Life Counseling, Anxiety Therapy
Erica Warshawer
How to Know if You Suffer from Social Anxiety ...

You’ve probably heard of social anxiety. It’s a term used loosely at times when someone isn’t in the mood to socialize. However, not always being in the mood to socialize is normal. But true social anxiety is much more than that.

Social anxiety disorder is characterized by a fear of being judged by others, feeling highly self-conscious in social situations, and avoiding meeting new people. It’s also known as social phobia. Social anxiety disorder makes it hard to create meaningful connections with others. It can even make it hard for people to complete everyday tasks.

How to Know if You Suffer from Social Anxiety and What to Do About It
Life Counseling, Anxiety Therapy, Depression Therapy
Erica Warshawer
Reducing Your Mental Health Symptoms: How ...

Mindfulness has become a trendy word. Please do not mistake that for a negative. The concept of staying present is a fundamental form of self-care. In the realm of mental health, it has countless benefits for serious practitioners. Practicing mindfulness has been shown to help people struggling with conditions and issues like:

  • Anxiety

  • Chronic pain

  • Depression

  • Addiction

  • Suicidal ideation

More recently, mindfulness is making a difference for those dealing with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since trauma is something that gets you stuck in the past, this approach makes a whole lot of sense. Let’s learn more:

Reducing Your Mental Health Symptoms: How Mindfulness Can Make a Difference
Teletherapy
Erica Warshawer
Telehealth After the Pandemic? Why Online ...

Until last year, telehealth was mostly a niche approach to therapy. It was incredibly helpful for someone who was disabled or lived far from any therapist. Along came the pandemic and the need for teletherapy exploded. For a while, the only way a client could meet with their counselor was via video chat (or phone call).

Today, with nearly 17 months of experience under our belts, many Americans have discovered a preference for telehealth. The numbers below will help illustrate this trend. In other words, online options still make sense. In some ways, they are here to stay.

Telehealth After the Pandemic? Why Online Options May Still Make Sense
Anxiety Therapy
Erica Warshawer
How You Can Calm Anxiety in Five Simple Steps

If you’re one of the 40 million Americans living with an anxiety disorder, you already know it’s much more than feeling nervous. Everyone worries or panics from time to time. That’s normal. Anxiety is something that impairs your ability to function. It feels as if it’s out of your control.

From intense discomfort at social events to sleep-altering nightmares, anxiety disorders are a daunting reality. Among other things, they may have you dealing with sweaty palms, digestive issues, body trembling, or self-isolation. Whatever uncomfortable symptoms you face, they can be managed and calmed by committing to some basic self-help steps.

How You Can Calm Anxiety in Five Simple Steps
Depression Therapy, Life Counseling
Erica Warshawer
Strategies for Staying Emotionally Healthy ...

Anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of (first) marriages end in divorce. The odds are that you or someone close to you has had to endure this painful experience. Still, let’s be clear, in many cases, a divorce is a traumatic event. Your body, mind, and spirit will be severely challenged. That reality deserves care and attention.

Women, in particular, are at higher risk for depression. Why? They tend to handle the lion’s share of domestic duties and often have fewer financial options than men. For almost every person involved, especially if children are involved, divorce is a time of turmoil and drastic change. That’s why it’s so important to safeguard your well-being as this process plays out.

Strategies for Staying Emotionally Healthy During the Divorce Process

Grief Counseling

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Managing Your New Normal: 6 Tips for Navigating Change Effectively

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Managing Your New Normal: 6 Tips for Navigating Change Effectively

Change is inevitable. It’s a normal part of everyone’s life. However, there will be times that require more change than usual. The past two years, for example, have introduced a wide range of “new normals.” If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the scope of it all, you’re certainly not alone.

With or without pandemic-related adjustments, you may need some tips and suggestions in the area of navigating change. Such skills are invaluable at the point of change and well into the future. After all, if a change is unavoidable, why not be better prepared? To follow, we’ll explore a few options for settling into your new normal.

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Grieve Your Own Way…Why the Stages of Grief are Just a Guide

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Grieve Your Own Way…Why the Stages of Grief are Just a Guide

The Stages of Grief are Just a Guide

One of the few open conversations you might have about grief may center around its stages. This concept helps give context to grief by externalizing and normalizing a shared and difficult process. However, while all humans experience stages of grief at some point in their lives, the process for each person is unique and does not follow a prescriptive pattern or order.

It’s important to remember though that grieving never stops. Rather, the loss is slowly integrated into our day to day lives. We live with the loss, experiencing peaks and valleys. Grief may pop up when you least expect it. Other times, like during a life milestone, we feel a renewed sense of bereavement knowing we would’ve shared this moment with the person we lost.

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Delayed Grief Reaction: Why You’re Okay One Minute But Not the Next

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Delayed Grief Reaction: Why You’re Okay One Minute But Not the Next

Grief is an inevitable and natural part of life. Everyone will experience it. However, everyone will experience it in their own way.

Grief is an unpredictable process, and that includes when it begins and how long it lasts. It has some standard stages but follows no blueprint. Grief can also sometimes be delayed.

You may undergo a painful loss, yet the waves of sorrow don’t seem to arrive — until they do. It may take weeks or months or even years. It may come and go. You may feel okay one minute and despondent the next.

