PTSD and Trauma
About
About the Clarity Counseling Blog
Welcome to the Clarity Counseling Blog, your go-to resource for mental wellness. At Clarity Counseling, we specialize in helping individuals manage depression and anxiety through personalized telehealth services. Our mission is to support you in clarifying your healing goals and achieving tangible progress in your mental health journey.
Our blog offers:
- Expert Advice: Insights from our experienced therapists.
- Practical Tips: Strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and depression.
- Inspiration: Stories of hope and resilience.
- Updates: The latest news in mental health and telehealth services.
Whether you’re seeking support for yourself or a loved one, our blog provides valuable information and encouragement. Join us as we explore mental wellness and discover ways to live a healthier, happier life.
Navigating Expectations in Depression, Anxiety, or Trauma Therapy: A Compassionate Exploration of Progress
Embarking on the path to mental well-being amidst the challenges of depression requires not only courage but also a nuanced understanding of the therapeutic journey. In this comprehensive exploration, we delve into a common obstacle encountered in depression therapy: unrealistic expectations. This blog post aims to provide insights into the intricacies of managing expectations and the crucial role they play in hindering or fostering progress in therapy.
Coping vs Treatment in Mental Health: Coping is Good, but it’s Not Treatment
In the grand tapestry of mental health, we often find ourselves at a crossroads, pondering the difference between merely coping and seeking genuine treatment, especially when facing the challenges of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. When thinking about coping vs treatment in mental health it’s time to peel back the layers, confront the bold truth, and recognize that mental well-being in the realm of anxiety, depression, and PTSD deserves more than just weathering the storm. In this brief journey, we’ll explore the nuances between coping and treatment, understanding that both play vital roles in our mental health narrative.
About the Clarity Counseling Blog
Welcome to the Clarity Counseling Blog, your go-to resource for mental wellness. At Clarity Counseling, we specialize in helping individuals manage depression and anxiety through personalized telehealth services. Our mission is to support you in clarifying your healing goals and achieving tangible progress in your mental health journey.
Our blog offers:
- Expert Advice: Insights from our experienced therapists.
- Practical Tips: Strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and depression.
- Inspiration: Stories of hope and resilience.
- Updates: The latest news in mental health and telehealth services.
Whether you’re seeking support for yourself or a loved one, our blog provides valuable information and encouragement. Join us as we explore mental wellness and discover ways to live a healthier, happier life.
Decoding Healthcare Plans: A Guide for 6th Graders (and Confused Adults)
Whether you have Aetna, United Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, Anthem Blue Cross, and Anthem Blue Shield – there are some common terms that almost all of us find both nauseating and confusing. We couldn’t agree more (and we do this for our jobs). Hang in there though, today we’re on a mission to unravel the mysteries of copays, coinsurance, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums. So, grab your adventurer’s hat, and let’s dive into this journey together!
Demystifying HMO vs. PPO: A Quick Guide for Optum, United Health, Anthem, and Aetna Plans
Ok… so today we’re going to talk about something that no one really wants to talk about or spend life minutes reading about until it matters. The problem? Understanding the nuances between HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) and PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) healthcare plans is crucial for making informed decisions about your healthcare and saving you money. In California, patients insured by Optum, United Health, Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, and Anthem Blue Shield often find themselves faced with the choice between these two popular plan types.
How to Identify Your Goals for Therapy
Most of the time the questions that therapists ask at the first session are a little tough to answer because often we’re starting therapy because we’re at a bit of a loss about how to solve the problems we have. Often our depression or anxiety are intense enough that we are a little bit scared to even try to figure out what we’re feeling. If that’s you, you’re not alone and this post is here to help!
COVID19 & THE “STRONG BLACK WOMAN” STEREOTYPE
It is 2021 and the world has been thrust into a global health pandemic. COVID19 dominates every airway, daily news outlet and google ad these days, disseminating disproportionate numbers of Black and Brown communities suffering, dying and losing loved ones to this vicious virus. In December of 2020, the CDC published studies of specific U.S. cities showing a 34% death rate of Hispanics and African-Americans despite comprising just 12% of the country’s population. A number of intersecting issues have undoubtedly contributed to this statistic, including healthcare disparities, lack of access to healthcare, high unemployment rates, residential redlining and gentrification, racism, sexism, and economic disenfranchisement, to name a few.
The Importance of Paying Attention to Yourself
Paying attention to ourself is one of the most important and powerful things that we, as human beings, can develop within ourselves. Sadly, this skill is often neglected in our home life and education, but we see that it is the common thread amongst all forms of psychotherapy and even many spiritual and religious traditions. For example, we see this in the form of a thought record in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or insight in Psychodynamic therapy, or, in spiritual traditions, meditation as in Buddhism. Nevertheless, they all point to the importance of knowing ourself — and our patterns — for us to be able to change ourself as human beings. But, before we dive more deeply into this process, we must ask ourselves how can we pay attention more closely to ourselves?
4 Steps to Working Past Our Political Gridlock Issues
Upon reflecting upon this really tenuous and fragile time in our political history, my role as a marriage and family therapist made it unavoidable to realize that we there are lot of parallels between the marriage of the two political parties our country has committed to.
Dear America: Remember Who You Are
The hurt and intensity of this political moment has deeply affected so many of the people in and out of my office right now. The conversations have been gut-wrenching to hear – people’s fears, concerns, uncertainty about the future of our country. Many people are genuinely fearful that it will no longer be the (comparatively) safer place it has been in recent history. Those concerns are valid, and I have come to realize that much like the natural tendency we have as humans to watch and stare at the scene of an accident, we cannot wait for a political leader to save us from the moment we find ourselves in. While I don’t necessarily mean that we have to go protest (although that’s an understandable and appropriate way to demonstrate our dissatisfaction with the status quo), we do need to do some self-inventory and see how we might be able to facilitate healing within our social reach.
The Real Reason Your Productivity is Suffering and 5 Things to Do About It
If we’re being honest with ourselves, most of us have seen our productivity go in the dumper and that is leading to a lot of stress and anxiety to what is already a stressful situation. Many of us will point to apparent reasons: threats to health, the economic situation, changes to income, changes to the way you do your work, political instability, kids at home (if you have any), etc. That being said, I think it’s more helpful to go meta on this topic and understand why that effects your ability to produce work as efficiently.
Countering the Lingering Effects of Trauma
We hear about traumatic events regularly in our daily lives. News outlets are often eager to highlight tragedies that befall individuals in our world. And although we are all familiar with such stories, there exists an absence of dialogue as to what happens to survivors of trauma after the fact. Once we’ve mourned and acknowledged the terribleness of an event, we have a tendency of prematurely laying it to rest without further discussion on the long-term impacts of such events on survivors. Often individuals that live a trauma carry it with them into every facet of their lives; into their intimate partnerships, their careers, their friendships and their communities. And this is especially true of survivors of childhood abuse and their future relationships.