If you’re suffering a loss & working through the five stages of grief, it can be challenging to know how to approach the process in a healthy way. As a society we’re not taught in advance how to deal with the issue of grief. It’s a massive challenge, even for the most mentally healthy people.

Therapy is one of the best ways to deal with stress and depression, but it may not work all the time. Nevertheless, the fact that therapy may not work in some cases does not mean that you are beyond redemption. There are several alternatives to therapy that may help you deal with psychological problems.

I have three more apps you might be interested in. The first is called ReliefLink.  It has several relapse prevention planning features in one app. 1. Mood tracking plus suicidal thoughts. If the mood is low or suicidal thoughts are present, the app links to your previously made safety plan or other in app resources. 2.  Relaxation Exercises (relaxation and mindfulness)3. Relaxing Music--just hit play and you will hear calming music. Reallllly calm. It's soft so I th...

There are two new apps from The National Center for Telehealth and Technology. Both are available from iTunes and Google play.  The first is Virtual Hope Box. From the website: "The Virtual Hope Box (VHB) is a smartphone application designed for use by patients and their behavioral health providers as an accessory to treatment. The VHB contains simple tools to help patients with coping, relaxation, distraction, and positive thinking.Patients and providers can work together to...

We all have urges to do things that aren't in our best interest long term, whether that is overeating, refusing to eat, self harm, suicide or alcohol/drug use. Learning to recognize urges as urges (which may be very strong and compelling) but not as mandates or musts, takes a bit of work. One skill that can be helpful is called Disarm. It stands for Destructive Self-talk Awareness and Refusal Method.  This is a cognitive behavioral technique that asks us to identify the though...

In our Coping group, one of the things we work on is interpersonal effectiveness. Interpersonal effectiveness has three parts--getting what your want, or your objectives; keeping the relationship intact; and keeping self-respect.  Trying to balance all three of these at the same time takes tremendous skill for many of us.  One of the things people struggle with is saying no to others. We worry people won't like us, will see us as selfish, hard to get along with, uncaring, etc....

At MidValley Healthcare, one of the problems we work on is coping with symptoms of anxiety. We spend considerable time on using CBT skills to combat distorted thoughts that lead to anxiety, but another skill that is helpful in reducing anxiety is being mindful.  Mindfulness is about being fully present, aware of the current state, calmly accepting or at least acknowledging one's thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc. Obviously, this takes lots and lots of practice. In being mindful w...

One of the things we talk about in groups is dealing with healthy remorse vs neurotic guilt, and healthy vs unhealthy anger, and how these unhealthy patterns contribute to lower mood, increased anxiety and anger, and somatic problems which result. I'm linking to two articles on forgiving self and others. At the bottom of each of these articles are further links to articles on forgiveness, including research as to how forgiveness has health and social benefits. Hope you find them help...

Looking for a visual to remind yourself the steps for CBT? Want to share with others how CBT works? Go here.

One of the most common problems I see in my practice is lack of skills in solving conflict. For some, it is very difficult to communicate clearly about what we would like, want or prefer. Following are five steps for managing a conflict in a healthy way. It might be helpful to have this list printed out for both parties to refer to. Pay special attention to the last step.