Using EMDR Therapy to Heal Your Past: Interview with Creator Francine Shapiro
Francine Shapiro, Ph.D, first discovered and developed EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) in 1987 to help people process traumatic memories. Today, EMDR is recognized by the US Department of Defense and the American Psychiatric Association as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Traumatic memories come in many types. While some may involve violence or physical abuse, others involve everyday life experiences, such as relationship problems or unemployment, according to Shapiro in her...
read moreEMDR Can Build Self Esteem Faster than Talk Therapy
Self Esteem generally gets established based on a) Feedback from the people around us–especially during childhood, and b) How much sense of mastery in our world we develop. When feedback from parents, siblings, peers, teachers, etc is shaming, children often don’t develop good self-esteem. Children take feedback that is punishing, contemptuous, insulting, undermining, teasing, mean, neglectful, unappreciating, bullying, abusive and so on as information that they are not worth much. When this is the source of low...
read moreHow Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain (article from the New York Times)
Why would exercise build brainpower in ways that thinking might not? The brain, like all muscles and organs, is a tissue, and its function declines with underuse and age. Beginning in our late 20s, most of us will lose about 1 percent annually of the volume of the hippocampus, a key portion of the brain related to memory and certain types of learning. Exercise though seems to slow or reverse the brain’s physical decay, much as it does with muscles. Although scientists thought until recently that humans were born with a certain number of...
read moreRape or Childhood Sexual Abuse and Feelings of Anxiety
Rape or Childhood Sexual Abuse and Feelings of Anxiety In my clinical practice I see many women presenting with symptoms of Anxiety: Excessive anxiety and worry Restlessness Fatigue Difficulty Concentrating Irritability Muscle Tension Sleep Disturbance Distress or Impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. This Anxiety is due unprocessed sexual trauma stored in your midbrain as unconscious material. This unconscious material can be easily triggered and set in motion as high survival anxiety and panic...
read moreThe Love Avoidant
Characteristics of The Love Avoidant: Love Addicts are attracted to people with certain identifiable and fairly predictable characteristics, and people with these characteristics are attracted to Love Addicts in return. The primary attribute marking all of the characteristics on the “model” partner for a Love addict is avoidance, which seems incredible to their partners since Love Avoidants come on to their partners so strongly at first. Characteristics: Love Avoidants evade intensity within the relationship by creating intensity in...
read moreUnderstanding Binge Eating in Teens
Understanding Binge Eating In Teens: Getting Help: If after reading this, you are convinced you or your teen may be suffering from Binge Eating Disorder, seek help of a professional who has had success in treating Binge Eating Disorder. Orlando Residents can Contact Orlando Teen Counselor Suzanne Rucker. If you gorged yourself on chocolate during Halloween or ate so much of your grandma’s pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving that you had to wear elastic-waist pants afterward, you know what it feels like to overeat. It’s not unusual to...
read moreWomen's Sexual (Love/Relationship) Addictions Screening Test
Women’s Sexual Addiction Screening Test By Patrick Carnes, Ph.D.& Sharon O’Hara, LMFT The Women’s Sexual Addiction Screening Test (W-SAST) is designed to assist in the assessment of sexually compulsive behavior. This test is a screening instrument, meant to be used in the context of a therapeutic interview. By itself, the W-SAST does not provide a diagnosis. Answer each question yes or no, then count how many “yes” answers you have. Depending on the particular pattern of symptoms:3...
read moreCreating Boundaries When you are in a Relationship with a Sex Addict
Creating Boundaries When you are in a Relationship with a Sex Addict: What are boundaries? They are a dividing line between you and anyone else. These lines represent physical, emotional, and spiritual limits that other people in your life may not violate. It may help to envision a psychological fence that separates you from others in your life. You may have different boundaries for loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and strangers, depending on the area of focus and the situation. Boundaries are meant to protect you from physical...
read moreCan You Really be Addicted to Love?
Can You Really Be Addicted to Love? Experts claim that desperate reactions to a break-up—like the urge to throw the nearest bunny into a saucepan—could be a clue that you’re suffering from yet another addiction. I had never heard the phrase “Addicted to Love” uttered outside a Robert Palmer video or bad poetry until a few years ago, when a particularly poisonous breakup drove me temporarily insane. After endless hours of listening to me cry and obsess over what went wrong during my seven-month relationship, a few friends...
read moreWhy Time Doesn't Heal All Wounds
If we cut ourselves, unless there is an obstacle, we tend to heal. If we remove the block, the body goes back to healing. That’s why we’re willing to let ourselves be cut open during surgery. We expect incisions to heal. The brain is a part of the body. In addition to the millions of memory networks just described, we all have hardwired into our brains a mechanism – an information processing system – for healing. It is geared to take any sort of emotional turmoil to a level of mental health or what is called a level of adaptive...
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