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| • COUNSELING SERVICES •
 ADULTS The
complicated years of adulthood are loaded with stress, responsibilities,
relationship and work issues and the many pressures of life. At Rago &
Associates we are especially focused on how to help adults set and meet
their goals in order to overcome any barriers in the way of their personal
and professional success. Stress and pressure can begin to wear away at even a strong and resilient person. Special circumstances such as death of a loved one, loss of a relationship through break-up or divorce, relationship problems, balancing work and family, time management problems or other difficulties may make the usual ways of coping insufficient. Symptoms of unhappiness, disappointment, depression and anxiety may appear over time. Inappropriate coping methods such as alcohol abuse, eating problems, spending or gambling troubles, excessive or deficient sleeping may manifest themselves if the underlying problems are not solved. Adults need a place to sort out these problems so they can perform their best and feel good again. Rago & Associates helps their adult clients benefit from counseling so they can move on from well-meaning coping skills that no longer work for them. We help them take a clear look at their lives and make necessary changes. Even when people feel there is nothing they can do, we help them find new problem solving techniques. Our passion is to help them find ways to find fulfillment in their personal, family and professional lives.
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| General
Personal Counseling • Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder. According to the Cleveland Clinic, OCD “traps people in endless cycles of thoughts and behaviors.” People with OCD have unwanted, recurring and distressing thoughts, fears, or images (obsessions) that they cannot control. The anxiety produced by these thoughts leads to an urgent need to perform certain rituals or routines (compulsions).” Unfortunately, performing the rituals provides only temporary relief and not performing them creates intense anxiety. The thoughts and rituals of OCD cause distress and interfere with daily life and functioning. Many people with depression, other anxiety disorders, learning disorders, attention deficit disorders, and eating disorders have struggles with aspects of OCD related to these conditions. Be sure to share any OCD thoughts or behaviors with your counselor. Together, we can on ways to find relief from these distressing symptoms.  •
DepressionDepression is a very common psychological disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, almost 10 percent of the population suffers from depression annually. Think of ten people you know, and one of them is likely to be depressed. Symptoms of depression include: sad, anxious or empty mood, feelings of helplessness, worthlessness, guilt, hopelessness, pessimism, decreased energy and difficulty concentrating or remembering. The body may feel slowed down and fatigued, with difficulty sleeping or oversleeping and/or difficulty eating or overeating. There is often a loss of pleasure in regular activities. Restlessness, irritability and thoughts of death or suicide often are components of depression. Depression is exhausting and painful to experience. Getting help for depression can improve your safety and quality of life. Counseling for depression usually involves support, education, stopping isolation by getting family and friends involved and helping to determine whether medication is needed. People in therapy for depression usually respond positively because they are eager to feel better, and feel like themselves again. Recovery from depression means feeling like yourself again and finding what is meaningful and important to you in life.. Some people have a type of depression known as bipolar depression. These people struggle from depression as discussed above, but have an additional complication. Their depression alternates with cycles of mania as well. Symptoms of mania include times of poor judgment, irritability, raciness, agitation, inappropriate social behavior, hyperactivity, increased energy level, talkativeness, decreased need for sleep and perhaps a temporarily elated and excited mood. Bipolar depression is called this because the depression changes from two separate but related “poles” or mania and depression. Psychiatry has become increasingly sophisticated so that more discreet types of bipolar disorder are being detected and treated, earlier in life. It is important to learn all that you can about whatever type of depression you may experience. Recognizing, predicting and eventually avoiding triggers, self-care skills, coping skills, changing self-defeating patterns, positive self-talk, and possibly following through with prescribed medication, can all be important parts of overcoming depression. For some people, psychotherapy will be sufficient to bring full relief from depression. For others, a consultation with a psychiatrist for anti-depressant medication would be recommended. If you decide to take medication it will be important to communicate regularly with your treatment team. Most people do not know that the first dose and type of antidepresant that you take may not be the best one. Please