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Center for Anxiety
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The Speaker-Listener Technique
by Noah Hercky, LMFT | Director of Marriage and Family Therapy Of all the communication-improving strategies I’ve seen in my career as a couples therapist, there is perhaps none more helpful than the Speaker Listener Technique, developed by Howard Markman, et al. in...
The Highs and Lows of Being a Therapist
“Let’s go around the room and share our highs and lows from the past week,” my friend stated at last week’s Friday night Shabbat dinner. I was at the end of the table; therefore, my turn was last. When the time arrived for me to answer, my friend with a smirk on his...
New Year, No Fear: How to Manage Back to School Anxiety
by Matthew Perlman, PhD The phrase “back to school” can conjure up quite a few different reactions in students: dread, excitement, or anticipation to name a few. One common feeling associated with the new school year is anxiety. This post is all about handling the...
Validation: The Intersection Between Clinicians and Administrators
by Alex Campos, Patient Care Manager When was the last time you felt truly heard? Truly seen? Can you recall the situation? Likely, it was during a conversation with someone close to you who was able to validate your experience and verbalize their understanding of it....
Lost in oneself: A journey of self-discovery, insight and meaning
By J.P. Consiglio, LMHC Picture this: It’s a cool autumn afternoon. The leaves outside have been turning vibrant reds, yellows and oranges as they fall toward the ground below. Your family is outside, raking the leaves into a perfect pile that they will soon plunge...
Think Like a Team – Strengthening Marital & Family Relationships
By Megan Hiscox, LMHC Navigating family and marital relationships can be challenging. These are the people we spend the most time with and sometimes these are the relationships that struggle the most. Busy schedules can often lead to these relationships becoming last...
A is for Awareness: How to cope with mental health stigma
By Brendan Guarino, MA Stigma refers to the devaluing and shaming of a person or a population due to the characteristics that they possess. Overall, this leads to discrimination and negative social experiences. Stigma can be harmful in many ways, which include: ●...
“I get it, I get you” How to practice validating your struggling teenager
by Thanos Nioplias, LMHC It has been a common observation among parents, teachers and counselors that our teenagers’ mental health has been suffering over the past two years. A combination of the isolation the pandemic brought, constant exposure to electronics and...
5 Tips for Fostering Psychological Safety in the Workplace
By Alexandra Bishop Employee wellbeing has become a buzzword in the workplace – but what are actual steps we can take to implement and foster that kind of environment? One first step is to increase psychological safety in your teams and organization. Psychology...
Failure is Human: Ways to Change our Response to Adversity
by Evan Vida, MA As humans, we are all prone to experiencing failure and the emotions that may accompany it. While this is understandably a difficult experience, we have the benefit of calling upon millennia of wisdom in learning how to cope when we do happen to face...
Navigating an Uncertain Future
The beginning of 2022. A rise in Covid-19 cases starts off another year with more uncertainty after two long years into the pandemic. Many are feeling overwhelmed by the burden on their mental health as we may not see an end in sight. If this resonates with you, you...
Three Tips to Effectively Make Life Changes in 2022
by Devin Massaro, MA One of the most cliché holiday experiences is that of making a New Year’s Resolution only to have it fall to the wayside. You might even experience negative judgements like “why can’t I make this change?” in which case the well-intended resolution...
Lonely but not Alone: Strategies for Making New Friends
by Jackie Zhou, PhD Do you feel lonely despite frequently FaceTiming with your friends? Do you sometimes find a normal conversation with your barista more invigorating than texting your family? Do you enjoy going to a restaurant more than before, not so much because...
Identifying and Managing Burn Out
by Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD Are you feeling cynical at work?Do you lack energy to be productive?Do you feel short-tempered or irritated with co-workers?Do you experience low satisfaction from your accomplishments?Do you dread work and/or have trouble initiating tasks?Do...
Maintaining Resilience
By Hannah O'Grady, LMSW The past year-and-a-half has been difficult. Many of us have overcome hardships never imagined, and our coping skills have been put to the ultimate test. On the bright side, we have built up resiliency – we are better able to weather changes,...
