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Home Archives for depression treatment

Busy, Burnt-Out, Bummed Out YOU?

Posted on August 25, 2016 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

Stop the steamroller that heads to anxiety, stress and depression.images-2

It’s almost September and everyone’s rushing to “Register.” For what???? Classes, sports, after-school “experiences,”  and on and on. Parents dread the crazy chauffeuring schedules and costs. Kids are overwhelmed by the new level of work at school and emotional adjustments to a new environment. Everyone’s huffing and puffing and by October, my phone rings off the hook.

How about scheduling a few family hikes or bikes or day trips? Or committing to an old fashioned family-around-the-table dinner conversation three times a week this fall instead of rehearsal and practices? You ‘ll save on gas, and maybe therapy when everyone’s in the same place at the same time just BE-ing, bonding, and listening to one another. The stress of fitting food, homework, deadlines, chores, friends, exercise may just stop the anxiety before it starts. Worth a try.

Filed Under: Adolescent Issues, Alternative Therapies, Back to School, Blended Families, Communication Breakdowns, depression treatment, Exhaustion, Family Breakdowns, Family Therapy, Kids & School, Life Skills, Marital Therapy, Parenthood, Parenting Problems, Stress, Stress Management, Teen Anxiety, Therapeutic Coaching, Underachievement, Wellness

This Meditation Cools Down Summer Stress

Posted on July 7, 2016 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

It’s HOT! When tempers flare, the thermostat’s at 90, your patience is gone, and anxiety, stress and depression put you over the edge, try this (quick), easy exercise to calm your mind. Either have someone read this to you, or record it yourself into your phone, then play it back. Speak slowly and put on soft, gentle background music if you’d like.

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1. Close your eyes. Take deep breaths in and out. Imagine a summer breeze filling your lungs and on the out-breath, see any toxins within leaving your body. Continue until you feel brighter  inside.

2. Fall into a gentle breathing pattern. See the summer sun high in the sky. Imagine its golden rays beaming down into the top of your head, continuing over your face, neck, chest, your heart and back, continuing down your arms, sides, down through your belly, around your hips, down through your seat, your thighs and knees, your shins and out the bottoms of your feet — sending sunshine deep into the earth. Let the  warmth relax each muscle, melting all tensions away. When every cell is vibrating, tune into your sacred body energy (chakra) centers.

3. Allow the crown chakra (top of your head) to see and open to a  small, golden circle that is rotating clockwise. Do the same with your third eye chakra, (mid-forehead), your throat chakra, your heart chakra, and your solar plexus chakra, your sacral chakra, and finally your root chakra. Take your time.

4. Straighten your spine, creating a straight line from your crown  all the way down to your tailbone (“root” chakra).

5. Then, see a water pitcher pouring cool water into your crown. This flowing water is filled with the light of a thousands stars. This starlit water feels cool, and as you receive it, the clockwise rotation slows down a bit. The ripples seem like a summer lake at sunset. They calm you.

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6. Lower the water pitcher to your mid forehead. As the starlit water flows here, let the motion slow down further, and see the ripples bringing you peace.

7. The water pitcher pours starlight right into your throat chakra, cooling and relaxing our tired voice. As the clockwise motion slows and the ripples form, take a moment to listen to your thoughts.

8. Then pour starlight water into your heart (chakra). When this chakra feels relaxed, send this tranquility inwards & outwards to a friend, relative or neighbor. 

9. Repeat with your solar plexus chakra, and know that when we calm this area, we can become more grounded and centered.

10. As we move this celestial water pitcher down to our sacral chakra, pouring starlight into this chakra and allowing the clockwise motion to slow, imagine the ripples of this chakra glowing with all colors of the rainbow. See the reflection of this chakra’s rainbow lake and gaze into it asking for a vision of the future. Take your time receiving this vision and message.

          

11. Now take three new deep breaths. This time bring the star filled water pitcher down to your “root” chakra (tailbone). As you pour the cooling water into your root chakra, know that this water is healing your entire body and immune system. Let the water flow down your legs to your feet. Let the healing water flow onto the ground and be absorbed by Mother Earth.

12. See yourself as whole and complete and healthy. Take time to have a vision of yourself engaging in an activity that adds health to your lifestyle. Notice that you are strong and joyful.

13. Come back and imagine yourself back in your meditative space. You are relaxed and calm. You feel balanced and at rest. You have stopped the world from spinning so fast and spent these moments receiving healing. You have remained open to the universe and all of the wonderful gifts it has for you.  When you are ready open your eyes.