understand that you may need to have your doctor increase your dose, or try a different medication, until you feel better. There are many types of anti-depressant medication, so do not give up hope if finding the right one takes time. It is quite common for people to need to change their dosage or change their medication over time. Don’t be discouraged if this happens to you. Keep working with your psychiatrist and treatment team until you feel better again. No one deserves to feel the pain of depression, so work aggressively and creatively, and realize that it may take time before you feel completely better. Therapy is often like putting together a large jigsaw puzzle. It may take many pieces and much time before it is accomplished. • Anger Management: Do you manage your anger, or does your anger manage you? Anger can be hard for anyone, especially if it is intense. If you find that your anger has caused you difficulty in your home or work life, in relationships, leads to alcohol or substance abuse or even problems with the law, it is important to get out of denial and work out these problems with a therapist. People embarrassed by anger problems may make excuses or blame other people for their anger. This denial and defensiveness causes even more relationship problems, while problems dig themselves a deeper and deeper hole. There are many effective ways to manage anger. Problem solving, cognitive restructuring, using humor, improving communication, healing from the past, and learning how to forgive are all possible ways to stop letting anger control you. Many people have overcome anger problems, and are very proud of the new ways they handle situations and relationships. Their self-esteem is improved and their families are much happier! |
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Children with ADHD often have difficulty with their minds to keep up with their bodies. They have so much trouble with impulse control that they are often in trouble, and often confused about why. It takes a toll on self-esteem when a nice person is trying hard, but is unable to control behaviors, sit still or follow directions. Being disruptive makes kids stand out and become targeted as the kid who always has someone mad at them and displeased with them. ADD is Attention Deficit Disorder without the hyperactivity. These children are often not diagnosed, perhaps throughout their entire lives, because ADD is less disruptive and more silent than ADHD. Undiagnosed ADD sufferers often have terrible self-esteem due to not understanding why they have so much trouble completing projects and learning. People with ADHD and ADD both have the cardinal feature of inattention. It is hard to keep their mind on any one thing. It's hard to follow directions. Details are ignored and careless mistakes are often made. The person with Attention Deficit Disorder appears forgetful, distracted and disorganized. In adulthood, ADD and ADHD often results in procrastination, pressured speech that jumps from topic to topic, incompletions (never finishing one task before moving on to the next) and poor self-image (even when high achieving) due to the belief that so much more could be accomplished if only the person was not so disorganized. ADD and ADHD reduces productivity, interferes with relationships and can often cause depression and anxiety problems. It is painful to have such a lack of control over your education, career and impulses. People with ADD and ADHD get much negative feedback from others and become very frustrated, which can lead to depression and anxiety problems. Counseling for ADD and ADHD involves learning strategies to control impulses and improve the ability to attend to selected information. Much of all good counseling involves learning to appreciate and master an individual's gifts. ADD/ADHD can be gifts because people with these disorders can be driven, high energy, flexible, lively, enthusiastic and extremely creative. Some people with ADD/ADHD are quite intelligent and gifted. People with this disorder can be lots of fun to be around! Learning how to appreciate your “gift” of ADD/ADHD, and overcome the ways it interferes with your life is the task of good counseling. |
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Anxiety Disorders: The higher the level of anxiety, the more difficult it becomes to manage it. Fear is a natural part of life, and some things need to be feared. Everyone relates to the classic “fight or flight response” which resides in each human (and animals, too). Our nervous system is pre-programmed to give us the necessary adrenaline we need when danger appears. In emergency situations we need to have the alertness and energy to either fight hard or run away quickly. But sometimes we learn to fear things we shouldn't. For instance, a child who begins to fear school. Their body gives them a “fight or flight” response. There is no one to fight and no where to run. This now turns into maladaptive anxiety symptoms and eventually into panic attacks for many people. Symptoms of anxiety may include: racing heart, shortness of breath, hyper alertness, jumpiness, trouble sleeping, muscle tension, stomach and bowel symptoms, difficulty concentrating and irritability. It may also develop into chronic or exaggerated worry and tension, with nothing that seems