s response to something it perceives as threatening. You may not even be consciously aware of the threat, but your body alerts you to the danger it perceives, and it does this so you can step in and take urgent action
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger May 31, 2019
4 ways Trump’s presidency has evoked a sense of powerlessness: 1) Marginalization – when an individual or group minimizes or disavows the legitimacy, rights or privileges of others who are believed to be somehow different from the mainstream. 2) Internalizing external reality- themes of loss related to reduced importance, influence,
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger May 31, 2019
Once when I was watching the news, I saw a story about a man in southern California whose house had been destroyed by a mudslide. He was crying, and he told a reporter that he wanted the federal government to step in and help. Down the street, the reporter found
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger May 31, 2019
Try looking at anger in terms of the following 5 reasons for angry behaviors: 1 Seeking revenge. You feel hurt, so you want to get even and make things fair. 2 Preventing disaster. You feel helpless, so you want to take control. 3 Pushing others away. You feel discouraged, so
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger May 31, 2019
We would certainly take objection to parents who are not teaching their children to read or do math because we know how difficult life will be without those skills. Why is responsibility any different? When we do not teach our children responsibility, we send them into the world without a
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger May 31, 2019