Life Lens Counseling

10/22/2021

In Seasons of Change, Treat Mental Health with Purpose

As the world continues to place additional stressors in our lives, we need to be more realistic about how we are functioning and more purposeful in our commitment to our mental health and well-being, says Dr. Helen C***s.
https://verilymag.com/2021/10/times-change-mental-health-purpose-dr-helen-coons-therapist-advice-2021?fbclid=IwAR1MwkoJ3kVFdyUOUsm2QWKkbGDfgel43X4eQXHc-tMP_K71IozJrv75PMU

A psychologist offers women five ways to tend to their wellness in times of transition.

10/21/2021

You can’t always avoid the tensions that occur on the job. You can, however, take steps to manage work-related stress before it takes a toll on your health and well-being.
https://www.apa.org/topics/healthy-workplaces/work-stress

10/19/2021

Work and Well-being 2021 Survey report

It’s no secret that American workers are experiencing significant stress that is impacting not only their attitudes toward work, but also their mental well-being.
So, what can employers do to create a psychologically healthy workplace and support employees’ mental health?
https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/work-well-being/compounding-pressure-2021

Workplace experiences during the pandemic, employee stress related to work, and what employees are looking for from their employers as it relates to their mental health, specifically in the context of the pandemic and changing priorities.

09/17/2021

How to make new friends as an adult

The mental health benefits of friendship are well-documented, but our social circles tend to shrink as we get older. These strategies from Dr. Art Markman can help you make and maintain new friendships as an adult.

These three strategies can help if you’re looking to make new and meaningful connections.

09/10/2021

Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little

Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little

09/01/2021

Seasonal Affective Disorder Doesn't Just Happen in the Winter—Here's How to Cope When Summer Sadness Hits

We generally think about seasonal affective disorder as a winter phenomenon, but it can also happen in the summer. Mental health experts, including Dr. Sherry Benton, explain how to recognize the symptoms and when it may be time to seek help.
https://www.realsimple.com/health/mind-mood/seasonal-depression-summer?fbclid=IwAR3y9Wua6U3R2OXrq5beY-8G-5AQLbVk7jBDmqR_GcFDbVzf2mKicOjIa7w

Why do you feel so sad during the summer? Summer seasonal depression is a real thing. Here's why SAD can hit in the summer, what it looks like, and how to cope.

08/13/2021

As employers redesign the offices of the future, it's equally important to build new plans for supporting the mental health of employees who continue to face new stressors and concerns. https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/employee-mental-health

07/30/2021

6 Ways to Cope with Feelings of Loneliness

KEY POINTS:

Loneliness is common and part of the human experience, and many singles struggle with it.

Loneliness becomes more manageable when approached with self-compassion.

Strategies that involve cultivating connections, practicing gratitude, and seeking out joy can help mitigate loneliness.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/modern-dating/202107/6-ways-cope-feelings-loneliness

How to approach this feeling with curiosity and self-compassion.

07/20/2021

You can’t always avoid the tensions that occur on the job. You can, however, take steps to manage work-related stress before it takes a toll on your health and well-being.
https://www.apa.org/topics/healthy-workplaces/work-stress

06/10/2021

Essential workers more likely to be diagnosed with a mental health disorder during pandemic

While some Americans packed up their office supplies and headed home in March 2020, many adults had to continue going into work, despite the health risks. Essential workers, such as health care professionals and law enforcement officers, have had to deal with a special set of stressors that included isolating themselves from their loved ones and witnessing first-hand the effects of the coronavirus. Prolonged exposure to these stressors is taking a serious toll.

More than half of essential workers (54%) said they relied on a lot of unhealthy habits to get through the pandemic. Nearly 3 in 10 (29%) said their mental health has worsened. When asked about emotional support, 3 in 4 essential workers (75%) said they could have used more than they received since the pandemic started. Essential workers were more than twice as likely as those who are not to have received treatment from a mental health professional (34% vs. 12%) and to have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder since the coronavirus pandemic started (25% vs. 9%).
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2021/one-year-pandemic-stress-essential

Essential workers have had to deal with a special set of stressors that included isolating themselves from their loved ones and witnessing first-hand the effects of COVID-19.

05/10/2021

Five Warning Signs of Mental Illness that People Miss | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), nearly one in five adults in the U.S. has mental illness. Despite how common mental health conditions are, not everyone knows how to identify them.

Early warning signs of mental illness are often missed. Family members, friends and even doctors can overlook lesser-known symptoms as a result of stigma, lack of mental health education and diagnostic bias. This is particularly true for people that don’t fit the textbook example of what having a mental illness looks like.

Early detection and intervention for mental illness is key to help a person get connected to a support system and improve long-term recovery outcomes. Especially considering that untreated mental illness can lead to both worsening symptoms and unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as substance use.

Early intervention starts with being able to recognize the warning signs, especially ones that can be mistaken for other health issues. Here are five symptoms of mental illness that are often overlooked.

https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/May-2021/Five-Warning-Signs-of-Mental-Illness-that-People-Miss?fbclid=IwAR0XZRI-f8oEOljdd0PgFWQjpq82c9K7lJda3FcTER6gl1ugBp3_X93hxuQ

Identifying signs of mental illness, and acknowledging there might be a problem, is the first step toward getting help.

