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Understanding Secondary Trauma

We live in a broken world. If we exist long enough, we will be exposed to hard things—trauma, grief, injustice, physical illness, and human tragedy. We are designed to live in community, and we are designed to care about people. Our existence depends on it. From our earliest moments our survival is highly impacted by … Continue reading Understanding Secondary Trauma

Self Worth as Stewardship

Self-care is stewardship of the gifts (internal and external) we have been given. When I am a good steward of myself, I am less likely to burn-out or experience resentment. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com I work with hurting people. A common goal in my counseling practice is to increase self-worth. This is understandable as … Continue reading Self Worth as Stewardship

Working with Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses and potentially life threatening, and they are very complex. Many people want to see the illness as a “disorder of choice,” as if the person made the “choice” to have an eating disorder and should make the “choice” to stop having one. It’s important to understand that well meaning advice may be going to a brain that has been hijacked by a mental illness.

Understanding EMDR Therapy

What is EMDR? Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is “an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches” (www.emdria.org). EMDR essentially makes traumatic material less powerful. For example, if you … Continue reading Understanding EMDR Therapy

The Truth about Coping

We live in a fast-paced and often high stress culture. At times we are drawn to the “next big thing” and continually look toward the future or analyze the past. In our competitive culture there are two paths to choose in response to stress: decrease stress by changing factors we can control or manage stress … Continue reading The Truth about Coping