The Grove
The Importance of Support in Mental Health Recovery
Supporting someone with a mental illness is crucial to their recovery, offering emotional and practical help while respecting their independence. At Roots & Branches, we recognize the importance of strong support systems in overcoming trauma and mental health challenges. As we observe National Recovery Month, remember that your compassion and understanding can make a significant difference in someone's healing journey.
Suicide Prevention: A Guide for Caring Partners and Parents
Suicide rates in Utah are alarmingly high, with youth especially at risk. This guide emphasizes the importance of recognizing warning signs, offering compassionate support, and accessing professional help. Parents and partners play a crucial role in prevention by staying vigilant, encouraging help-seeking, and creating supportive environments. By promoting awareness, reducing stigma, and ensuring access to care, we can help save lives and bring hope to those in need.
When Words Fail: How to Seek Support for Mental Health Struggles
Navigating difficult conversations about mental health can be challenging, especially during deeply personal struggles like loss or a health crisis. Choose trusted individuals who provide genuine support, and don't hesitate to set boundaries if needed. Embrace the full range of your emotions, and consider therapeutic techniques like mindfulness or journaling to reframe your mindset. When loved ones can’t offer the understanding you need, seeking professional support can be a crucial step toward finding stability and self-compassion. Prioritize your well-being by reaching out to the right resources.
Feeding Your Baby with Perinatal Anxiety: Tips and Support for New Mothers
Feeding your baby with perinatal anxiety can be challenging, whether breastfeeding or formula feeding. Anxiety can heighten worries about feeding choices and impact your experience. Both methods are valid and provide essential nourishment. Seeking support from lactation consultants or mental health professionals can help manage stress and ensure a positive feeding experience. Prioritize your well-being alongside your baby's needs.
Understanding Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex (D-MER)
Breastfeeding can bring unexpected challenges like Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex (D-MER), causing brief, intense negative emotions just before milk let down. D-MER is linked to hormonal changes, not psychological issues or disliking breastfeeding. Symptoms include sadness, dread, and anxiety, lasting 30 seconds to two minutes. It's distinct from postpartum depression but can occur alongside it. Manage D-MER with skin-to-skin contact, relaxation techniques, and support. For more info, visit d-mer.org or consult your healthcare provider.
Redefining Therapy Spaces: From Safe to Brave
In therapy, we introduce the concept of "brave spaces" - environments that prioritize safety while acknowledging the inevitability of discomfort in healing. In individual therapy, brave spaces encourage you to confront difficult emotions, challenge unhelpful thought patterns, and process trauma. Your therapist creates this space by supporting you through uncomfortable moments, recognizing them as signs of growth. While therapy can be challenging, it's in these brave spaces that true healing occurs. By embracing discomfort and facing your challenges head-on, you're taking courageous steps towards not just surviving, but thriving in your mental health journey.
Don't Wait for Desire to Strike - Consciously Invite It In
This post challenges the idea that desire has to strike spontaneously before intimacy can occur. It encourages couples to shift the mindset from "Am I in the mood?" to "Am I willing to try to get in the mood?" through conscious, intimate exploration together like sensual massage or reading erotica. With patience and vulnerability, engaging in these intimate experiences can slowly coax desire awake, without demanding it arrive fully formed. The key is intentionally prioritizing and making space for intimacy.
Navigating Grief and Healing After Pregnancy Loss: A Lifespan Integration Approach
Grief can strain even the strongest relationships, and the loss of a pregnancy can affect partners in different ways. Open, honest, and empathetic communication becomes crucial during this time to ensure that both individuals feel supported and understood. It's important to remember that there's no "right" way to grieve, and partners may process their loss differently. Regular check-ins, acknowledging differences in grieving styles, and creating shared rituals can help couples navigate this challenging time together, fostering connection and mutual support even amidst grief. Using Lifespan Integration can help with the grieving process and honor the profound significance of their loss while also reconnecting with their broader life narrative.
Long-term Relationships Can Have a Vibrant Sex Life
In a BBC Woman's Hour interview, relationships expert Esther Perel debunks myths about sex in long-term relationships. Perel argues that passion doesn't have to fade over time and that spontaneous desire isn't a necessity. Instead, she advocates for intentionality and effort, comparing it to planning other enjoyable activities. Open communication about desires and fantasies is crucial, and even amid life's strains, maintaining a connection to one's sensuality is vital. Find the link in this post to the full article, “Seven things we're getting wrong about sex in long-term relationships.”
Understanding Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy: A Powerful Tool for Trauma Work
Discover the transformative power of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, a modality we like to use for trauma work and more. Learn how IFS views the mind as a system of parts, each with unique roles, and how accessing the core Self can harmonize these parts. Explore the process of identifying parts, developing compassionate relationships with them, and restoring balance. Insights from our therapists highlight the holistic approach, the acceptance of all parts, and the integration of mind and body in this empowering therapeutic model.
