Most of us have very specific, vivid ideas about what staying in a psychiatric hospital looks like. These ideas have likely been shaped by Hollywood or sensationalist news stories. Because how often do we hear about someone’s real-life stay at a psychiatric facility? If going to therapy is rarely talked
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Shared by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., Contributing Blogger September 6, 2019
Communication is 10% information and 90% emotion. Good communication is more than just sending a message, it’s like a game of catch. Communication involves making sure that the message you send, is the message received; and that the message you receive is the message that was sent. Easier said than
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Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger September 5, 2019
Place your hand on your chest. Breathe so that you feel your chest moving in and out against your hand. This is chest breathing, a shallow form of breathing that often occurs as a response to stress. Rapid chest breathing quickly gets oxygen to the muscles so you can fight
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger August 29, 2019
Have you ever been totally absorbed while reading a book, cooking or watching a movie? Did you zone out to the point you didn’t notice what else was going on around you? If so, you’ve experienced a trance-like state that’s similar to what happens to you during hypnosis. Hypnosis, also
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger August 29, 2019
Why does anger escalate and damage relationships that did not need to be damaged? Why are some relationships stormier than they need to be? Why is it so hard to be happy these days? The problem is that we all feel vulnerable. Bad things happen to good people. You can
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger August 23, 2019
Anger is like fire: it cannot survive without fuel. Like fire, unchecked anger can grow out of control and cause enormous damage and pain. But also like fire, anger can be recognized, controlled and managed in our lives. The fuel that keeps anger burning can come from many sources –
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger August 14, 2019
The Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, examined 28 mass shootings, which claimed nearly 150 lives and wounded hundreds. Between January and December 2017, 28 incidents of mass shootings, during which three or more persons were harmed, were carried out in public places within the United States. The assessment discovered
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger August 8, 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
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger August 2, 2019
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
Read More Shared by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S., Contributing Blogger August 1, 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
Read More Shared by Aaron Karmin, LCPC, Contributing Blogger July 24, 2019