Here Counseling

Our brains are built to worry. But there's a way to make it better. Jeff Creely, PhD helps people with anxiety and sexuality issue to experience peace and freedom.

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Depression can feel overwhelming during the holidays. There’s a few reasons for that. Our traditions and gatherings can usually remind us not only of the ways we are connected and grateful, but also the ways we can sometimes feel alone and isolated as well. This holiday brings with it an uninvited guest: a recognition that for many of us, this year has been difficult, and at times has felt hopeless. On top of these kinds of economic and health realities, we can recognize that... we’ve been lonely. Our brains were meant for daily social connection. The largest part of our brains is the cortex. That’s the rich, folded external part of our brains responsible for all of our higher order planning, thinking, language, and visual-spacial awareness. The purpose of this part of the brain isn’t simply for accomplishing tasks. The purpose of this important part of our brain is to keep us connected to a social group. Our cortex is built for constant and intricate interactions with other people. Picture a 150 person closed-network group of people similar to tribal cultures. Each person knows each other, each person has a role, a sense of how they belong and function together. Together they have some sense of their shared world and place in it. They have stories and myths, they have unfolding drama and conflict between members, and ways of moving through these conflicts toward resolutions. Pre-COVID, our social environments tend to be more urban than tribal. The social connections that fed our cortexes came instead from affinity groups, churches, work environments, and gyms. These give our lives meaning, they give us purpose, and identity. When we feel we belong to a community, we know our role, we get clear signals about our identity within that group, and we feel we’re moving toward some shared purpose that’s larger than ourselves. Read more here: https://herecounseling.com/why-depression-may-feel-stronge/

Our brains were meant for daily social connection. The largest part of our brains is the cortex. That’s the rich, folded external part of our brains responsible for all of our higher order planning, thinking, language, and visual-spacial awareness. The purpose of this part of the brain isn’t simply for accomplishing tasks. The purpose of this important part of our brain is to keep us connected to a social group.... Our cortex is built for constant and intricate interactions with other people. Picture a 150 person closed-network group of people similar to tribal cultures. Each person knows each other, each person has a role, a sense of how they belong and function together. Together they have some sense of their shared world and place in it. They have stories and myths, they have unfolding drama and conflict between members, and ways of moving through these conflicts toward resolutions. Pre-COVID, our social environments tend to be more urban than tribal. The social connections that fed our cortexes came instead from affinity groups, churches, work environments, and gyms. These give our lives meaning, they give us purpose, and identity. When we feel we belong to a community, we know our role, we get clear signals about our identity within that group, and we feel we’re moving toward some shared purpose that’s larger than ourselves. [read more about depression and this holiday season below] https://herecounseling.com/why-depression-may-feel-stronge/

Life can feel really chaotic right now with all the changes due to COVID this fall and getting ready for a potentially difficult (or at least different!) holiday season. Things with our kids can feel out of control as well, whether it is managing their feelings or redirecting their behaviors. In these difficulty times, we easily lose sight of what really matters, like having a strong connection with your child. We often forget that a warm relationship goes a long way to help with problems that we face. Click the link in our bio to read more about this from Melissa

"The negative experiences in your past create a code in your brain, coaxing you to feel stressed, depressed, or angry in response to certain triggers. EMDR is a therapeutic process that helps you re-access these memories to change the code, helping you discover the peace you long for. This is achieved through stimulating the left and right sides of the brain rhythmically, something you can do with simple actions like tapping your knees in an alternating pattern. Memories are... likely stored in the brain during left-right eye movements that occur while we sleep, and EMDR appears to mimic this process in order to heal the effects of negative memories, whether we are conscious of those memories or not. Remember that situation that was stressing you out? You can practice the bilateral stimulation from EMDR at home to turn down the negative volume of this trigger in your life." Learn more about EMDR from Gavin Cross, AMFT: https://herecounseling.com/how-does-emdr-work-heres-why-ta/

Sometimes it can feel like our children have 100 problems that need our attention, 100 things we need to work on. But sometimes it starts with one simple thing: building the warmth in our relationship with our child. This can make a world of difference, and Melissa Winfield is here to show you how: [click to watch the video] https://herecounseling.com/want-to-calm-the-chaos-at-home-i