Let It Go! Let It Go! Let It Go! A Guide to Managing Your Holiday Stress

As if we aren’t all busy enough, December rolls around and we try to add more activities to our already full calendar. Shopping for presents. Mailing cards. Baking cookies. Attending parties. Hanging decorations. Trimming the tree. Visiting Santa. Taking pictures. Getting together with family. Writing this article for my boss (just kidding!) And all of the little tasks that are included in each of these big ones. We sing about peace and joy, but allow the business of the holiday to rob both from our lives. And that baby in the manger? We forget about him entirely while trying to make Christmas happen.

Untangling Christmas

Was it fun to get the Christmas lights down from the attic this year? Any chance your merry preparations were slowed by the tedious project of undoing all those wires that magically get all tangled up somehow between January and the end of November?

Shame, Thanksgiving and other Holiday Smells

When I was a kid I had a problem. I am not especially proud of it but I wet the bed. A few times in my large family, being the youngest I was left without a bedroom or even a bed and probably to my mother’s deep regret, she let me sleep on the couch and of course I messed it up. I had an accident as I used to say. Mom tried for hours with many attempts to clean the smell from the sofa.

The Haunted House: Dealing with Childhood Fears

Halloween is a fun time of year, with costumes, candy and make-believe adventures. It can also be a time full of fear and anxiety due to Halloween TV specials, scary costumes, and teenage pranks. Therefore, it seems like an opportune time to discuss how to handle childhood fears, in many shapes and sizes. To help explore this topic (and stick with our Halloween theme), let’s use the metaphor of that favorite Halloween outing, the Haunted House, as we learn how to address anticipatory anxiety and specific phobias, including separation anxiety.

Ruts and Paradox: A Different Approach to Routine Conflict

I was speaking with someone today who was very angry at her husband who is angry himself and a yeller. He yells at the kids, yells at her—just yells. She quickly jumps to the rescue to redirect his angry parenting style with her own version of payback. You yell therefore I will yell back!

How to Secretly Spy on Your Teenager: Practical Tips for Parents

In recent years, keeping track of your teenager’s behavior has become more complicated because of the ever changing world of technology. Although teens have always been experimental, snuck out, lied to their parents, and attended parties, the internet has opened a whole new world of teasing, lies, and deception among teenagers today. Spying on your teenager has now become a necessity among parents because the world has become more tempting and dangerous for our teens. Our children are also more susceptible to others’ bad choices which can put them in harms way. This article contains helpful tips for monitoring your teen’s behavior.

An Introduction to ADHD

This week (Sept 12-18, 2010) is ADHD Awareness Week. While ADHD is a well known diagnosis among kids, do you REALLY know ADHD?

Coping with Worry and Anxiety in Real Life

Does your heart race, can’t think, or can’t seem to stop worried thoughts? You may be experiencing anxiety. Anxiety is a normal emotion that can be helpful to complete a task or improve quality. But if anxiety is so intense that it is interfering with your life, you may be experiencing an anxiety disorder or a panic attack.

Small Talk for the Job Interview

Small Talk for the Job Interview

Back to School Series--Alleviating Back to School Anxiety

As a new school year begins, here are some ways you as parents can help your kids get off to a smooth start:

Career Counseling and Coaching

"What do you do?" Many people have been asked that question thousands of times. We are socialized early on in life to the importance of work with the question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" To most people, a career is much more than just a means to surviving. A person's career is a valuable source of identity, a well of friendships and associations, and a way in which people derive meaning and life satisfaction. When things are not going well on the job or a member of the family has lost his/her job, it can foster discouragement and isolation.

The Blessing of a Job (One Man's Encouraging Outcome)

“…the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard…”

Daniel 10:12

When hard times hit, my friend’s business was devastated. She did everything possible to survive and experienced hardships that would sour your stomach. Fortunately, our friendship stayed in tact with one exception. Every week she watched me wear fancy suits, sharp looking shirts and ties, and a watch that brought numerous compliments. She wondered if I had lost track of reality and allowed my success to swell my head.

Christian Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (Help for Anxiety, Depression and more)

As a new Christian and a Psychology major in college, it was difficult to make what I was learning fit with what I was coming to believe. I was taught a broad range of psychological theories, and I searched each one for what would be a good fit with biblical teaching. Some theories seemed appealing, like humanism and it’s teaching that people are basically good, but did not stand up to Christian doctrine like original sin. I finally settled on cognitive-behavioral approaches, in part because that was the dominant theory of my school, and also because it seemed to combine the best parts of a few different theories. I started putting it into practice after graduation and found that it worked much of the time.

Coping With Anxiety

Anxiety has always been a formidable emotional problem for many people, young and old alike, to overcome. Certainly, it seems that there is more reason than ever nowadays to feel anxious or to worry about what the future may hold. All one needs to do is flip to a news channel on the television, click on the news headlines on the internet, or turn on the radio to be overwhelmed by all of the bad news of the day.

How long should I wait for my spouse to change?

"Change" is quite a catch-phrase these days. While we all want change, it seems that waiting for change is becoming more and more difficult for each of us. It is not uncommon for someone who is seeking change in their marriage to come in after their second or third therapy session and resign their marriage (and marriage counseling) due to the lack of prompt progress. A marriage could struggle for 5, 10, or 20 years, and either husband or wife or both have the mistaken belief that a fix should happen in a couple of weeks. Resetting their expectations is one of my early priorities in counseling if both partners are going to commit to the healing process for a broken marriage.

The Difference Between Men's and Women's Brains

Erasing Challenging Behavior and Providing Positive Change for Children with Autism: In-Home Help for Parents

Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and causes substantial impairments in language and social interaction skills. Children with Autism usually display unusual or challenging behaviors and interests. Autism is defined as a spectrum disorder because it affects individuals differently and to varying degrees. For example, children with Autism may struggle in different areas including: difficulty expressing their needs, preferring to play alone/aloof, difficulty interacting with others, engaging in repetitive behaviors/interests, having obsessive attachments to objects, difficulty following instructions, and/or throwing tantrums.

Blended Family Principle # Seven: Maintain a United Front

While maintaining a united front is well known to be an important principle in good parenting, this can become significantly more difficult, while being even more important, in blended families. It is, of course, normal for parents to have developed closer bonds with their biological children with whom they've been since birth, than they would with new stepchildren. According to Ron Deal in Successful Stepfamilies, each member of a step family has to deal with differing levels of attachment, diverse backgrounds, previous losses and divided loyalties. This complexity often blind-sides newly married blended family couples. The goal should never be to try and emulate a nuclear family, but rather to be a healthy blended family. Part of this goal is for the stepparent to be another positive adult in the children's lives.

What Heritage Counseling Center, Inc Does

At Heritage Counseling Center (HCC), helping families and individuals takes place in the context of a Christ-centered, therapeutic relationship. HCC seeks to provide a safe and healing-focused relationship with each individual or family member who seeks therapy services. Each therapist has a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and partners with the Holy Spirit to effect positive change with each individual or family. There is an underlying belief that healing comes first with one's relationship with the Almighty and then through developing therapeutic relationships with other people. Each therapist is committed to the proper integration of Biblical knowledge and psychological knowledge. Our ultimate goal is to graciously speak truth that begins with a scriptural standard and tested psychological skill. It is this truth that provides a safe therapeutic relationship.