How To Discover Your True Self

It is important to me as a clinician to help my clients become true to themselves. This requires understanding the experiences that made you who you are, why you act and feel like you do and discovering what learned behavior still fits. When we can nourish the things that feel true to us and disregard old, ineffective thoughts and actions, we get closer to the person we truly are. When we are present with our "true self" we experience feeling free, easy, untroubled, calm, light, centered and peaceful. The wonderful thing about our true self is that it has no agenda- it just is.

The best way to connect to our true selves is by spending time with ourselves in a loving, nurturing and understanding manner. This can be done in many ways- through therapy, journaling, silence, play and meditation. There are countless forms of meditation and many people feel they don't know how to meditate. I teach my clients the use of RAIN by Tara Brach as one form of meditation. When used regularly, RAIN can be extremely effective in greeting your true self. As you continue stepping in to your true self, your experiences of the true self deepen, a wide range of feelings begin to emerge, including: loving-kindness, bliss, intuition, insight, feeling safe and knowing that your life has meaning.

What Is Trauma?

Trauma can result from lingering effects of past experiences. These events may have seemed insignificant at the time, or they may have been intense situations. Whatever its source, unprocessed trauma can impact out lives even years into the future and keep us from developing stable and meaningful relationships.

Using a variety of proven techiques, I will help you learn to reprocess the traumatic events that you have experienced in your past. I will help you identify these events and process them in a way that allows you to move forward in a positive direction and reduce the impact that the past has on your daily life.

What Is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal effectively and relatively quickly from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.

Repeated studies have shown that by using EMDR therapy, people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy in months that once took years. It was widely assumed that severe emotional pain or problems, such as PTSD symptoms, phobias, debilitating anxiety, and other reactions that are deeply felt and ingrained, would take a long time to heal. While therapy is indeed a process, EMDR therapy has demonstrated in countless studies that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma if “blocks” are addressed using this innovative technique.

EMDR approaches healing with the theory that the brain’s information processing system naturally moves towards health. Using detailed EMDR protocols and procedures, traumatic memories can be reprocessed and stored differently within the brain. This is all done by activating a natural healing processes that lies within all of us.

More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies on EMDR have demonstrated that a high percentage of single trauma victims no longer have PTSD symptoms after only a handful of sessions. The World Health Organization, American Psychiatric Association, many private insurance companies, and the Department of Defense all point to EMDR as highly rated evidence model to alleviate symptoms effectively so a person can live their life fully. To read more, check out www.emdria.org.

Why Do I Use EMDR ?

Traditional therapy training involves having clients recall traumatic events while the therapist offers insight and support. While this can be helpful at times, I have found that it can fall short of actually healing the wounds that a trauma can leave behind.

In a desire to find solutions, I was trained through the EMDR Institiute which was founded by the creator of EMDR, Francine Shapiro. I routinely enhance my training through continued course work. I feel it is important to keep up with the latest tools and techniques in this field.

I’ve come to rely on EMDR because I want to help people heal as thoroughly as possible. I have seen the impact that EMDR has had on my clients. If it’s right for you, EMDR can be an amazing tool. However, each individual is different and not all clients need EMDR, nor do all clients have a desire to do EMDR. If EMDR is not the right therapuetic tool for you, do not worry, I am trained in a wide range of other effective approaches that may suit your needs better.

There is a difference between Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders. However, both Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders have a common theme- that the person's relationship with food and their body has become an area of stress, conflict and concern. Food, weight and the body have become an area of contention and therefore, the 'red herring' that disguises what is really going on in one's life. My goal is to find the underlying issues that feed the eating disorder/disordered eating and help my clients develop new insight and tools in order to create change.

What Is Disordered Eating?

Disordered Eating does not fall in to the strict criteria of an eating disorder but is often a pre-cursor to an eating disorder. The level of obsession around eating disorder thought and behaviors can distinguish disordered eating from an eating disorder. When someone's eating patterns take them away from normal functioning, this can be a strong indication of an eating disorder. The distinction between an eating disorder and disordered eating is one that takes practice in order to achieve understanding. Oftentimes, those struggling report that their eating disorder began as disordered eating. This by no means indicates that all who engage in disordered eating will have an eating disorder. Rather, it is a reminder to practice reflection and support for those around us whom have any type of concern.

What Is An Eating Disorder?

Binge Eating Disorder (BED)

BED is a severe, life-threatening, and treatable eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of eating large quantities of food (often very quickly and to the point of discomfort); a feeling of a loss of control during the binge; experiencing shame, distress or guilt afterwards; and not regularly using unhelathy compensetory measures (e.g., purging) to counter the binge eating. It is the most common eating disorder in the United States.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by weight loss (or lack of appropriate weight gain in growing children); difficulties maintaining an appropriate body weight for height, age, and stature; and, in many individuals, distorted body image. People with anorexia generally restrict the number of calories and the types of food they eat. Some people with the disorder also exercise compulsively, purge via vomiting and laxatives, and/or binge eat.

