Most of us are prone to high expectations, and stress around the holiday season. If you are someone who fits into this group, as I am, you may also worry your holiday might be disappointing or painful. Do you know what you are hoping for? Specifically?
It’s likely some aspects of your dream holiday are quite possible.
If you grew up in home with chaos or distress, rages or silences, you probably got really good at hiding your feelings, watching for cues in adults' behaviors.
Read MoreWhere do you hold your stress? Your belly? Your head? Your neck and shoulders?
When you’re stressed you might notice you hunch your shoulders up toward your ears, giving you pain in your neck or upper back. You might tighten your jaw, grind your teeth, or feel weepy.
The most important thing is that you notice. Then you can release it.
Read MoreIf you are alive and awake, you’ve likely read or heard about Josh Duggar, of the television show 19 Kids and Counting, molesting his sisters and a babysitter. What can you and I, as parents, do differently? Value our children, believe them, report their molester.
Read MoreHave you ever felt so sad you couldn't leave your bed? Make something to eat? Here are some ways to feel better, fast. If you feel you might have depression, try one or several of these.
Read MoreThink back to the past week. Think about the positive, negative, and neutral events that happened. Did you have a bad day? Did you feel abandoned or panicked when the person you turned to wasn’t available? Do you want to feel better when it happens again? Because you will feel let down, disappointed, or abandoned again someday. We can control of our feelings of sadness, abandonment, grief, rage, and anxiety by changing our thoughts with a simple activity called cognitive restructuring.
Read MoreSeattle is a lovely vibrant city, with the requisite attractions like the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and the Troll under the bridge. It’s also very hustle bustle and, some say, is known for a phenomenon called the Seattle Freeze. If you experience loneliness, isolation, or sadness, you may benefit from working with a counselor in Seattle.
Read MoreC’mon, admit it. When you were a child of napping age, you knew as well as I did how to muss up your hair, the sheets, and your clothing just so. I hated sleep. I could quietly pull out Nancy Drew, or my Spirograph, something quiet to pass the time until I could try leaving my bedroom again.
Read MoreDid you ever play hide and seek, outside in the neighborhood, after dark? My cousins were the best at surrounding the good hiding spaces, causing me to freeze. What kept me from just grabbing a spot and hiding? Well here it is: to make one choice was to leave behind other, possibly better, options.
Read MoreI made decisions, changed decisions, and meditated on it.
Read MoreEye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is one of the great counseling techniques to lessen the triggers and flooding that can come with anxiety. It works on the stuck memories that come out with physical sensations when you are confronted with smells, sights, people, places, or sounds that are similar to trauma, pain, or fear you experienced in the past.
Read MoreWith Father's Day right around the corner, here is a repost of blog on how to manage the holiday with a, shall we say, less than loving father. Celebrating YOU!
~ Robin
"We are affected by our past, but we are not prisoners of our pasts." ~Robin Custer, MSW, LICSWA When we have trauma, we can feel stuck, mentally, at the age the trauma first occurred. While we can't go back and redo our childhoods, we CAN use tools help get unstuck. One simple technique you can do at home is to write with your right (or dominant) hand on one side of an open notebook. Write to your early you.
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