Month: April 2017

You Can Thrive in Your Recovery

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Rob Houston This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked Rob Houston about his history of mental health challenges and about some of his current activities. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought treatment? RH: It was 1998. I had lost my job of 9 years; …

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Look for Moments of Inspiration, Hope and Joy

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Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged about life, work, school, relationships, our health, the future or other challenges we may be facing. It can be even more difficult when several problems pile up all at the same time. We may think “How much more can I take?” or “When will this be over?” I’ve certainly heard many stories of hopelessness, despair, depression, anxiety, fear, shame, and heartbreak over the years in my work as a clinical psychologist. But at the same …

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9 Proven Strategies To Help You Change Problematic Behaviors

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In a recent post, I talked at length about the “Stages of Change,” an effective research-based approach outlining a series of five steps that people go through when attempting to change many problematic behaviors, such as losing weight, stopping smoking, quitting drugs and alcohol, and reducing stress, anxiety or depression. To recap, the five stages of change are: 1) Precontemplation – not ready for change; 2) Contemplation – getting ready for change; 3) Preparation – ready for change; 4) Action …

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Are You Ready For Change?

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Have you ever struggled with changing a persistent, problematic behavior? Maybe you’ve wanted to stop smoking, quit drinking alcohol, reduce depression or anxiety or lose that extra weight, but you’ve never been able to make it happen. Perhaps you have even tried repeatedly over several months or years, but you’ve made little or no significant progress. You may now feel it’s fruitless to make another attempt and that you’ll never change. The stages of change Actually, there’s a lot of …

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