How to Deal with Grief

If you’re currently or have in the past experienced a loss of a loved one, you may be familiar with the Grief process. Grief consists of stages that the person experiences and these stages are fluid. The stages of grief are- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. If you find yourself constantly flowing through each stage, maybe day by day, that’s completely normal. Everyone within a family system experiences the stages of grief and could be at different times. Here are some tips if you’re currently experiencing grief-

Helpful tipsNicole Silverman, LSWNovember 8, 2023grief, coping skills

Navigating Your Teen's Emotions

Do you sometimes feel like you’re walking on eggshells with your teen? Like certain things you do or say could easily set them off? If your child’s emotions are causing a disconnect and leaving you at a loss for how to respond, don’t worry! Teens are prone to emotional ups and downs; it’s part of growing up. Sometimes intense emotions will quickly pass, while other times, they’ll stick around for a while. How can you navigate your child’s emotional experience without either of you feeling as frustrated, confused, or upset? Emotion regulation skills can help! Ask yourself these questions to make the experience more manageable for you and your teen…

Tips for Coping with Disappointment

Think back to the last time you were disappointed. Maybe it was when you didn’t do as well as you expected on a test, when your friend cancelled on you, or when things didn’t turn out as planned. Disappointment is a difficult feeling to grapple with. It’s not pleasant, but it’s certainly helpful if you can learn to recognize what it’s telling you. Disappointment can lead to difficult, yet important thoughts like “Am I not good enough?” “Why me?” and “How can this turn out better next time?” Not to mention, disappointment is inevitable; it will appear from time to time, whether we like it or not. Therefore, learning to cope with disappointment is a necessary skill to handle life’s ups and downs. Here are some tips to help you manage disappointment as it arises…

How to Cope with a Panic Attack

Do you sometimes experience intense moments of anxiety? If so, you’re not alone. It’s common to face moments of panic from time to time, especially if you have an anxiety disorder. Moments of panic or full-out panic attacks can happen in high-stress situations, whether you’re diagnosed with anxiety or not. They can be unpleasant, difficult to deal with, or downright debilitating. The next time you find yourself in a moment of crisis, put these helpful tips to use…

Dos and Don'ts: Meal Time Conversations with Someone with an Eating Disorder

If your child is struggling with an eating disorder or working through their recovery journey, you may have noticed that meal times can be a huge stressor. People recovering from eating disorders have to directly challenge their disordered thoughts and feelings several times a day during every meal. This can be especially difficult for kids and teens. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid it; we need to eat in order to survive. However as a parent, you can make meal time a bit easier for your child. You can create a nurturing environment for recovery while helping your child build distress tolerance. Here are some do’s and don’t’s for meal time…

Grounding Techniques to Practice When You’re Anxious in Public

Anxiety can creep in at the most inconvenient times—like when you’re in class, when you’re out with friends or when you’re out and about in any public space. Anxiety can barge into your mind, seize the direction of your thoughts, and transport you far away from the present in an anxious tailspin. This disruption of your thoughts can pull you away from enjoying the present moment or even being able to concentrate on the task at hand. If you find yourself struggling with anxious thoughts, try practicing these grounding techniques to bring your attention back to the present…

Reducing Work Stress with DBT

Has your work been stressing you out lately? Do the demands of your job cause you to feel exhausted by the end of the day? If you’re looking for relief from work stress, DBT skills can help! Learning how to manage stress associated with work will not only improve your work environment, it will also enhance your quality of life overall. Start with these three DBT skills to cope with the intensity of your work…

Red Means STOP: How to Manage Distress Effectively

When you’re in a crisis situation, it’s easy to act on your emotions. You may react on an emotional urge without even thinking about it. However, the intensity of emotional urges can often affect how you respond and as a result, cause negative consequences. When you feel yourself becoming frustrated, it can be easy to begin raising your voice or yelling. When you feel upset, you may likely isolate yourself rather than dealing with the issue at hand. While it’s natural to experience a variety of emotions (even powerful ones), acting on the emotions without thinking can negatively impact your mood, your actions, and your relationships. Luckily there is a DBT skill to help you when your emotions are running high: the STOP skill. Learn about STOP so that you can navigate emotional situations more effectively…

Coping with Difficult Emotions

We deal with difficult emotions every day. Feelings like frustration and nervousness can make life challenging. Although you cannot get rid of these uncomfortable emotions, you can choose how you deal with them. As a parent, it’s important to learn healthy ways to accept and cope with stressful emotions and crises. It will not only help you become a more effective human being, it will also allow you to model for your children and your family how to tolerate distress. Consider using IMPROVE the moment to replace negative emotions with positive ones…

Managing Darker Days of Winter

Check in with yourself: how have you been feeling? It’s possible that you’re feeling tired, gloomy, or distracted lately. It’s more common than you think this time of year! During winter, the loss of sunlight can have a major impact on your mood and your ability to function. With fewer hours of sunshine, it’s harder to stay motivated, upbeat, and get things done. You don’t have to waste your winter away, waiting for brighter days to return! Consider these ideas below to manage the darker day gloom…

GOODBYE 2020!