Anorexia can affect people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, races, and ethnicities. Historians and psychologist have found evidence of people displaying symptoms of anorexia for hundreds or thousands of years.

Although the disorder most frequently begins during adolescence, an increasing number of children and older adults are also being diagnosed with anorexia. You cannot tell is a person is struggling with anorexia by looking at them. A person does not need to be emaciated or underweight to be struggling. Studies have found that larger-bodied individuals can also have anorexia, although they may be less likely to be diagnosed due to cultural prejudice against fat and obesity.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa is a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of bingeing and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, exercise, laxatives, etc., designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating.

Orthorexia

Although not formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, awareness about Orthorexia is on the rise. The term "orthorexia' was coined in 1998 and means an obsession with proper or 'healthful' eating. Although being aware of and concerned with the nutritional quality of the food you eat isn't a problem in and of itself, people with orthorexia become so fixated on so-called 'healthy-eathing' that they actually damage their own well-being.

Without formal diagnostic criteria, it's difficult to get an estimaate on precisey how many people have orthorexia, and whether it's a stand-alone eating disorder, a type of existing eating disorder like anorexia, or a form of obsessive- compulsive disorder. Studies have shown than many individuals with orthorexia also have obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Life is full of amazing moments and a lot of happiness. However, life can also have unexpected twists, turns, and hardships. These things can cause anxiety in anyone. The effects of this anxiety can range anywhere from minor annoyances to debilitating worries.

Although roughly 20% of American adults and are affected by general anxiety, social anxiety or panic attacks every year, only around a third of these individuals actually get treatment for their anxiety. If anxiety is making it difficult for you to focus or compromising your quality of life then take the steps to understand your anxiety and develop tools to address it.

Affected By Anxiety?

Many factors in our lives can make us feel anxious at times. Often, anxiety is a normal response to stressful events. It can even be a helpful coping mechanism. Anxiety tells us when we are in a dangerous or threatening situation, and it marshals the body's adrenaline reaction to prepare you for "fight, flight or flee".

However, frequent anxiety may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. Like depression, anxiety can be very imapairing, and often feels intolerable to those who experience it. Untreated anxiety can affect job performance and ability to carry out everyday activities. It may also lead to depression and increased risk of alcohol and drug abuse.

For some, a state of anxiety is experienced in bodily sensations of "butterflies" in the stomach, nausea, tightness in the chest or throat, trembling, or feeling faint. For others anxiety is predominantly a mental experience- negative thoughts, worries, and ruminations. Often, there is a connection between frequent worrying and physical symptoms, and one feeds the other. As you ruminate on problems or worries, you might find your chest getting tight as you start to tremble and feel short of breath. Cognitive-behavioral and relaxation techniques can be very helpful in the managment of anxiety. I often pair this modality with a psychodynamic exploration of a person's fears, becasue anxiety has meaning. It is a complex interwind of the mind and body.

Anxiety and depression can be influenced by our inner voice. How we talk to ourselves, and what we say can either ameliorate or exacerbate symptoms. Often, I find that people speak to themselves in critical and harsh ways. I help my clients identify their negative voice and teach them to make the kind of caring and supportive statements to themselves as they would to a friend or loved one.

Practice Mindfulness

One tool that may help with anxiety is mindfulness, a term you've probably heard a lot recently. In a world so focused on productivity and speed, it's more important than ever to know how to center yourself in the present to help combat anxious feelings. Learning mindfullness includes breathing, awareness and meditation to help with anxiety.

CBT Techniques

When you worry about something for a long time, that thought can become stuck in your head and drain your mental energy. Cognitive behavioral therapy techniques help people find better habits of thought to replace their anxious ones. This can also help you to improve your ability to stay away from the thought patterns that cause you anxiety and to calm your worries.

You Are Not Alone

If you or someone you care about is affected by depression, it's important to remember that you're not alone. More than 16.1 million Americans over the age of 18 are affected by depression every year.

Understanding Depression

While it is not uncommon to have some days where you just feel down, those who have experienced depression can easily identify the signs of frequent sadness, loss of interest, isolation, and sense of hopelessness. But sometimes people do not recognize that they are depressed. Some of the less obvious signs of depression are: frequent irritability, cranky or critical mood, impatience, changes in appetite or sleep, lack of energy, bodily aches and pains, lack of energy, feeling agitated or angry, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly, poor attention or memory.

Depression can be caused by many things or even nothing at all. Common sources for depression are a major loss, a life transition, relationship issues, the high-pressure environment of life and biological influence. I can help you examine your situation and find techniques that work for you.

People with depression may have difficulty reaching out to others, or communicating that they are in pain because they feel that they should be able to handle their emotions themselves, or do not want to be a burden on others. Even though it is difficult, it's important to begin speaking about your depression with someone. This shows strength- not weakness. Therapy focuses on realistic, achievable goals, finding hope in your life again and looking for ways to relieve the symptoms of your depression.

If you are feeling depressed I encourage you to seek help, try to keep a regular routine in terms of sleep, diet, exercise and activity level. Stay involved and avoid isolation.