Grief is a complex mixture of emotions. Grief can come from many types of losses or transitions including death of a loved one or pet, divorce, job loss, loss of a friendship, moving, etc. Grief emotions are often cyclical in nature and are felt at various levels throughout the year depending on the intensity of emotional triggers. Sometimes seasonal changes bring back memories of other emotional experiences at that same time of year.
Happy almost 2023! This time of transition is often characterized by reflection, resolutions, and future planning. Although we do not have to wait for a New Year to begin making changes, oftentimes this hopeful energy fuels us to bettering our overall health. One way to accomplish this is by seeking therapeutic support, such as Group Therapy. Group Therapy is a valuable resource to incorporate into one’s mental health regime.
Creative Family Counseling, a child and family counseling practice with locations in Lyndon and Prospect, has long been known to offer Animal-Assisted Therapies. Founder and CEO Lacey Ryan, LMFT and her dog Lola have offered this service as a certified pet therapy team since the practice opened its doors in 2016. Lola’s gentle and powerful work has inspired other clinicians on the Creative Family Counseling team to train and certify their own pets for this work. The practice now has four therapy dogs between the two locations, offering the beautiful and healing service that only animals can offer.
While in graduate school earning my degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, I spent a semester working as a student counseling intern at a psychiatric hospital. Also at that hospital worked a Therapy Dog named Brinkley who offered a sweet and calming presence to the patients with whom he worked. Brinkley was the first Therapy Dog I’d met. While I had known of working Service Dogs, I had never met a Therapy Dog and was excited to learn about the difference between the two and something called Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT).
Most of us have heard of hypnosis, but what is it? There are so-called examples of hypnosis on television shows, movies and even stage performances. In these “examples” the person receiving the “hypnosis” seems to have no control over their actions or behaviors and sometimes have no memory of their actions! While we could spend the time to explain what these instances are in reality, I can assure you that they are most certainly NOT hypnosis.
As Kentuckiana families prepare for another 4-6 weeks of being “Healthy at Home,” the Team of Marriage and Family Therapists at Creative Family Counseling has been busy finding creative ways to provide support for existing clients and their families as well as the community at large. Effective this week, all Therapists at Creative Family Counseling are able to provide Online Counseling Services and various kinds of support through secure Telehealth options.
Creative Family Counseling is known for offering creative interventions to help clients and their families experience change and healing. Animal-Assisted Therapy is one of the unique modalities of therapy available for clients of our practice. Rebecca Street, LMFT and a sweet Doberman Pinscher named Archer are one of the two animal-assisted therapy teams at Creative Family Counseling. I sat down with them for a quick interview about the amazing work they offer to their clients.
As a Therapist, I often try to talk with clients about the importance of quality sleep and work with them to find ways to improve their sleep habits. After all, sleep is responsible for so much of our physical, emotional and mental health! Oftentimes people come to see me because of difficulty managing a negative emotion such as anger, fear, and/or sadness. It seems many people don’t realize how much credit we should give to Sleep for our very own emotion regulation abilities! CNN published a SUPER helpful article (“Wake up, people: You’re fooling yourself about sleep, study says”) earlier this week about sleep myths, which I found really helpful. Please take a look: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/health/sleep-myths-facts-study/index.html