05/09/2021

3 Ways Leaders Can Reduce Sunday Night Anxiety

How managers can help reduce the "Sunday Scaries".
https://bit.ly/3eETHyn

Have you ever spent Sunday night dreading the work week or had your heartbeat speed up at just the very thought of going into the office the next day?

05/07/2021

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!
Anyone experiencing mental health issues should be able to get the appropriate support and quality of care to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

04/30/2021

It’s hard to crack a journal in developmental psychology or education without bumping into an article on mindset. Research has shown that students who believe they can improve their intellectual abilities work harder and perform better academically than those who believe their abilities are a fixed trait. But plenty of questions remain about the contexts that best help students develop “growth mindsets,” a term coined by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, PhD, who has been a leading figure in the area of mindset and children’s beliefs about success for more than 30 years. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/04/career-lab-mindset

04/23/2021

Things to say to your anxious child

04/22/2021

Some of the typical indicators teachers use to identify students experiencing mental health difficulties are not available in the virtual classrooms of the pandemic. Here's how schools can get students the support they need.
http://ow.ly/EOkg50EuCKB

04/20/2021

Timeline Photos

04/16/2021

What You Need To Know To Have Successful Telehealth Visits From Home

Creating a comfortable environment for your teletherapy sessions can help ease anxiety and make for a better overall experience, says Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge.
http://ow.ly/UdU950EqTTt

Are you one of the millions of Americans who used telehealth services–possibly for the first time–last year? Will you continue to do so post-pandemic? Many patients discovered the benefits this type of appointment can bring when Covid kept us at home.

04/06/2021

Always!

04/02/2021

What Happens in the Brain of Someone Both Depressed and Anxious

What does this combined impact on the brain mean? The research team surmised that the pairing of anxiety and depression indicates that anxiety lowers the effects of depression on brain volume size by 3 percent. They concluded that the overactivity of anxiety causes the brain to make more connections and thus becomes larger. This can be problematic, according to the researchers, because the presence of anxiety along with depression and the enlargement can mask the shrinking effects of depression.

The findings that the brain gets bigger if a patient is both anxious and depressed also implies that the actual effect of depression on brain shrinkage has been underestimated because of the opposite masking effect in the amygdala. The investigators emphasized the need for future studies that examine anxiety comorbidity as a means to better understand the independent role of each disorder in brain structure. The findings further highlight the need for effective treatments to improve long-term mental health and prevent additive effects to neurocognitive disorders later in life.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-right-mindset/202008/what-happens-in-the-brain-someone-both-depressed-and-anxious

A new study shows dramatic changes.

03/31/2021

Emotional exhaustion during times of unrest

No matter what side of any issue you fall, last year was full of change and trauma. Local and world events have brought out strong emotions and stressors, often one right after another, including COVID-19, social distancing, quarantines, stay-at-home orders, furloughs, job loss, masking, racial injustice, riots and demonstrations.

In addition to social unrest, you may be experiencing a high-pressure job, financial stress or poverty, being a caregiver, raising children, death of a family member or friends or chronic illness.

You may be wondering what's next or what else you will have to endure. As these events unfold, you may begin to feel unwell and irritable, and struggle to concentrate and motivate yourself. You may not even know what is causing how you are feeling. You can feel trapped or stuck. You’re emotionally exhausted.

http://ow.ly/CWRN50Edtdd

2020 has been a year of change. You may feel irritable or stuck. You're emotionally exhausted. Learn what it is and what to do.

03/24/2021

The 4 Types of Introvert - Which one are you?

Video from Psych2Go.

https://youtu.be/dNKQYjsxgPU

Is the quarantine making you realize you’re more of an introvert than you had thought? While much of the world has withdrawn, everyone handles their isolation differently. Even the experiences of self-proclaimed hermits vary from one another, seeing as how there’s a spectrum for introversion.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word: “introvert”? Is it that shy wallflower daydreaming in the social gathering? Or the quiet kid who rarely spoke...

02/16/2021

Why Do Kids Have Tantrums and Meltdowns? | Child Mind Institute

It will come as no surprise to parents that the most common problem that brings young children to the attention of a psychologist or psychiatrist is emotional outbursts—tantrums and meltdowns.

Indeed, tantrums and meltdowns are among the biggest challenges of parenting. They’re hard to understand, hard to prevent, and even harder to respond to effectively when they’re happening. And when they occur with frequency past the age in which they’re developmentally expected—those terrible twos—they can become a big problem for the child, not just the beleaguered adults who endure them.
http://ow.ly/FPhf50DB5mw

Understanding tantrums and meltdowns is the first step to reducing their frequency, a guide for parents to mitigate this behavior.