to provoke it. People with anxiety disorder may worry excessively about one particular part of their life (the safety of their children, health, money, work) or they may have trouble determining the cause of their intensive anxiety. Counseling to recover from anxiety disorders includes cognitive and supportive techniques. Exposure to the feared events and learning to overcome unwarranted fears may be part of therapy. Medication is often helpful to break the cycles and inhibit the “fight or flight” response. • Recovery from Trauma: Defining trauma is a difficult task. One of the coping mechanisms to deal with trauma is to minimize it. Other people may have also minimized the trauma, making it even more difficult to acknowledge. Trauma can be any exposure to an event that caused great fear or harm or threat of harm. These events could include natural disasters, sexual, physical or emotional abuse or neglect, rejection or abandonment, war, accidents and death of a loved one. Even less dramatic events, such as break up of a significant relationship or a loss of identity, such as having to give up an important activity or group, can be traumatic. Trauma may be whatever gives you an intense feeling of shame. It's something you can’t bear to look at or even think about. This shame can become interwoven in a person's experience of themselves and the world around them. To further complicate matters, a trauma may have occurred months or years prior to the symptoms. A person may have adapted to the trauma, and kept functioning, but needed to use coping mechanisms of numbing and appearing to be OK, but ignoring how they really feel. These people are “smiling on the outside but crying on the inside." As these functions lose their effectiveness over time or under stress, the effects of the trauma become more evident. Often symptoms of depression or anxiety, or other negative behaviors can be found to occur in relation to the trauma. Untangling emotions and memories from behaviors and automatic thoughts can be painful and difficult, but people find it worthwhile to free themselves from the weight of a troubled past. Forgiveness of the self is a first step, often leading to spiritual healing with God and the world. |
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Self-injury
may also help people to feel alive or feel “something” if
they have been feeling numb. It may also allow some people to make their
suffering real and tangible, instead of feeling trapped inside where no
one can see or understand it. •
What is EMDR Treatment? • What is Clinical Hypnosis? The word hypnotherapy means that hypnosis is used to help a person overcome a specific problem in which they are experiencing. Is is successful in helping people:
The mind has the incredible capacity to accomplish major mental and physical changes that aid in healing. Under hypnosis, the mind is unusually focused while in a trance-like state, and the client gains the power to screen out unnecessary distractions and become exceptionally receptive to new ideas. During hypnotherapy, the therapist facilitates an experience that allows the client to be open to changes in their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, which are directly related to their presenting concerns (e.g. emotional eating). The therapist may also provide the client with a personalized audio CD, which will allow the client to perform self-hypnosis when necessary. What Kinds of Conditions Can Hypnosis be used to Treat?
Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Eating Disorders Hypnotherapy in eating disorders treatment has a high success rate, and is beneficial in many ways:
For example:
Other Benefits to Hypnotherapy
• Work Adjustment: Each new grade of school and each new job level can create stress and cause intense feelings of being overwhelmed and anxious. Counseling can help develop new coping skills and mind sets, by analyzing and strategizing to overcome road blocks to adjustment. • Relationship Issues: If you would like to examine difficulties in one or more relationships, we would love to help. With relationship counseling you can work on how to make your significant relationships better and healthier. As you sort out what you want and need, develop conflict resolution skills and increase assertive communication, you will see your relationships improve. In addition, relationship counseling can help reduce feelings and behaviors of intense shyness. Counseling helps to develop methods to meet new people and feel more confident and comfortable in social settings.
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Another
time that family therapy is helpful is when a family member is suffering
from a medical, emotional or behavioral problem. The family can work
together to better understand what that family member is going through
and how they can help things get better for the individual and the family.
When a family member is struggling with any type of physical or emotional
disorder there are many things the family can sort out to provide the
best care and support for the family member as well as the best strategies
for reducing stress on every family member. In some cases, when family
members make changes it even alleviates the mental health problem and
improves the quality of life for everyone!
•
Sports Psychology: