Posts

Is It Normal To Feel Worse At The Beginning Of Therapy? YES!

Image
Is It Normal To Feel Worse At The Beginning Of Therapy? YES! Let’s set the scene: you’re walking into your first therapy session. You’re nervous. It took courage for you to even reach out in the first place. But everyone says that therapy is worth it. Therapy will make you feel better. Just give it a try. Fast forward to the end of your first few sessions: you’re actually NOT feeling much better. Maybe you were for a week or so, but now negative emotions are swirling through your body. You’re still not sure how to deal with them and you find your life changing in ways you didn’t really think you wanted. If this is you, we’re here to tell you: this is normal. know, it seems backwards, but stick with us: often therapy seems to make things worse before they get better. Think about it: what happens when you hurt your body physically? How does the healing process work? It hurts. It scabs. You may have to have surgery or stitches. Healing the physical body is PAINFUL. So why would healing y
Post a Comment
Read more

Three Great Resources For Managing Grief and a Personal Share by Bethany Barta

The only thing that stays the same is change.  You’ve heard this before, right? As we move through another Colorado Spring season (Spring officially arrives on March 20th, yay!) with weather that can change up to four times a day, we can use the lessons of nature to embrace change and learn to adapt to what is needed in the moment. Just like you learn to bring multiple layers once you’ve lived in Colorado for a while, you can adapt to changes in your life by tuning into the present and asking yourself “what do I need in this moment?”  You wouldn’t try to change the weather, would you?  So, one way we can work with change in our life is to stay present, feel into what is happening, and accept what we are experiencing.    From my work with people in the therapy room over the last 25 years, I have learned that most of us are experiencing some change, transition, or loss most of the time, whether we notice it or not.  Over the last two years of the pandemic, we have experienced multiple la
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Ways to Cope With Climate Anxiety

 5 Ways To Cope With Climate Anxiety The Earth’s climate is warming and many of us are experiencing its effects on our daily lives. Here in Colorado, the 2020 & 2021 wildfire seasons created unhealthy air conditions that were hard to ignore, forcing us to make changes like limiting time outside, blocking our views of the gorgeous Rocky Mountains, and for some feeling the smoke’s physical impact in our body. No matter where you are living, the chances are likely that you’ve noticed changes in your environment too that have had some impact on your life. Here are 5 tips for taking care of your mental health if you’re experiencing anxiety from climate change: 1- Set boundaries.  Limit your intake of climate-related news, especially if it increases your stress levels. There is a healthy way to stay responsibly informed without letting fear and worry over the environment consume you. Consider changing what sources you’re getting information from as well as how much time you spend on it.
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Manage Social Anxiety

Image
What if I told you that everyone experiences social anxiety to a certain extent? When I tell this to my clients, I can see the active release of tension in their shoulders. Social anxiety is a normal human experience but unfortunately it has a special way of making people feel alone and isolated, which further enforces the anxiety feelings. When we begin to realize that this is not a unique experience that we feel, but in fact everyone has had a socially anxious experience, it starts to lessen the hold that anxiety has on our lives. I host a social anxiety group here at Insight and I have had client’s actively laugh in my face when I suggest the prospect of them joining the group. “A group full of socially anxious people” they say “That sounds horrible”. I get it, I really do. As a therapist, I also know that sometimes the most important thing to do when we feel anxious, depressed, overwhelmed is to do the exact opposite of what our mental state suggests. When we unders
Post a Comment
Read more