Set Your Child Up for Success in Mental Health Treatment and in Life
Your kid’s life is one big balancing act. Your child is trying to keep up with the demands of school, find personal passions, manage parental expectations, mature in peer relationships and face the challenge of developing an individual identity. Growing up is hard whichever way you slice it, and for kids who struggle with mental health disorders, there’s even more to balance. If your child is currently undergoing mental health treatment, it can feel extremely overwhelming for you and your whole family. In this article we’ll look at some ways to help your child thrive in all [...]
How Journaling can Enhance Your Addiction Recovery Program
Journaling is a powerful tool you can use to work through confusing or convoluted thoughts and feelings. Journaling gives you a chance to externally process without needing to sound eloquent, well thought out or even polite. It’s a free, safe space to say what you need to say, when and how you need to say it. Why journaling? In addition to being an effective method of processing what’s going on in your life, mind, heart, etc., journaling serves as a kind of documentary. It might tell the story of your battle with addiction, from where it began to where it [...]
All the Ways You Can Expect to Benefit from Evidence-Based Treatment
It seems like a no-brainer that medical and mental health professionals should be using the most current evidence to inform their practice. However, a disappointing number of experts tend to rely on traditional methods rather than the most safe and successful treatment. Evidence-based treatment has been gaining ground to combat practices that may be ineffective and even harmful. What is evidence-based treatment? The term “evidence-based treatment” has been around since the 1980s when it was used to inform clinical interventions with recent publications, according to the journal Neurotherapeutics. The American Psychological Association states that evidence-based treatment, or EBT, in [...]
A Quick Overview of Trauma Program Levels
If you’ve struggled to recover from terrible events in your life, trauma treatment might be for you. While not everyone’s life difficulties will warrant the same intensity of treatment, if you experience anxiety in daily living or recurring and intrusive thoughts about a past event, it’s time to get connected to help. Deciding to pursue trauma treatment is a brave step. The thought of processing trauma can be daunting, but rest assured that once you start services, you’ll have the compassion and support of healthcare professionals on your side. A decision you don’t have to make alone When you think [...]
Everything You Need to Know About Diagnosing and Treating Panic Disorder
Do you ever feel like you’re living in fear…of fear? If you’re looking for an overview of panic attacks and the best panic disorder treatment, you’ve come to the right place. Learn more about diagnosing the panic disorder, its most common symptoms and your therapy and medication options below. What is panic disorder? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (fifth edition), or DSM V, is the tool compiled by the American Psychiatric Association and used by medical and mental health professionals to recognize and treat conditions like panic disorder. The manual lists the following criteria to identify a [...]
Preparing for Mental Health Teletherapy
Finding mental health teletherapy Teletherapy has been an accepted treatment modality for the last several years, but it has gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health counseling via teletherapy is particularly valuable because it provides access to treatment and convenience factors that are not available with traditional in-person therapy. In addition to online mental health counseling, several other types of therapy can be made available on a telehealth platform: Addiction counseling: Online addiction counseling is a great medium for those in recovery who are still looking for outpatient support. A teletherapist specializing in online addiction counseling can provide treatment [...]
Knowing What You Need For Your Recovery Process
Coming to the realization that you or a loved one is in need of drug rehab can be a scary thing. Not only is it frightening because of the reality of addiction, but also because of the sheer number of treatment centers, counseling services and therapists available. Would virtual or in-person therapy be better? What about options like inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization or outpatient treatment – how do you determine which one you need? Because each individual’s addiction story is going to be different from the next person’s, it’s important for the success of the recovery journey to ensure [...]
What Types of Therapy Are Helpful For Depression?
Depression is a potentially debilitating mental health disorder. It’s also one of the most common. The CDC states almost 5% of adults report suffering from depression each year. However, cases may be underreported. Other sources place the actual number of individuals living with the disorder much higher. There is good news: depression is highly treatable. Each year we continue to learn more about mental health disorders and effective methods for treating them. Therapy is one such depression treatment. Therapists use a range of therapeutic techniques to help their patients overcome depression. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, [...]
Teletherapy and Online Substance Abuse Treatment: What You Need to Know
Teletherapy combines the use of technology with therapy to deliver treatment through video conferencing and web-based tools. In today’s world, it’s increasingly important to provide accessible, safe, and effective treatment options to patients. For this reason, teletherapy is becoming a more common option for patients seeking addiction treatment. It allows a person to receive effective treatment often without requiring them to leave the comfort of their home. It can be easy to think of teletherapy as only being useful for mental health treatment; however, teletherapy is also just as effective for substance abuse counseling and treatment. If you or someone [...]
Trauma Recovery: 6 Ways Your Body Can Be an Ally
Written by Gwen Blumberg Islam, LSW, Clinician for High Focus Centers in Paramus Often after experiencing trauma, the body can start to feel disconnected or even like the enemy, and reconnecting to it can be a scary thing to consider. There was likely a time when being in your body was a painful place to be, and it might have seemed safer, and even necessary, to disconnect from it. There’s a good chance your body might still experience pain or discomfort as a result of past trauma, and it’s only natural to have an initial urge to avoid that. However, [...]
What Are The Benefits of Telepsychiatry?
Telepsychiatry, or teletherapy, allows patients to use telecommunication software and devices such as computers, tablets, or phones, to receive online mental health and substance abuse treatment. Telepsychiatry offers a number of benefits to both patients and their therapists, including increased accessibility to services, more comfort, and convenience, among others. We’ll detail some of the top benefits of telepsychiatry below. Telepsychiatry Provides Comfort To Patients For patients with extreme anxiety or who feel uncomfortable in a clinical or unfamiliar setting, telepsychiatry allows patients to meet with their therapist virtually from the comfort and safety of their home. Similarly, for patients who [...]
How Does Teletherapy Work?
As our new normal continues to evolve, technology has made communicating and staying in touch with friends and family easier than ever. Through FaceTime and video conferencing, we can reach out to friends across the country or conference remotely with coworkers. This same technology and need to adapt have also had an effect on medicine, including psychiatry. You may have heard about “teletherapy” and are wondering what exactly it means, how it works, and what it looks like. We’ll explain what teletherapy is, what its benefits are, and answer questions you may have about this growing practice. What is Teletherapy? [...]
