Depression is described as a dark cloud hanging over a person, a heavy coat that weighs you down, feelings of complete hopelessness and helplessness, and all the energy being drained out of your body. More women than men seek help for depression, but anyone, of any age, is susceptible. There is hope and help.
Anxiety comes out of the blue. It could be a stressful situation you are in currently, or just life in general. The dread and panic tightens up in your chest and across your shoulders with an overwhelming feeling of fear and impending doom. At times, you may feel like your heart is going to pound out of your chest. Other times, you are sweating profusely and feel like you are going to die. It lasts about twenty minutes and then subsides. You are not crazy.
Stress: Those unrelenting demands at work and home, disappointment and rejection in relationships, loss and grief, physical pain, not enough money to the pay bills, and the overall feeling that everything around you has more control over your life than you do. You can get to the end of your rope and be out of rope!! What do you do?
Grief: Someone you love - a parent, spouse, child, close friend - has died. The numbness, denial, bargaining, and anger are taking a huge emotional toll as you feel caught in the violent whirlwind of life out of control. If you can, you go through the motions of routine at work and at home but only as a shell of yourself. What's happening to you? You are grieving for the one you lost. Everything within you is crying out in pain while you feel a part of you is gone. All of these feelings are normal and to be expected inerament styles and differences, roles and responsibilities, spoken and unspoken expectations, handling money, communication, conflict resolution skills, and expected expressions of sexuality.
Marriage: Couples seeking help bring their precious and valuable marriage relationship into counseling. Sometimes the issues are about continuing conflict, other times they can be about communication skills, or finances, or sexual compatibility, or...and the list goes on.
Parenting: We know it's easier to have a child than it is to parent one! Most people love children; it's their immaturity that gets in the way. There are no bad children born. Every child is born with unrelenting needs and expects to have every need met NOW! Every parent today receives their bundle of joy without an instruction booklet or repair manual. So we revert back to what we know about parenting - something many of us swore we would never do - parent the way we were parented.
Divorce: "It's a living death" was the way one person described being divorced. "It would be easier if my ex-spouse had literally died." Divorce is the severing of a living relationship. You may be asking some very difficult questions without easy answers.
Blended Families: Blended and stepfamilies, have a few of the same issues as first marriages and families, but they are different in more ways than they are alike. Blended families are exactly what the term says they are-attempting to blend two families into one. They are born out of loss and grief from abandonment, death or divorce. There are natural and sometimes severe stresses attempting to blend and / or reconcile two families' expectations, traditions, histories, birth orders, ghosts from previous relationships or marriages, parenting roles, responsibilities, loyalties, finances, religious beliefs, and a couple of generations of extended families-into ONE!
Individual: Everyone seeks counseling at some point in life. Strength of character is shown when you are seeking advice from someone who has training and expertise in something that you are putting your heart and life into.
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