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Normal Teen Moodiness or Something More? How to Know & What to Do

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Normal Teen Moodiness or Something More? How to Know & What to Do

It’s standard fare for sit-coms and movies: teen characters shift between laughter, eye rolls, and tears. The parents react with a comical mix of frustration, and concern. And the family rides a roller coaster of emotions, communication issues, and more on the road to their teen’s independence.

So here you are, in real life, trying to helpfully and productively move forward with your own teen. And you don’t have the benefit of a script or laugh track to break the tension created by their changing moods.

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Anticipatory Loss: Living with the Losses that Lie Ahead

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Anticipatory Loss: Living with the Losses that Lie Ahead

Everyone experiences grief. Not enough people are willing to talk about it. Death remains a somewhat taboo topic even here in the twenty-first century. It’s just not socially acceptable to express feelings like bereavement and mourning. More forbidden is any discussion of anticipatory loss.

You see, some losses are known about in advance. For example, a loved one may be diagnosed with a terminal illness. Hence, the grieving process commences before death — sometimes well before death. You grieve the looming loss, of course. In addition, you may be in pre-mourning for all the other changes that the death will set into motion.

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What You Can Do to Maximize Your Teletherapy Sessions

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What You Can Do to Maximize Your Teletherapy Sessions

As the country vacillates between re-opening and re-closing, we’re all getting more and more comfortable with long-distance communication. Work, school, social time, etc. — it’s a time to re-invent our interactions in the name of safety and physical health. But it’s also a time when our mental health may feel threatened in new ways. In an age of social distancing and conflicting agendas, how can we take safe steps to guard both our physical and mental wellbeing? The answer is “teletherapy.”

Grieve Your Own Way…Why the Stages of Grief are Just a Guide

Grieve Your Own Way…Why the Stages of Grief are Just a Guide

Grief represents quite a paradox in our society. In an age of pandemics and social unrest, in addition to our personal challenges, everyone experiences grief at some point. We all know and accept this as truth. Yet, topics like death and loss have become virtually taboo in polite conversation.

Think back to a time when, say, a grade school teacher experienced a death in the family. You heard the news as a way to explain why they took some time off. A week or so later, they were back in front of the classroom. They looked normal and things felt normal. The unspoken lesson, however, was that mourning is a brief process that leaves no lasting or outward scars. If only…

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No Communication or Closure? Coping with the Ambiguous Loss of a Parent

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No Communication or Closure? Coping with the Ambiguous Loss of a Parent

Except for specific cases, you can’t know in advance when your parents will no longer be with you. Life is unpredictable. It doesn’t follow a script and sure pays no mind to our expectations. Thus, many of us will end up having to cope with the ambiguous death of a parent. It might be that you became estranged. Perhaps you were still in touch but had left so much unsaid. In either instance — along with countless other scenarios — you will be left with a wide array of loose ends.

How do you manage such a frustrating situation?

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Having Difficulty Recovering from Your Loss and Moving On? Is That Normal?

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Having Difficulty Recovering from Your Loss and Moving On? Is That Normal?

Loss can be a difficult thing to accept. But when the pain of it drags on, determining whether or not your difficulty recovering is healthy can be complicated.

That said, experiencing grief is normal. Also, there is no specific time period that determines how long you should grieve. There should simply be a point at which you can process the emotions, intergate the experience, begin moving ahead.

If you’ve been grieving for a while but can’t sense much progress or healing, then it might be time to seek out professional help. Consider the differences between grief types and how to cope.

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Divorce and Your Mental Health: Tips for Handling the Effects of Stress

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Divorce and Your Mental Health: Tips for Handling the Effects of Stress

Pop culture has taught us all a very particular perspective on divorce. It usually involves lots of screaming, mixed with the silent treatment. It all leads up to a climactic confrontation followed by a lifetime of animosity. Of course, this cinematic image does very little justice to a complicated and nuanced experience. It also neglects to even hint at the inevitable toll the stress of divorce takes on our mental health. This isn’t about he said/she said or which spouse was “right.” Divorce of any kind is stressful and requires its participants to take steps to safeguard their mental health.

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4 Healthy Ways to Manage a Breakup

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4 Healthy Ways to Manage a Breakup

Going through a breakup can be hard on anyone. Even if you know it was the right thing to do and you ended things on good terms, it’s still a loss. And it’s still important to cope in healthy and productive ways.

If the breakup was ugly, it’s even more important to know how to cope properly. When you take the time to manage a breakup the right way, you can find peace with your decision and move on with your life.

When you don’t manage a breakup in healthy ways, you can turn to negative ways of coping. Doing so could lead to excessive use of alcohol or drugs, or it could even lead to mental health conditions like depression.

So, what are some healthy ways you can manage a breakup?

When You Can See Grief Coming: How to Cope with Anticipatory Loss

When You Can See Grief Coming: How to Cope with Anticipatory Loss

There are countless events, situations, and relationships that can provoke grieving. Often, circumstances are sudden and jolting. You may first deal with shock and disbelief before you can even begin processing your grief.

However, there are times in life when you see grief coming. These episodes are called anticipatory loss. Knowing you are about to experiences a traumatic event usually alters your perception of and reaction to that event. This doesn’t automatically make the grieving process “easier” or “harder.” But it will change the process and usually gives you the opportunity to take anticipatory steps.