AREAS OF SPECIALTY
Addiction and Substance Abuse
Addiction is a complex disease of the brain and body that involves compulsive use of one or more substances despite serious health and social consequences. Addiction disrupts regions of the brain that are responsible for reward, motivation, learning, judgment and memory. It damages various body systems as well as families, relationships, schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.Although there is not yet a cure for addiction, there are effective treatments and ways to manage it. This can include helping people reduce and eliminate their use of addictive substances so they can lead healthy lives.
Anxiety Disorders Including Stress Management
An anxiety disorder refers to the persistent experience of worry and uncertainty that manifests around real or imagined events. These feelings of excessive worry may present in association with any number of disorders that fall under the broad category of anxiety, such as generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, phobias and post-traumatic stress.
When it comes to treating anxiety disorders, research shows that therapy is usually the most effective option. That’s because anxiety therapy—unlike anxiety medication—treats more than just the symptoms of the problem. Therapy can help you uncover the underlying causes of your worries and fears; learn how to relax; look at situations in new, less frightening ways; and develop better coping and problem-solving skills. Therapy gives you the tools to overcome anxiety and teaches you how to use them.
Career Issues and Academic Underachievement
What a person does for a living can be a huge part of their life. When we meet other people, often the first question we ask them is, “so what do you do?” On some level our work is part of our identity, but it is also a primary source of income and savings for many people.Career counseling assists individuals seeking to resolve career-related anxiety problems with motivation such as feeling unfulfilled or ineffective in a particular job or profession.
Academic underachievement is a broad complaint that can have any number of underlying causes. Deficits in academic abilities are very often artifacts of intellectual delays, behavioral deficits, or psychological disorders.
Couples/ Marriage Counseling
A struggling relationship can be all-consuming, draining you of energy and coloring all your thoughts and actions. Your well-being, ability to work, and enjoyment of friends and family suffer. While you love one another, recurring fights leave you angry, resentful dissatisfied and even despairing. Couples/ Marriage Counseling is a type of psychotherapy that helps couples recognize and resolve conflicts and improve their relationships. through counseling, you can make thoughtful decisions about rebuilding your relationship or going your separate ways.
Depression and Mood Disorders
A mood disorder is the general term used to describe a disturbance in mood that typically manifests as an episode, or series of episodes, and that significantly detracts from one’s quality of life or capacity for normal functioning. The most common include depressive disorders, which can be chronic or acute, and bipolar disorder, which is characterized by episodes of mania and depression.
Treatment for depression and bipolar disorder usually includes one or a combination of the following four elements: talk therapy, medication, peer support, and a personal wellness plan individually tailored to each patient.
Eating Disorders
Eating Disorders include anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. These disorders can include extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues. Eating disorders are serious emotional and physical problems that can have life-threatening consequences for both females and males. It is important to recognize that recovery from an eating addiction involves not just the absence of disordered thoughts and behaviors about food and body, but recovering one's self -developing a sense of authentic identity and cultivating self-acceptance and reverence for one's self.
Effects of Technology on Relationships (Social Media)
Advances in technology are designed to make communication more convenient. Sometimes technology has negative effects on how people relate and connect on a personal level. Internet Addiction, Distraction, Isolation and Depression can all develop as a result of the way and individual uses social media. Smartphones, tablets, or the Internet can be addictive because their use, just like the use of drugs and alcohol, can trigger the release of the brain chemical dopamine and alter mood. And just like using drugs and alcohol, you can rapidly build up tolerance so that it takes more and more time in front of these screens to derive the same pleasurable reward. Therapy can help an individual recognize the triggers that make you reach for your phone, understand the difference between interacting in-person and online, strengthen your support network, build your coping skills, and recognize any underlying problems that may support your compulsive behavior.
Focusing Difficulties /ADHD
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) manifests as a persistent pattern of excessive inattention, often coupled with notable hyperactivity and impulsivity that impairs optimal functioning.
Adults with ADHD have typically had the disorder since childhood, but it may not be diagnosed until later in life. An evaluation usually occurs at the prompting of a peer, family member, or co-worker who has observed problems at work or in relationships.
Adults can be diagnosed with any of the three subtypes of ADHD. Adult ADHD symptoms can be somewhat different from those experienced by children because of the relative maturity of adults, as well as physical differences between adults and children.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by repetitive, unwanted, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and irrational, excessive urges to do certain actions (compulsions). Although people with OCD may know that their thoughts and behavior don't make sense, they are often unable to stop them.
Symptoms typically begin during childhood, the teenage years or young adulthood, although males often develop them at a younger age than females. More than 2% of the U.S. population (nearly 1 out of 40 people) will be diagnosed with OCD during their lives.
Researchers think brain circuits may not work properly in people who have OCD. It tends to run in families. The symptoms often begin in children or teens. Treatments include therapy, medicines, or both. One type of therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, is useful for treating OCD.
Relationship Issues
Most relationships will get strained at some time, resulting in a failure to function optimally and produce self-reinforcing, maladaptive patterns. There are many possible reasons for this including poor communication, lack of understanding, jealousy, and anger. Relationship counseling is the process of counseling the individual/ individuals in an effort to recognize, and to better manage or reconcile, troublesome differences and repeating patterns of stress upon the relationship.
Self-Esteem Issues
Self-esteem is the degree to which we feel confident, consider ourselves valuable, and respect ourselves, and this greatly affects our well-being. Self-esteem exists on a continuum, from high to low, and low self-esteem is associated with self-doubt, self-criticism, social isolation, suppressed anger, and shame. Low self-esteem is also a symptom of several mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression.
People with low self-esteem may work with therapists on becoming more assertive, confident, and self-aware. Finding a sense of accomplishment is a huge boost to self-esteem, and therapy can help people identify specific activities that boost confidence and competence. In addition, many therapists focus on helping people develop self-compassion so that they can develop more realistic, achievable goals for themselves and treat themselves with the same kindness and encouragement they would offer others.
Trauma and Stressor- Related Disorders
Trauma is a distressing event in which a person feels severely threatened emotionally, psychologically, or physically. Most people will experience a traumatic event at some point in their lives, such as a car accident, abuse or neglect, the sudden death of a loved one, a violent criminal act, exposure to the violence of war, or a natural disaster. Many people recover from trauma with time and through the support of family and friends, bouncing back with great resiliency, but for others, the effects of trauma are lasting, causing a person to live with deep emotional pain, fear, confusion, or post-traumatic stress far after the event has passed. Often, the support, guidance, and assistance of mental health professionals is fundamental to healing from