Self-Care Basics
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My broken ankle throbbed throughout the night, making sleeping comfortably impossible. In an effort to get sleep a little longer, I cancelled my first two appointment of the day and moved another to later in the day. As a result, I had little to no reason to budge before noon. When I finally rolled over…
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This week was rough. My mental health took a toll on me. I recently transitioned between jobs. I was working two counseling jobs, easily adding up to sixty hours a week. This was all while experiencing an ongoing battle with family conflict and medical issues (fibromyalgia). I just could not keep up with it like…
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Those suffering from depression and anxiety often possesses rigid thought processes. Black and white. Yes and no. My way or the highway. One way or another. Typically, situations have to be presented in such a way that there are concrete categories with clear consequences. When presented, these options partially feed into this thought pattern, but…
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Although the human brain is a blessing, it has the potential to be a serious burden. All of the times I have nearly rear ended the car in front of me, snapping out of a “highway hypnosis.” The time I had the number of spots on my classroom ceiling memorized from counting it on infinite…
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Earlier this morning, I was having a session at a local diner with an adolescent male I see twice a week. He was initially referred for counseling for anger management after aggravated assault charges and being put on house arrest. He found out the other day that his court date was postponed for the second…
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I am a psychic. I can prove it. Stop what you are doing…Take a moment…Let your guard down…Reach down to the back of your subconscious…Think back to your best times…Feel as though you are back in that moment reliving the experience…Hone in on the emotion resonating from this memory…What feelings does this memory illicit?…How did…
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After working in the mental health field for nearly a decade, you would think that there are few things that could catch me off guard. One particular area though always plucks at my heartstrings; Listening to stories of sexual violence always carries a heavy punch often followed by a time period to decompress. The most…
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Listening is a process that requires your full participation and focusing your full attention on the intended audience. Listening is a commitment to understanding how others feel and seeing their perspective. This means putting aside your own judgments, beliefs, and biases to allow the speaker to communicate their thoughts and feelings to you. This will,…
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I miss being a kid. I played with toy cars, superheroes, and stuffed animals. I went outside from sunup to sundown, coming in for lunch. I made sure not to miss my favorite cartoons on Nickelodeon or on basic cable on Saturday mornings. Back then, my job was going to school and learning my alphabet.…
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I was feeling nostalgic. I cleared out the middle of my bedroom floor. I mustered up enough strength to pull a large, blue, 50-gallon plastic tote from the back of my closet. This tote contains some of my most prized possessions including autographed sports memorabilia, my vast coin collection, photo albums, and so on. I…
The Caring Counselor 