Understanding Lifespan Integration: A Powerful Tool for Trauma & Grief Therapy
Lifespan Integration (LI) is a gentle, body-based therapeutic method developed in 2002 by Peggy Pace. It helps individuals heal from trauma and grief by integrating past experiences into a coherent life narrative without re-traumatizing them. LI involves creating a timeline of significant life events and guiding clients through visualizations that connect past and present selves. This approach, informed by neuroscience, rewires the brain for healthier emotional responses. LI's non-invasive, adaptable nature makes it particularly effective for trauma work, promoting resilience and holistic healing.
Rediscover Intimacy Through Sensate Focus
Sensate focus is a practice of giving and receiving progressive levels of sensual, non-sexual touch to help rebuild physical and emotional intimacy. Through structured, mindful exploration of each other's bodies, couples can rediscover comfort, playfulness and vulnerability. While not focused on arousal or orgasm, sensate focus can reawaken desire.
The Accumulation of "Just a Little" - How Small Tasks Compound Into Overwhelming Demands
You're constantly told that small commitments will lead to a fulfilling life. But what happens when these "little" tasks pile up? A five-minute routine here, a quick call there, and suddenly your schedule is bursting with obligations. It's not just personal – medical appointments, family duties, and social commitments all demand attention. While each task seems manageable alone, together they form an overwhelming web of expectations. You might feel trapped, exhausted, and guilty for not doing it all. The solution? Recognize your limits, set boundaries, and be intentional with your time. Focus on what truly matters to you, and remember: it's okay to prioritize your well-being. Sometimes, the most powerful self-care is simply allowing yourself to take a break.
Embrace Authenticity: A Path to True Self
Living authentically enhances emotional well-being, self-esteem, relationships, and personal growth. By aligning your actions with your core values, you reduce internal conflict and stress, leading to peace and satisfaction. Authenticity builds self-confidence and deeper, more meaningful connections. Therapists help clients live authentically by identifying core values, supporting self-exploration, promoting self-acceptance, and encouraging assertive communication. For LGBTQIA individuals, this is especially crucial, providing a safe space to explore and affirm their true identities, improving mental health and fulfillment.
Understanding Perinatal Anxiety: A Guide for New Moms
We understand the unique challenges new moms face and offer specialized support through our trained therapists. In this blog post, we'll explore what perinatal anxiety is, its symptoms, risk factors, and effective treatment options.
Perinatal anxiety refers to anxiety that occurs during pregnancy or in the first year after childbirth. It's more than just the occasional worry or stress; it's a persistent and excessive feeling of anxiety that can interfere with a woman's daily functioning. This condition is distinct from postpartum depression, though the two can occur simultaneously.
Understanding Postpartum Depression in Men
What is Postpartum Depression in Men?
Postpartum depression (PPD) in men refers to a major depressive episode that occurs in fathers and co-parents within the first year after the birth of a child. It shares many symptoms with general depression, such as persistent sadness, fatigue, and changes in sleep and appetite, but is triggered specifically by the new responsibilities and stresses of parenthood. Factors like hormonal changes, sleep deprivation, financial pressures, and relationship dynamics contribute to its development. It often goes undiagnosed due to its overlap with common new-parent challenges. PPD can persist and significantly impair a father's ability to function and engage with his family.
Coping with the Mental Health Impacts of Infertility
Infertility is a journey fraught with emotional ups and downs, and for many women, it can take a toll on their mental health. The rollercoaster of hope and disappointment, the uncertainty of outcomes, and the societal pressure to conceive can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety, and profound grief. Finding ways to cope is paramount to keep from being swallowed up by infertility. There’s still room for joy amidst the heartache and finding ways to cope helps find it.
Gender Roles: The Knight and the Damsel in Distress
Unpacking the Knight and Damsel dynamic reveals an imbalance where one partner assumes the role of hero while the other feels disempowered. This pattern perpetuates reliance and resentment, hindering authentic connection. The damsel may hesitate to assert herself, expecting the knight to solve all problems, while the knight feels burdened by the constant need to rescue. As this cycle continues, the emotional bond between partners weakens, shifting focus away from mutual respect and support. Breaking free from these traditional gender roles is essential for fostering a healthier, more equitable relationship where both partners can thrive as equals.
Building Resilience: The Power of Distress Tolerance Skills
Life's challenges can be overwhelming, but distress tolerance skills can help you navigate tough times. This post explains key techniques like mindfulness, emotional regulation, and self-soothing, offering practical examples and advice on developing these skills. By incorporating distress tolerance into your daily routine, you can build resilience, cope healthily, improve relationships, and enhance your overall well-being.
Celebrating Mother's Day: Honoring Maternal Mental Health
As Mother's Day approaches, it's crucial to remember its origins beyond commercialism. Anna Jarvis envisioned it as a platform for political advocacy, especially for maternal health and women's rights. Yet, the true essence of the occasion has been overshadowed by consumerism, leaving many mothers feeling overwhelmed and unsupported in their daily struggles.
As a mental health therapist, I witness firsthand the toll these pressures take on maternal mental health, from anxiety to feelings of inadequacy. This Mother's Day, let's reclaim its true spirit by prioritizing maternal well-being over material gifts. Let's create a culture of empathy and understanding, where mothers feel empowered to seek help without stigma. Together, let's honor the resilience of mothers everywhere and advocate for policies that support their mental health. Because when mothers thrive, families thrive, and society as a whole benefits.