Resources

Cuffing Season

Don’t Ignore the Red Flags During the holidays people tend to rush into relationships and/or ignore red flags. Most people want to be in a relationship even if it is temporary. Usually one or both parties force a relationship even though they lack commonality to prevent being single for the holidays. People tend to give
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From Surviving to Thriving: Choosing Self-Trust Over Self-Reliance

Growing up, I learned that being independent was something to be proud of. While self-reliance can be a strength, it can also become a trap when it’s the only tool we use. Asking for help feels uncomfortable and often leads to a tug-of-war between the part of me that wants to power through on my own, and the part that longs to reach out but hesitates. That’s where self-trust makes the difference. Instead of proving we can carry it all, self-trust helps us know when to rest, when to ask for support, and when to let ourselves soften.

Navigating the Social Landscape With ASD

The Puzzle of Social Interactions Navigating the intricate social landscape can be a complex task, especially for children and teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Understanding and interpreting social cues can pose significant challenges for children and teens, impacting their social interactions and relationships. One primary difficulty individuals with ASD encounter involves grasping non-verbal cues,
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EMDR: Therapeutic Technique For Children

What Does EMDR Look Like for Children? EMDR for children involves a structured eight-phase process, incorporating bilateralstimulation through guided eye movements, tactile tapping, or auditory cues. These bilateralstimuli facilitate processing distressing memories and help children adapt to traumaticexperiences. How Does EMDR Help Children? This therapeutic method has shown success in alleviating various symptoms in children,including
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Understanding Dissociation: Causes and Treatments

What is Dissociation Dissociation used to be a rare condition, but it has unfortunately increased and become more common for people to experience dissociative symptoms in recent years. Dissociation is a brain disconnection between our emotions, thoughts, environment and memories. Many individuals may call it now “daydreaming” or “zoning out”. In fact, day dreaming is
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ADHD for Children and Teenagers

What Is ADHD Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) poses unique challenges for children and teenagers, particularly in focusing, organizing tasks, and maintaining attention. Recognizing signs of inattention is crucial, and individual therapy is a pivotal resource in supporting these individuals. Inattention in ADHD children and teens often manifests as an inability to sustain focus on tasks, frequent
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Three Key Things to Expect for Your First Therapy Appointment

Taking the first step to schedule a therapy appointment requires a lot of courage—congratulations on making that decision! If you’re new to therapy, you might be curious about what to expect during your initial session. Here’s a guide to help you understand the process: Before Your First Therapy Appointment Preparing for your first therapy appointment
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3 Crucial Steps to Understanding and Addressing Autism Spectrum Disorder

1. What is ASD? Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that changes how you think and process information. Neurodivergence describes an individual whose brain functions differently from what we consider “normal .” Current beliefs are that due to the unique structure and chemistry of the ASD brain, these differences are unique to these
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Eating Disorders - It's Not About the Food

By Kelly Lopez

If it’s not about the food, what is it really about?

The eating disorder serves a function, it does a job. Despite the problems an eating disorder creates, it is an effort to cope, shield against, communicate, and solve problems. Behaviors may be a way to establish a sense of power or control, self-worth, strength, and containment. Bringing may be used to numb pain. Purging may be a way to release emotions. When one cannot cope in healthy ways, adaptive functions (behaviors) are created to ensure a sense of safety, security, and control.
According to Carolyn Costin*, some of the “adaptive functions that eating disorder behaviors commonly serve are”:
It’s not about the food, it’s a way of coping with low self-esteem, negative emotions, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, unstable home, difficulty resolving conflict and much more.
*Costin, Carolyn. The Eating Disorder Sourcebook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Causes, Treatments and Prevention of Eating Disorders. 3rd. edition, McGraw Hill, 2007.
Fuller, Kristen. “Eating Disorders: It’s Not All about Food.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 Mar. 2017