Happy Thanksgiving!

At Affordable Counseling Center of Brandon we like to aim for positive goals and to help you feel more fulfilled in your daily life experiences. For this reason, Thanksgiving is a holiday that we can really appreciate. Happy Thanksgiving from Affordable Counseling Center!

New Staff!

Affordble Counseling Center would like to welcome Carrie Schroeder, Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern, to the team. Carrie graduated in 2011 from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Fl. She is under the supervision of Clinical Director Clarissa Crystal-Belle. Carrie is now taking appointments at our Tampa and Brandon locations!

Carrie is just one of the incredible therapists that work at Affordable Counseling Center. For more information on our dynamic staff, visit our website at www.affordablecounselingbrandon.com. Also, you can visit our parent company website at www.starpointcounselingbrandon.com or www.starpointcounselingtampa.com

 

 

The Truth About Sleeping

As we all know, lack of sleep can have short and long term health effects on an individual. Most research suggests that 7-8 hours of sleep a night is a healthy rest period for most adults. But what is the truth about sleeping? Although there is a great deal of information on the web about sleeping, or lack thereof, how do we know what is fact or fiction? The National Sleep Foundation is dedicated to informing people with true and accurate information about sleep. They have a section of their website dedicated to debunking common myths about sleep. Check out this link to learn more
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/how-sleep-works/myths-and-facts-about-sleep

Sleep is a definite factor assessed during counseling sessions. Inconsistent sleeping patterns could be a sign of certain mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety, or could be contributing to inconsistencies in mood. Getting a sufficient amount of sleep is important for psychological well being. For more information about how sleep may be negatively affecting your mood visit our website at http://www.affordablecounselingbrandon.com.

Happy Veteran’s Day

To all of those who serve, and those who have served, and their families we would like to say Happy Veterans Day!! We are grateful that you are fighting for our freedom.

Affordable Counseling of Brandon offers services to current and past service members. Here is a little information from our website about how we may be able to help you!

We work to make our veterans’ homecoming as rewarding as possible. We will help you identify and find relief from signs and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Major Depression (MDD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAS), etc., and provide the services necessary to assure the adjustment to civilian life.

We work to reverse the dissociation and desensitization that was, in war, a source of strength, which otherwise at home may contribute to a sense of detachment, estrangement, and/or an inability to give, express, or receive love.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.affordablecounselingbrandon.com

SAMHSA’s a Blog

Did you know SAMHSA has a blog? Check out their blog at http://www.mentalhealth.gov/blog/2013/11/continuing-the-conversation.html

For local information on mental health counseling, check out our website at http://www.affordablecounselingbrandon.com!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The Therapeutic Relationship

In life you have many different relationships that exist. Your first perhaps is the bonding and attachment that occurs between child and mother and father, or caregiver. As you grow you develop other family bonds with brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles etc. And eventually you make friends and playmates with peers near your own age. As you become an adult, romantic relationships and intimate friendships develop, introducing a very dynamic concept of interaction with others. As we all know, relationships are a key element to almost everyone’s lives. Although Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been discredited to some extent, his placement of “love and belonging” as second to physical needs such as food and shelter, is pretty on point.
Many times people come to counseling with relational problems. A person might have a marital discord, he may be suffering from depression and be lashing out at others. Someone may have anxiety that is inhibiting the individual from making friends. Families can get stuck in dysfunctional triangulation. Whatever the cause, relationships play a key role in therapy and why people choose to sign up for introspection of this sort.
Given all of the information stated above, it would be safe to assume that when you are attending therapy you are talking about some of these relationships and their problems. So, it is therefore important that the relationship between therapist and client be an integral part of the therapy process. When searching for a therapist many people want to “fit” together. They want to find someone who “get’s them” or that they feel they can relate to. This is ultimately the client’s right, as it should be. Therapy is much more successful when the therapist and client have an emotionally intimate relationship. This may not happen right away, but in time, the most effective therapy includes this deep connection.
Coming up in part two of this series… What are things you need to look for in your therapeutic relationship that will encourage success?
Stay tuned for more from Affordable Counseling of Brandon and Tampa, and check out our website for more information! http://www.affordablecounselingbrandon.com.