02/05/2021

Staff focus drops by 62% & depression risk soars 48% - Fair Play Talks

"We are seeing an unprecedented rise in risk of mental health conditions. At the same time, we are witnessing a sharp decline in cognitive functions. This is a crisis that should alarm everyone in the business community. Business policies designed to support the mental health of employees are essential. There is another pandemic going on, the mental health pandemic for which there will be no vaccine." http://ow.ly/esM250DrRYf

New Data from the Mental Health Index has revealed a dangerous decline and all-time low in employee mental health.

02/03/2021

Advice on Raising Resilient Kids During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Many families are struggling during the pandemic. How does parenting need to change?

Self-care is so essential. Self-care is child care, particularly during Covid. Covid requires us to make sure we are doing some exercise, that we are sleeping, having a little fun every once in a while.

Set realistic expectations. Parents have to re-evaluate what their expectations are for academic growth and academic production, when so many kids are doing hybrid education and distance learning. They have to calm themselves and say to themselves, “This is not important, the kids will make up for it later.”

How can parents best support their kids now?

The most important thing parents can do right now is provide routines and schedules. Every Wednesday is pizza night. Every Friday is movie night. We all wake up at the same time every day and we’re all doing regular hygiene. Re-establishing household routines always eases a child’s anxiety, especially during a time of so much uncertainty.

Many parents worry about the pandemic’s effect on their children. What concerns you?

A lot of kids are going to have anxiety symptoms as Covid comes to an end. If you had a socially anxious kid or one with separation anxiety, many of those kids are not in school right now, they are not being exposed to the anxiety-provoking agent. And it’s exposure that makes us better. If we keep getting exposed, we learn coping skills.

Encourage your kids to make FaceTime dates or say, “Let’s meet another family safely.” You could talk to a teacher and say, “Could you start calling on my son or daughter in Zoom class?”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/advice-on-raising-resilient-kids-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-11612298912?fbclid=IwAR1t-L3GznndQTKWT2SAPMO5BU-15yTzLPn18ZNLLhXTFq3gA0a0f7hIsBU

Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz lays out a new parenting approach in his book, “The Scaffold Effect.”

02/02/2021

How to Change Negative Thinking Patterns | Child Mind Institute

Children can be their own worst critics. This is particularly true for kids with mental health disorders, who may be especially down on themselves. They can get stuck in negative thinking patterns that contribute to depression, amp up their anxiety, or make painful emotions feel overwhelming.
http://ow.ly/bjFg50DotSG

Unhealthy, negative thinking patterns called cognitive distortions can contribute to depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation. How to identify them.

01/28/2021

Breaking Down the Stigma of Mental Health Amid the Pandemic

🚨 We're here to help! If you're struggling, contact us today!🚨

After nearly a year of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans are struggling with feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression as a result of prolonged isolation.

Because of the cultural shame surrounding mental illness in American society, people often put off seeking treatment for these issues.

http://ow.ly/SEy250Dlk83

Anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker says our culture created mental health stigma, but we can change that.

01/27/2021

Do your relationships suffer from a lack of really hearing what the other person is saying? Contact us today for an appointment with our therapists!

01/20/2021

Do you have healthy boundaries? What's stopping you?

01/15/2021

Peak search volume of search terms in different years.

As you can see, there's a certain seasonality in 'peaks' in mental health issues. Winter is definitely a hard time for many, with depression and anxiety high- please reach out if you need help!!

http://ow.ly/4A5L50D9MHR

01/07/2021

As adults watch news coverage of yesterday's unprecedented and unsettling events, kids do too. Here are some ways to help prevent overexposure and build resilience for both your children and yourself. http://ow.ly/BPnV50D2Oar

12/31/2020

1.) Make time for self-care. Brainstorm a list of self-care activities that make you happy and schedule them as part of your daily routine. This could be structured therapy sessions or daily exercise or simply an outdoor walk or time with loved ones.

2.) Be kind to yourself. Change can be hard and often takes time. Allow yourself to have feelings and forgive yourself for mistakes. You are here and doing your best, and that’s what counts.

3.) Practice gratitude. Practicing gratitude has a host of proven benefits, including decreased stress, and increased resilience, happiness, and self-esteem. It’s also been linked to improved relationships and better physical health.

4.) Make sleep a priority. Studies have found that sleep and mental health are connected. In fact, approximately 65 to 90% of people with major depression also experience a sleep problem. This year, try to go to sleep a little bit earlier every night and give your body the rest it needs.

5.) Ask for Help
Finally, recognize that in 2021 you don’t have to do it all alone. We are social creatures; we are meant to be connected to each other and work interdependently. Instead of shouldering everything yourself, think about who might be able to help.And if you’re struggling with your mental health and support from loved ones isn’t enough, seeking out professional help is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself.

12/23/2020

The holidays can be hard, with stress coming at you from all angles. Take care of yourself, and reach out for help if you need to!

12/23/2020

5 things we learned about workplace mental health this year

5 things we learned about mental health in the workplace in 2020

http://ow.ly/XjAj50CSI3C

Employers were taking workplace mental health seriously before COVID-19 - but now the urgency is even greater. Here are 5 ways they can make a difference.

11/23/2020

Great advice on how to center yourself when feeling anxious.