Many studies show the mental health benefits of physical exercise. However, psychiatrists rarely recommend that their patients do it. Why is that? In an article in Medscape, Nancy A. Melville discussed recent…
Photo credit: Kinga Cichewicz Seven to eight hours of shut-eye per night can help you lose weight, boost your memory, and live longer. So why are nearly one in three U.S. adults not getting the recommended amount of sleep? Whether it’s stress, distractions, poor diet…
The food we eat impacts not only our physical well-being but also our mental well-being. Our food is our body’s fuel and it contributes to how our mind and our body function in our daily life. Stay Hydrated! Drink at least 8 glasses of…
I’ve learned through my own experience that the relationship between quality sleep and mental health are reciprocal, where a lack of sleep can intensify symptoms of mental illness, and having a mental illness can in fact make sleeping more difficult. I myself was diagnosed with…
Kristin Howard, LMFT practices at CBT SoCal‘s Glendale office and with the Counseling Center of Loyola Marymount University. Jason von Stietz, Ph.D.practices with CBT SoCal in the Torrance office, Whittier College Counseling Center, and has a special interest in Sport and Performance Psychology. Winter has come, and CBT…
We often spend a great deal of time and energy avoiding negative emotions. Negative emotions feel uncomfortable and avoiding them provides us with short-term relief. However, if we avoid situations that make us uncomfortable we rob ourselves of important life experiences. For example, if social…
Often times, when faced with a negative emotion our initial impulse is to change our behavior in order to change the way we feel. In general, this strategy helps to keep us healthy and safe. For example, if we feel unwelcome or unsafe in a…
Even though negative emotions are unpleasant, it is important that we push ourselves to face them. Each time we face an uncomfortable situation it becomes less challenging. Likewise, each time we avoid a stressful situation, the situation becomes more and more overwhelming in our mind.…
Most of us have heard of obsessive compulsive disorder? However, what is obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)? Stuart Ralph, host of The OCD Stories podcast, interviewed clinical psychologist Dr. Steven Phillipson about the difference between OCD and OCPD. Phillipson explained that OCD is a disorder…
Photo credit: UW Health. In October 2010, a colleague and I went to hear Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn speak at UCLA. Kabat-Zinn developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and is a leading figure, researcher, and theoretician in adapting mindfulness for practice in psychotherapy, mental and medical healthcare. He…
A great parenting book I highly recommend is Ross Greene’s The Explosive Child. Even if you wouldn’t describe your child as “explosive,” (i.e. tends to throw tantrums, show inflexibility and defiance, and generally cause frustration for adult figures) it can benefit anyone raising children. The…
Experiencing negative emotions is not fun. Most people do not typically enjoy them and make great efforts to avoid them. However, negative emotions give us invaluable information that helps us to guide our lives. In this 4-part series, we are reviewing the value of negative…