The “most wonderful time of the year” isn’t always stress free. Many of us feel overwhelmed by extra activities in an already busy schedule, finishing up end of the year work tasks, and the financial strain of extra expenses. Add to that extended time with difficult family relationships and you have a recipe for a
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One of the things I have the privilege to do is to meet with parents who are looking for support in connecting with and disciplining their children. Many of these parents have sought out counseling because they or their partner are unhappy with their approach to discipline or with the reactions they are getting from
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We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. It comes on suddenly at times and seemingly out of nowhere. It’s that feeling that you just want to shrink into a hole. Maybe you said something you wish you hadn’t, maybe it was the response of silence to your self-disclosure, maybe it’s just a
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When my first child was born and we were being discharged from the hospital, I remember having this overwhelming sense of responsibility and a healthy dose of fear. I remember asking the nurses if they were sure we were ok to go and didn’t they need to check to make sure we at least installed
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We talk quite a bit about anxiety in our house. My kids have names for their worry monsters. My daughter chose the name Alfred when she was around 4 years old. My son, more recently, when he was about 4 years old, named his Pooter Fart. As you can imagine it brings a lot of
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Did you know there’s a National Quitter’s Day? According to research, the second Friday in January is the day most people are likely to give up on their New Year’s Resolutions. Motivation falters, gym membership drops, and feelings of failure sky rocket. There are probably a million reasons these resolutions don’t stick but I’d like
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“Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time.” Mina Murray, Dracula As we head into the New Year in a few short weeks, many of us are starting to think about our New Year’s Resolutions. One of the practices that I often recommend to clients is journaling. It’s a practice
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I had an interesting conversation with a client recently that started me thinking about our expectations and the impact they have on our satisfaction in our relationships. We all have these expectations but I have seen that we are often not even aware of them. These expectations are built from a lifetime of experiences and
Read more With the start of school, I’ve noticed an increase in parents looking for support in parenting their anxious children and bringing their children in to see me for counseling. There are stressors throughout the year but the transition of back to school can be one that elevates the anxiety level beyond the capacity of their coping skills. Parents may
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Individual Therapy Sterling, VA Anxiety is one of the most common concerns that our clients bring to our sessions. Anxiety can be a phobia of a specific thing, like spiders or closed spaces, but more often than not it is a general sense of uncertainty in the world. It is this general anxiety that is constantly
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