Anxiety Simplified

Anxiety is a totally normal reaction to danger. If you are feeling anxious, it is likely that your body’s automatic fight-or-flight response has been triggered due to a perceived threat. …

Trauma and Chronic Pain

Bob* has struggled with chronic back and neck pain for years after an injury he sustained at work in his early twenties. He has tried many medical/medicinal/surgical interventions, with limited …

Understanding the Chronic Pain Cycle

Ella* has been experiencing chronic pain from rheumatoid arthritis for over a year. She becomes easily frustrated with herself because she is no longer able to participation in previously enjoyable …

COVID and People with Chronic Pain

Beatrice* has struggled for three years with chronic pain from fibromyalgia and spinal stenosis. She was managing her pain and frustration with minimal limitations in daily functioning when COVID happened. …

I Feel Weird – is this Anxiety?

As reports of an increase in cases and deaths from COVID-19 are reported on a daily basis and the need to continue to socially-distance drags on this winter, more and …

Anxiety and COVID-19

Sometimes anxiety is beneficial. At the right time and in the right amounts, anxiety helps us prepare for important, potentially dangerous matters, and keeps us out of harm’s way. But …

How to Cope with Negative News

Are the news reports and headlines getting you down? Are you on social media and feeling angry or discouraged? Perhaps you feel like unplugging completely from the current events? Do …

Thoughts about Smartphone Addiction

Over the summer, I attended a Chicago Cubs game in Pittsburgh (yay!). I had so much fun despite the Cubs losing (boo!). During the game, a young woman and her …

What is Grounding and Can it Help Me?

One of the strategies I teach my clients to use when they feel anxious is called Grounding. When your mind is racing or you are overwhelmed with intense emotions, grounding …

Mistrust/Abuse Schema

Mistrust/Abuse Schema Do you find it difficult to maintain friendships and acquaintances, to relate to coworkers, and to keep stable and satisfying romantic relationships because you have an unconscious attitude …

Grief – A Personal Experience

On some level, every adult child knows that they are going to lose their aging parents, but hope that it is in the nebulous future and not in the here …

Abandonment Schema

This schema refers to the expectation that you will soon lose anyone with whom you have formed an emotional attachment.  You may constantly believe that your relationships are going to …

Why am I so Sad at Christmas?

“There’s no place like home for the holidays….” “On this joyful Christmas Day…” “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” Maybe not for everyone. Why is it that when …

How Can Identifying Schemas Help Me?

A schema is a stable, enduring negative pattern that develops during childhood or adolescence and is reinforced through thoughts, core beliefs, actions and relationships throughout an individual’s life. Negative schemas …

Stress got you…Stressed?

Sometimes things may seem out of control and that there’s nothing you can do about the stress you are experiencing. However, the simple realization that you’re in control of your …

Political stress

The intensity and degree of anger and vitriol about politics I’m seeing on social media, in the news, and even in my own family is worrisome. What is highly concerning …

Relaxation Techniques

Relaxation techniques are a great way to relieve stress. The great thing about these strategies is that you can do them anywhere and you don’t need any special equipment or …