Beach Body Anxiety
By Nicole Drago, LMSW As the heat rises, we tend to be more critical of our body image. The context for this trend is clear: Throughout the summer months the media prompts us to think about attaining a "beach body" while marketing campaigns sell diet pills, workout...
Cooling Off in the Summer Heat
by Shoshana Levie, LCSW Ah, summertime. The season of barbecues, days at the beach, and lots of family togetherness. For many, this can be a restorative and enjoyable eight weeks, when adults’ work schedules are more flexible and kids are home for the summer. However,...
Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOPs)
By Barry Eichenbaum Many individuals are familiar with the concept of once weekly therapy sessions. Fewer people are aware that psychotherapy can be delivered in higher “doses” in an expedited amount of time. Known as intensive outpatient programs (IOPs), only a...
Supporting Kids in a Trying Time
by Rachel Lacks, PhD In the wake and midst of the global pandemic, social interactions have been limited, stress levels have been high, and mental health concerns have been on the rise. It is imperative to be aware of and supporting the mental health of children and...
Spring of 2021 and our Mental Health
by Thanos Nioplias, LMHC After a long winter of social distancing, isolation and several rounds of quarantine, the spring of 2021 has finally sprung! For many, spring and the warm weather that comes with it offer unique opportunities to set new goals, change...
Reflections on a Challenging Year
By Jackie Zhou It’s March again, and “normal” is a distant memory. Some have lost loved ones. Others have lost their jobs. Many have lived with crippling anxiety, and almost all of us have been very stressed out. Unlike other disasters, COVID-19 doesn’t have a...
The Silver Linings of Dating During a Pandemic
By Lisa Chimes, PsyD For those who are single and looking to date, this past year has been particularly stressful. In addition to long seasons of loneliness, the option of dating the “traditional way” is now out of the question for many people, due to health and...
Preventing Burnout
By David Spinka, LCSW Most people pay attention to their mental health only when feeling emotionally dysregulated or depleted. In truth, mental health is so much more than diagnosis and going into a clinic for treatment. Ideally, it is a domain that it relevant for...
Self-Reflection: How We Have Grown from 2020
By Laura Vraney, PsyD As 2021 approaches, one cannot help but reflect on this past year. We have struggled, perhaps like never before – both collectively and individually. In this context, we have also evolved, and grown. Consolidation of growth requires reflection –...
Bringing 2020 Home
By Aliza Shapiro, LCSW The last few weeks of 2020 are officially upon us, and as we mark off the remaining calendar days we may notice ourselves starting to recount and reflect on what we’ve made of this completely unprecedented year. 2020 has not been what anyone...
How to Solve a Problem in Seven Easy Steps
By Dovid Spinka, LMSW Unwanted situations are an inevitable part of life. Fully embracing and radically accepting that fact is a firm basis to managing difficult emotions. Acceptance is especially important when there is nothing we can do, such as when the weather is...
Remaining Connected to Our Co-Workers During Quarantine
By Nikki Eskenasi, PsyD Many of us have been more isolated than ever over the past several months throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the challenge of spending so much time away from friends and loved ones, it can be particularly hard to remain connected...
Back to School???
By Marcia Kimeldorf, PhD In most years, back to school involves anticipation of new friends, new classes, new school supplies, new books, and new experiences. In some ways, this year is like any other, but in many other ways, it is completely different since “back to...
Adjusting to the “New Normal”
By Shoshana Levie, LCSW Over the last five months, it seemed as though a large majority of conversations began with: “When this is all over, I can’t wait to…” or “I just want to get back to…” Given the considerable upheaval that the global pandemic has caused, it is...
Coping During a Time of Uncertainty
By Hudi Kowalsky, LMHC Recent events at the global, national and local levels have left many of us feeling uncertain. Our offices and leisure spaces have been shuttered due to COVID-19. We have been forced to spend more time in solitude, and we have been denied many...
