LiftWell Health

08/26/2025

Intrusive thoughts are perplexing in their unpredictability. They can be disturbing or distressing because they typically go against your core values, morals, or desires. However, having an intrusive thought doesn’t mean you endorse or believe in it. In most cases, it's a reflection of the brain's complex processing of emotions and stimuli.

Some Common Causes of Intrusive Thoughts:

- Stress and anxiety
- Co-occurring mental health conditions
- Life changes
- Fatigue and sleep deprivation

How to Manage Intrusive Thoughts

- Acknowledge the thought without judgment
- Practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques
- Therapy, particularly Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- In some cases, medication may be recommended by a healthcare provider

It’s important to recognize that intrusive thoughts, while distressing, are not reflective of your true intentions. With proper management techniques and professional support, it’s possible to reduce the impact they have on your life.

08/18/2025

In recent years, the movement of body positivity has gained significant traction, championing self-love and acceptance of all body types. But there’s another concept gaining attention: body neutrality. While both approaches aim to foster a healthier relationship with our bodies, they do so in different ways.

Understanding the distinctions between body positivity and body neutrality is key to navigating your personal journey toward a better self-image.

Understanding the distinctions between body positivity and body neutrality is key to navigating your personal journey toward a better self-image.

08/14/2025

Body positivity and body neutrality both aim to shift how we relate to our bodies, but they offer different paths. For some, loving and celebrating their appearance feels empowering. For others, it’s more helpful to take the pressure off entirely.

You might feel good about your body, you might not feel much at all, or you might still be figuring it out. What matters is finding a relationship with your body that feels sustainable, grounded, and truly your own.

08/05/2025

Trauma-informed care is an approach that recognizes the widespread impact of trauma and seeks to create environments where individuals feel safe, empowered, and supported. Rather than asking "What’s wrong with you?" it asks "What happened to you?"

Key principles of trauma-informed care include:

- Safety and Trust: Establishing a secure environment and transparent communication.

- Empowerment and Choice: Actively involving individuals in their own healing journey.

- Cultural and Identity Sensitivity: Respecting the diverse experiences and backgrounds of each person.

Trauma-informed care shifts the focus from judgment to understanding. It reminds us that behaviors often begin as coping strategies during overwhelming times, and that healing becomes possible when we understand not just the symptoms, but the story behind them.

At LiftWell, we integrate trauma-informed principles into every level of care, helping clients move from survival to self-trust. By honoring the whole person—body, mind, and history—it creates space for resilience, self-worth, and meaningful change.

07/29/2025

PTSD can take a toll on every part of life. If symptoms feel unmanageable or outpatient therapy isn’t enough, a higher level of care may help.

LiftWell’s trauma-informed PHP and IOP programs offer structured, evidence-based treatment in a supportive setting. Reach out to schedule a confidential assessment.

07/21/2025

Emotional resilience isn’t about avoiding struggle. It’s about building the internal and external resources that help us face it with flexibility and care. Supportive relationships, open communication, self-compassion, skill-building, and perspective are some of the materials we lay down—brick by brick—to create a path that can lead us through life’s harder moments.

07/14/2025

There are days when progress feels solid and self-assured and there are days when everything feels fragile, like starting over. Most people move through both, often multiple times. This is not failure, it’s part of the shape recovery takes.

Recovery isn’t built by force of will, it’s shaped by rest, structure, relationship, routine, rupture, return. Change doesn’t always look like progress, sometimes it looks like persistence.

When patterns resurface, or everything feels off, try this:
• Step back from urgency. Pause before reacting.
• Reach out, even if it feels awkward or late.
• Return to something you trust: a meal, a mantra, a person.
• Notice what’s missing, not just what’s wrong.
• Give yourself the same gentleness you’d offer someone else.

The shape of recovery isn’t linear, it circles back, folds in, unspools. There’s progress in stillness and strength in returning. If you’re navigating a moment that feels like a step backward, you’re not broken, you’re still becoming. Keep choosing yourself.

07/11/2025

We love affirmations! Share your favorites in the comments!

07/02/2025

Ever picked up the phone or visited a treatment website and felt like you needed a translator? Let’s decode some of the most common (and confusing) acronyms in mental health and eating disorder care.

IOP = Intensive Outpatient Program
Still living at home. Still managing your life. But you’re showing up for treatment a few times a week because things are getting harder to navigate on your own.
It’s therapy with more structure and more support, without pressing pause on everything else.

PHP = Partial Hospitalization Program
You spend most of the day in treatment, usually several days a week. Like a full-time job but for your healing. It’s called “partial” because you go home at night, but during the day, you’re in a dedicated space focused on getting better.

RTC = Residential Treatment Center
You live there. It’s not a hospital, but it’s not home either. You’re in a place designed for deep, immersive care, away from the stressors and routines that might be making recovery harder.

IP = Inpatient Treatment
This is hospital-level care. It’s where you go when safety is the top priority, for your body, your mind, or both. It’s not forever, but it’s there when things feel like too much to manage anywhere else.

So… how do you know which one is right for you? That’s where a good assessment comes in. It’s not about choosing the “highest” level. It’s about what fits your needs, your support system, and your goals. Care isn’t a straight line. It’s a set of options and a way to figure out what kind of help actually helps.

The acronyms might sound clinical, but they’re just different ways people reach for steadier footing. You’re not expected to know the language before you ask for support. That’s our job. Contact LiftWell to learn more about mental health treatment in Westport, CT.

06/25/2025

All coping is an attempt to manage something hard, but not all strategies help us long term. Some create more distress over time.

Helpful coping skills often…
✔ Soothe the nervous system
✔ Support emotional expression
✔ Build connection
✔ Promote flexibility
✔ Align with personal values

Harmful coping patterns may…
✖ Avoid or suppress emotions
✖ Disconnect you from others
✖ Offer relief... but with consequences
✖ Reinforce shame or rigidity
✖ Interfere with healing or goals

Even unhelpful patterns often come from a place of self-protection. Of doing your best to manage stress, pain, or overwhelm. Try looking at what you tend to fall back on to cope. Not with judgment, but with curiousity.

If you were to ask yourself "Is this helping or hurting?", what would your answer be? From there, you get to decide what you want to carry forward and what you’re ready to outgrow.

06/17/2025

8 Common Misconceptions About Mental Health Treatment

Common Beliefs That Hold People Back
• You have to be in crisis to start therapy.
• If therapy didn’t work once, it won’t work again.
• You should feel better right away if it’s working.
• Medication is a last resort or a failure.

Misconceptions About Intensive Treatment
• Higher levels of care are only for people who’ve “failed” outpatient.
• If you’re functioning day-to-day, you don’t need structured treatment.
• Going to PHP or IOP means you have to put your whole life on pause.
• You have to go away to get intensive support.

Mental health treatment can be life-changing.
Lifting yourself out of survival mode and into something steadier takes courage, so allow yourself the grace—and that courage—to explore what healing might look like.
Mental health treatment isn’t about being broken, it’s about giving yourself a chance to feel different. More connected. More whole.
You don’t have to wait for things to fall apart before reaching for something better.

06/13/2025

During Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re reminded that pain doesn’t always announce itself. It can hide in routines, roles, and the pressure to keep it together.

If this resonates, consider what support might look like for you or someone you care about.