You’re intensely insecure and self-conscious, so much so it feels like one of your prime attributes. You’d describe yourself as a true-blue pessimist or cynic. You don’t really get excited about anything. You have a hard time connecting with others. And you find yourself constantly exhausted and drained. Because it’s
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Shared by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., Contributing Blogger August 1, 2019
I had a client named Jack, who couldn’t see why he shouldn’t be “hard” on his wife and kids. It was for their own good. “I’m no harder on them than I am on myself,” he would say. In reality, no good could come of his critical and blaming approach to
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger July 30, 2019
When you’re learning to manage your anger in a nonaggressive way, the first steps consist of recognizing how anger feels for you, and getting to know the situations that produce it. It’s easier to take these first steps if you can become aware of your anger’s symptoms. Cognitive Signs Cognitive
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger July 24, 2019
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
At some point in your life, you probably learned the golden rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. There is a phrase in Exodus 21:23,24 that many cite as a religious basis for the golden rule “a life for life, eye for eye, tooth for
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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
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 June 12, 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 June 12, 2019