Many people are taking stock on the past year it comes to a close and we get ready to ring in 2021. I’ve heard people say 2020 was “crazy” or “horrible” or “the worst” year. In many respects, this is true. The pandemic sideswiped our stability, knocked us off our game, stole family members from us and basically forced us to rewrite our visions and redo our schedules. It makes sense that we are sad, that we have FOMO, and that we grieve for all we have lost or for what could have been. The pain is real and deserves to be acknowledged and felt. Without pausing to acknowledge our feelings, we might get stuck in them and worse, bring them forth into 2021. Here are 3 ways that you can effectively say GOODBYE to 2020 and welcome in 2021…

Navigating Post-Election Emotions

Have you been dealing with a lot of emotions lately? Supporters of both candidates feel a variety of intense emotions after an election. Both the thrill and excitement of a win and the disappointment and frustration of a loss can have lasting impacts post-election. While it’s okay to feel your feelings in the moment, it is important to know when to let go of those emotions. The tricky part of any emotionally-charged event is determining when to let your feelings pass, and how to move forward without allowing your emotions to overtake you. If you’re unsure about how to proceed during these days and weeks following the election results, don’t worry! Transition from intense feelings to a place of calmness and composure with these useful strategies…

How to Deal with Life's Uncertainty

Is life’s unpredictability getting to you? We’re in the midst of uncertain times. Between the implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the election results, many people are feeling understandably uneasy. We’re not sure what the future will look like and that uneasiness is causing us distress. When we feel fearful or overwhelmed, we have a natural tendency to go into fight (criticize, yell, get into arguments), flight (run away physically or mentally), or freeze (shut down or isolate) mode. This occurs because our minds and bodies are perceiving the uncertainty as a threat. While it’s okay in the short-term, it can take its toll on our bodies in the long-term. Chronic stress can cause us to feel fatigued, to experience anxiety or depression, and to suffer from sleep issues, among other things. It’s not healthy to be in this mode more often than necessary. Luckily, you can escape the constant state of stress and combat the unpredictability. Here are some quick tips and suggestions to give your mind and body a breather...

How to Cope with Election Anxiety

It’s possible that you’re facing election-related stress. With November 3rd just around the corner, most Americans are understandably anxious. The uncertainty of who our next president will be has everyone on-edge. The first step to coping with any kind of anxiety is to acknowledge how you’re feeling. Recognize that you are feeling increasingly nervous, or more easily frustrated, or more emotionally volatile. Next, develop ways to address the impact of your emotions today, before the election, and after the election results are announced as well. What can you do to remain emotionally resilient in the days ahead? Here are some helpful tips…

Ways to Control the Chaos while Keeping your Cool

Have your emotions felt out of control lately? It’s hard to be your best self during a pandemic. Trying to keep the family calm so that you all get along is a major undertaking—let alone keeping your own emotions in-check. Though it would be nice, you can’t ever have complete control over how you feel. The best you can do is to develop better emotion regulation skills so that you’re not feeling emotionally drained by the end of the day. Here are some DBT-inspired tips and tricks to manage an endless list of to-do’s while maintaining your composure…

How to Help your Child Cope with School Anxiety

Kids and teens of all ages recognize that this school year is not like any year before. Whether their school year is starting off with remote, hybrid, or in-person learning, it is a major change from what they are used to. The new school year already comes with the anxieties of new classes, different classmates, new teachers, and potentially a new school. The addition of a pandemic only makes the nervousness, uncertainty, and apprehension even more intense. As a parent, you can help to ease your child’s worries. Here are some strategies to make the extra daunting transition back into a new school year more manageable…

Anxiety, Help for Anxiety, Parenting Techniques, Relaxation, TeenagersEmily ZemanSeptember 13, 2020school, anxiety, teens, children, coping skills, parenting

Managing Emotional Ups and Downs

Has your child been emotional lately? Do certain things make your teen feel angry, upset, or on-edge? Maybe the tone of your voice sets them off, or a passing thunderstorm dampens their mood for the day. It’s understandable that some things will make people feel one way or another. Sometimes (especially with added stress of a pandemic), experiences can be very emotionally triggering—so much so, that they cause teens to get stuck in negative emotions for longer than necessary. Do you wish there was a way to help your teen not feel as frustrated by a friend who canceled Facetime plans or as anxious about ? Try using DBT skills, specifically emotion regulation skills! It’s simpler than you’d think…

How Radical Acceptance Can Help Teens During a Pandemic

It’s totally understandable for teens to be feeling heightened emotions lately. The current situation may seem crazy, unfair, or just plain frustrating to your teen. While it’s valid to see things this way, constant negative thinking can take its toll on your teen’s mental health. It can get them stuck in unhappiness, anger, shame, sadness, bitterness, or other painful emotions. Let DBT skills like radical acceptance help you and your teen through this challenging time. Radical acceptance skill of accepting the things that you cannot change. It doesn’t mean that your teen has to like the current situation or agree with it. Instead, When your teen cannot solve a problem or change how they feel about the problem, encourage them to try acceptance as a way of reducing their suffering.

3 Ways to Help your Family Transition to a New Normal

As quarantine measures relax and things begin transitioning back to a “new normal,” it may be time for your family to begin painting a picture of what this transition could look like. We have been through a total of 3 massive and immediate changes in less than 4 months, which means that our brains have been working overtime to adjust time and time again. That’s a lot to cope with! Therefore, it’s understandable if you’re feeling hesitant, confused, or unsure about how to proceed. Here are 3 ways you can help your families (and your minds) prepare to transition to your “new normal” in the weeks ahead…

Your Family Plan for Managing COVID-19

We are ALL navigating uncharted territory together and it is important that you create a plan for YOUR FAMILY that effectively manages anxieties, scheduling and completing of tasks while staying both physically AND mentally healthy. There is hype. There is hearsay. There are opinions and beliefs. And then there is WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR FAMILY? Here are some tips for helping your family effectively navigate Coronavirus…

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