COVID-19: From Anxiety to Sadness
By Becca Brodoff, PsyD Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a shift in myself and in my patients. When COVID-19 was first showing up in the U.S., anxiety was running high. Most people were overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the illness and how it would affect them...
Increasing Positive Emotions in the midst of the COVID-19 Crisis
By Staci Berkowitz, Ph.D. We are now in the midst of a COVID-19 crisis. If you are a human on this planet right now, you have likely experienced any number of emotions that are normative reactions to crisis situations, including fear, anxiety, sadness, frustration,...
COVID-19 Anxiety
By David H. Rosmarin, PhD, ABPP Almost overnight, America’s anxiety level has gone through the roof. As media feeds overwhelm us with information that we repeatedly and compulsively check into the late hours of the night. Supermarkets are inundated with customers and...
Bouncing Back from New Year’s Resolution Setbacks
By Dovid Spinka, LMSW “I really should go to the gym this week… After all, I signed up for an annual membership in January and I’m paying a significant amount of money for it.”"I committed to reading every day for a half-hour, but I can count on one hand the number of...
Three Strategies to Reduce and Resist Obsessions
By Rachel Lacks, EdM Do you ever have an itching feeling that you just have to do something, or else the thought of doing it will haunt you? Do you ever feel the need to re-read a sentence in your book again, or to go back to re-read a whole paragraph, or a whole...
Four Things to Do About FOMO
By Nikki Eskenasi, PsyD Throughout the past few years, the phenomenon of FOMO, or the fear of missing out, has plagued many of us at one time or another. In the age of social media, and particularly around the holiday season, we may find ourselves making comparisons...
Giving Thanks: Three Positive Psychology Strategies to Foster Emotional Wellbeing
By Daniel Volk, MA When is the last time you stopped to deliberately think about what is going well in your life? If you can’t remember, you are not alone. We are so often caught up in who we ought to be, where we ought to be, and how things ought to be, that we...
Am I Seeing Things Clearly? A Guide to Thinking-Mistakes That We All Make
By Marcia B. Kimeldorf, PhD “I got a bad grade on my test! I’m such a loser and now I know I’m going to fail the class!” “My boss gave me one low rating on my work evaluation. He has it in for me, and he hates me!” Have you ever had a thought like these? If so,...
Putting the Pieces Together When We Fall Apart
By Anouk Allart, PhD "That's the way the mind works: The human brain is genetically disposed toward organization, yet if not tightly controlled, will link one imagerial fragment to another on the flimsiest of pretense and in the most freewheeling manner, as if it...
Become Your Superhero Self: Four Lessons we can all Learn from Superheros
By Yoni Sobin, PsyD Lesson #1: Origin Stories “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.” Batman reflected these words at the end of The Dark...
How to cool down your mind and body in the summer heat!
By Rebecca Holczer, PsyD Summer is in full swing, and so are the air conditioners! With heat indexes hitting over 100 degrees in some places, we are all looking for ways to keep our bodies cool. While the summertime is traditionally viewed as a time to relax, it is...
Nature vs. Nurture & Why Validation Matters
By Aliza Shapiro, LMSW The debate of nature versus nurture has long influenced the way that we, as scientists, therapists, and people, understand our unique personalities and our mental health. Marsha Linehan, the founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT),...
Depression: Why we can’t “just snap out of it” and what can we do?
By Thanos Nioplias, LMHC Most people believe that the primary symptom of depression is sadness. Even though this perception is somewhat accurate, depression is, in reality, a much more complicated state that includes not only negative emotions but also...
Ten Strategies for a Good Night’s Sleep (Without Medication!)
By Ben Johnides, MA Getting a good night’s rest is very important. Sleep helps us maintain the energy and concentration to meet the needs of everyday life. It is also a key factor in regulating our mood: Recent research suggests that improvements in sleep help people...
You’ve Gotta #Hustle: Managing Anxiety in your Career
By Aliza Tropper, LMHC Scrolling through social media you’ve surely noticed an overwhelming amount of content around “hustling” (as if it’s a new trend to push hard at work). Nicely designed graphics, encouraging comments, and creative posts flood our feeds with the...
