Mindy, I have heard the words “grief counseling” thrown around a lot and I wonder how it is different from regular therapy. Can you explain? I have never gone to a LINKS event because I really don’t enjoy talking about […]
Mindy, I have heard the words “grief counseling” thrown around a lot and I wonder how it is different from regular therapy. Can you explain? I have never gone to a LINKS event because I really don’t enjoy talking about […]
Years ago, I taught writing to high school students.
I was passionate about my subject and tried to infuse my students with the same passion I felt. Whenever I assigned different genres of writing I did my own homework. I wrote poetry and short stories and personal narratives and plays and pictorial essays and interviews and children books. Often my students were more talented than I could ever be. And I let them know that. But, I told them, I have experience and I could teach them so that they could far outstrip me in their talent. And I took pleasure in that happening.
I was a teacher for many years before I became a therapist. Over the years, whenever I wronged a student, I tried to find a way to apologize if I knew that a student held some grudge or was upset at me.
Recently, I was invited by the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation to be on a panel for their 2023 Tishah B’Av event. I would be one of three women speaking about finding strength in the shadow of challenge — as that’s what the flyer announcing our video was called.
Apparently, the only qualification I needed to write an article originally titled, “What If I Don’t Want to be Available 24/7 to Text?” is that my dumb phone doesn’t even have text. The obvious conclusion being that I can’t be available 24/7 to text; at best, you can call me, at worst you leave a message and I can respond when I have time.
Totty. Dark, untidy frizzes border his soft, pale face. He is my father…..my dear father. Glancing at a picture of Totty, all the good, old memories come flooding back to my baffled mind. I feel the heated tears trickling down my face. First one, then another, and then they become too many to count.
When a client meets me face to face for the first time, they are seeing a façade.
Helicopter parents.
Ever heard of those?
First time I heard that description of parents that hover about their children, I got a huge kick out of it. I was able to see that helicopter parent perfectly. Their bodies floating above in the air above their children, arms out protectively whirring like the rotary blades of the copter, the wind whipping at their faces so that their faces are squinched up (I just made up that word but it’s perfect, no?) in pain and worry as they hurtle around their children, trying to keep them safe.
When I first went into private practice as a therapist, my first teen client who applied to seminary didn’t ask my advice or opinion, and I didn’t give it. So the problem was a problem for her, but not for me. So that was not a problem. It only became a huge problem once she went to seminary, and then it became my problem too — but more on that later.
Using an 8-step protocol which includes a back-and-forth movement (originally only of the eyes; presently, more varied options), EMDR therapy facilitates the accessing and processing of traumatic memories or adverse experiences. It transforms a client's negative beliefs to positive ones, reduces body activation, and allows new behaviors to replace the old.
Somatic IFS is a branch of IFS which uses the 5 practices of: somatic awareness, breath, resonance, movement, and touch. The intention of this practice is to help parts that express themselves through the body reestablish connection to Self, restoring its leadership; healing the injured and traumatized parts, enabling healthy living.
Clinical hypnosis is a technique in which the therapist helps a client go into a deeply focused and relaxed state called a trance, using verbal cues, repetition, and imagery. In this naturally occurring altered state of hypnotic consciousness, therapeutic interventions to address psychological or physical issues are more effective.
IFS views a person as made up of many parts, much like a family, each with its own feelings, thoughts, and even memories. Parts may manifest in troublesome ways, but IFS believes each one is there to protect and help, and the role of therapy is to heal the wounded and hurting parts, uncovering the core Self who will lead these parts with the 8 Cs of: calm, curiosity, clarity, compassion, confidence, courage, creativity, and connectedness.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy is a body-based, holistic approach to healing that integrates talk therapy, attachment theory, and experiential exercises to address developmental and other trauma that is stored in the body as somatic symptoms. Working with child states and “experiments,” SP therapy accesses material that is often outside of a client’s awareness, facilitating healing and growth.
When the body stores unpleasant sensations as a result of stress, shock, and trauma, SE is a body-based therapy that helps clients to gain awareness of how these cause stuck patterns of flight and fight responses. SE therapy is a gentle method that guides clients to increase their window of tolerance, releasing suppressed trauma and emotions, freeing them of their physical emotional pain.