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Edited from © Heather Estara (via Adam Bernstein, @ BetweenTheWorlds.com)

Filed Under: Alternative Therapies, Anger, Anxiety, Coping Skills, Depression, depression treatment, Hopelessness, Meditation, Motivation Problems, Nervousness, Sadness, Self Help, Stress, Stress Management, Teen Anxiety, Therapeutic Coaching, Wellness

Teen Girls Support Group – Expressive Arts Therapy

Posted on January 1, 2016 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

Support Group for High School Girls

She’ll  express, examine, and learn to  transform those issues, behaviors or social patterns which have not served her well through relaxing and engaging art, crafts, drama, games and coaching. This is a safe, supportive forum for girls to process,  reflect, share experiences and gain wisdom and coping skills  while enjoying the creative process.

Saturdays mornings beginning mid January! Limited space available. For specific info on location, times, fees, please contact me, Allison Spitzer, M.A. at 203-218-2200

Filed Under: ADD/ADHD, Adolescent Issues, Alternative Therapies, Anxiety, Anxiety Treatment, ART Therapy, Attention Deficit Disorder, Behavioral Problems, Communication Breakdowns, Depression Therapist, depression treatment, Family Conflicts, Fears, Hopelessness, Immaturity, Introversion, Kids & School, Peer Problems, Social Media Anxiety, Social Problems, Stress Management, Teen Anxiety, Teen counseling, Teen Troubles

Emotional Boogie Men! Zap Holiday Depression & Anxiety

Posted on December 8, 2015 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

The four boogie men are creeping on up us. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah-Christmas-Kwanza, and New Year’s Eve.

We worry about the fattening food, family hassles, failure to reach our dreams, and fear of exposing our disappointments to family, friends and even ourselves. The season feeds the monsters inside us (anxiety, insecurity, and depression) and around us (violence, abuse, poverty) both real and the ones we invent in our minds. Memories of simpler or easier times intrude on the reality of our situations today.

Instead, let’s try to think “freedom.” Be satisfied with what is rather than what could, should or would be. Think “fun.” Take these events more lightheartedly. Ignore today’s downers and focus on your blessings. Be frivolous!

Holidays don’t have to be tests of our worthiness or success. These moments become monumental when we give them that meaning or power. As a culture which has lauded excess, we have finally begun to focus on downsizing, from our drive-thru portions to our fuel consumption. As economic struggle has moved many of us from the expense of a weekly date night out at the movies to Netflix or a DVR, so too can we downsize our expectations of this season.

From October to the first week of January there is a schism between what we want, what we had, (or thought we had) what we expect of ourselves and loved ones, and what is possible. Our disappointments are illuminated and augmented by the illusory media and retail frenzy that accompanies each of these observances.

  The fairy tales we cherish of our sweet, happy, or pretty childhood memories are embellished by our active imaginations, our denials, and our age. Nothing now can ever compare. Foods we forbade ourselves long ago, from candy corn and caramel apples to Yule logs, potato latkes and New Year’s champagne re-emerge and tempt us. We feel both guilt and longing.

We forget the family holiday fights of the past. We hope that our children don’t expect what we can’t provide. We hope they will be grateful for what they receive and blame the media, and “our times” when they are not. Perhaps if we’d focused on the natural beauty and opportunities around us, our small, daily successes and joys, simpler living and holidays might be more readily available.

Let’s plan ahead for personal joy. We cannot be entirely responsible for each other’s happiness, even our children’s. What small or brief activity can we plan for ourselves and look forward to realistically? Let’s ask our children—both grown and young— what small pleasure will they look towards. Breaking the emotional impact of a whole event into bite sized pieces helps us focus more purposefully and easily on the good moments.

Some of us run away. We travel, or hide our disappointment when family is no longer there for us, literally or figuratively. When the season’s spotlight is on family, so many of us feel we can never measure up to our own expectations. We’ve fully bought in to the beliefs of what holidays “should” be.

At 18 or 30, we were young enough to anticipate that our New Year’s Eve bash would truly rock; at 6 or 12, that our Halloween candy would last till Christmas; at every age, the Thanksgiving dinner and gathering would arrive without the stress of getting there, accompanied by gently falling snow and a lit fireplace or maybe Bing Crosby.

So . . .don’t stay on the holiday treadmill. This year, vote instead for frivolity, fun, freedom, and forgetfulness! There wasn’t and is no real perfection, or standard by which we must hold ourselves accountable this season.

Here’s permission to skip the turkey if you’d rather have pizza, or play Monopoly on New Year’s Eve or enjoy the solitude of a great book. Plan a bubble bath before the gift giving. You can write the rules. Simplify. Downsize. Give the gifts of your time, companionship, forgiveness, listening, playfulness, compassion and humor. They will last forever.

This article appeared recently in various  regional publications: 

Filed Under: Adult Children Issues, Anxiety Therapist, Anxiety Treatment, Communication Breakdowns, Depression, Depression Management, Depression Therapist, depression treatment, Family Conflicts, Family Therapy, Marital Therapy, Sadness, Teen counseling

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