GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
A client’s quality of sleep can be very telling when addressing their mental health. Poor sleep patterns or hygiene can be symptomatic of several different conditions, like anxiety, depression, insomnia or PTSD. If a client is reporting issues with sleeping or recurrence of nightmares, it is important to look closely at the patterns that may […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Anger is an emotion that can overwhelm anyone, especially a young child. When a child is not taught proper emotional regulation skills, they can have trouble with learning how to manage their behaviors in reaction to their feelings. This can result in behavioral issues and troubles with communication. Teaching proper anger management skills helps a […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When it comes to certain cases, clients may find it difficult to grasp an understanding of the struggles they are going though. Whether dealing with trauma, anger, anxiety, depression or otherwise, it can be a challenge for many clients to understand how they came to become who they are. Sometimes it is not easy to […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Dialectical behavioral therapy is particularly useful when it comes to teaching a client how to handle distressing or upsetting situations. DBT teaches coping skills for stress tolerance, emotional regulation, and the reduction of mood swings and panic attacks. DBT provides several different tools that help a person learn how to cope with upsetting emotions like […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
The Cognitive-Behavioral model is used in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). It is a model used to explain the process of how CBT works and how it is helpful to utilize while in counseling. Often clients struggle to understand the meaning behind concepts in CBT, so it is helpful to have a visual aid that explains the […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
At some point in a client’s journey, he or she will need to take a step back to evaluate how he or she is managing self-care. It is important for a client to be well-aware of what he or she needs to be able to maintain self-care, and to understand a hierarchy in which the […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
It is important to have a list of goals and objectives for the client and therapist to work toward when beginning a new therapeutic relationship. Setting goals creates a foundation that helps the client and therapist stay on track when helping a client feel better. Setting goals also empowers a client to stay on track […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Sometimes a client will struggle to overcome racing or ruminating thoughts. These thoughts can be frustrating for a client, and can prevent him or her from staying productive throughout the day. If a client is struggling with racing thoughts, it is important for him or her to learn skills to manage those thoughts. Managing the […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
It is important for clients to have an understanding of where logic meets feelings. These are two opposite elements that play a major role in how a client perceives a situation. They are strong forces that facilitate how a client will react to a situation. In order to ensure behavior is healthy, appropriate, and promotes […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
A major part of learning how to cope with feelings and emotions in therapy is to understand how negative thoughts affect our thoughts and emotions. When a person is feeling a great deal of negative emotion, like anxiety, depression or anger, that person will also have negative thoughts. A major way to learn how to […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
It is not uncommon to have a client pass through your doors who has low self-esteem and a poor awareness of who he or she is and how he or she fits into the world. This can cause a great deal of unpleasant feelings and anxiety within a person, as he or she struggles to […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Many of the clients that pass through therapy offices struggle a great deal with feeling safe in their own skin. Whether it is due to a history of trauma, personal insecurities, or just a general suspicion or lack of self-awareness, people often develop symptoms of anxiety and panic when confronted with different challenges. Sometimes, this […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Creating mantras is a great way to help your client learn how to cope and self-soothe when going about their day-to-day life. A mantra is a saying or phrase that is created and used by a person in times of distress, discomfort, sadness or anger. Mantras derive from meditative practices and have been found to […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When confronted with a difficult situation or an uncomfortable feeling that is not easily resolved, it can be easy to fall into a pattern of ruminating over the discomfort. It creates an urgent need to resolve a situation or find a solution to help you feel better. As we move through life, we learn that […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
We all know that sometimes life can get overwhelming. Whether it is stress at work, home, or from an unexpected circumstance that causes us to feel overwhelmed. Whatever the case, it is important to know how to manage the feelings of stress, anxiety, fatigue, and depressed mood that comes with difficult circumstances. We all have […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
In successful therapeutic processes, there will come a point in which a client needs to learn how to maintain a healthy, positive lifestyle that promotes mental health and wellness. Clients learn a great deal while in therapy, and making sure that the skills they learn is important to ensuring the client’s successful completion. It is […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
The way we think is a huge component that contributes to the way we feel, behave and react to situations. People develop habits in thinking. Sometimes those habits are healthy, but often people can develop erroneous patterns of thought that affect the way they perceive the world and their place in it. These thoughts are […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
It can be easy to get wrapped up in the moment of a stressful situation and instantly feel overwhelmed and without direction or hopes of finding resolution. When dealing with stress it is important to keep in mind that it will trigger anxiety, and each person reacts to anxiety in different ways. It is important […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Sometimes it can be tough for our clients to know what words to use to express what they are feeling. Feelings and emotions are complex, and can sometimes be uncomfortable and overwhelming. When our clients struggle to articulate their feelings it can be helpful to provide a guide to help navigate them through the words […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
As therapists, we know that most issues and concerns our clients face are more dynamic and intricate than the client may realize. Many components contribute to presenting issues with our clients, and often there is more than meets the eye. When working with clients on issues like emotional regulation, mood disorders, anxiety, and self-esteem, it […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Sometimes clients struggle with learning how to feel happy and fulfilled in their lives. Whether it is due to depression, low self-esteem, or motivation issues, it is not uncommon for clients in therapy to struggle to find traction toward happiness or contentment. These clients will ultimately feel lost and sometimes hopeless in their efforts to […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Sometimes our clients have a hard time expressing how they feel to their therapist and others. There could be several reasons for this, like the client was not brought up to express their emotions, they struggled to relate to how others feel, or they simply struggle to make the connection between feeling and expressing their […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
There are a number or reasons why our clients develop a tendency of stunting their emotional expression. Many grow up in homes where they learn to silence their feelings, some suffer from mood disorders that cause unfamiliar feelings, and some come from traumatic, abusive, or negligent situations that prevent them from being able to understand […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Helping a patient build self-esteem can be a challenging process. Many patients suffer from poor self-esteem, and that poor self-esteem contributes to their presenting concerns. It also will hold patients back from reaching their full therapeutic potential and feeling confident in themselves to make the changes in their lives that will help them improve their […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When it comes to teaching children proper behavior it helps a great deal to have a reward system in place in which the child can watch his or her progress grow. Such positive reinforcement helps with keeping children motivated to keep growing and working hard to learn good behavior and responsibility. Especially when dealing with […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Negative thoughts have the potential to control the way people perceive and interpret almost every aspect of their lives. Some may have negative thoughts about themselves, others, or the way of the world. Negative thoughts generate negative feelings, and negative feelings contribute to negative behavior and mood disorders. That is why it is important to […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
It is important for therapists who are trained in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to teach their patients how to deal with automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). ANTs are huge catalysts for negative behavior like lashing out at others and self-destructive behaviors. If a patient is able to identify and understand how ANTs are able to affect […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Children find it hard to cope with things they do not understand. There are many people, places and things in the world that scare children, and when children are afraid they feel lost, alone and vulnerable. Children who are fearful have a hard time developing the confidence they need to face their fears, but if […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When patients suffer from more debilitating emotional issues like depression and severe anxiety it can be difficult for them to keep from falling into bad habits like isolating and cutting off things that bring them joy. Of course this is understandable, as with such mental illnesses it can be difficult for a patient to enjoy […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Sometimes when people suffer from low self-esteem, low confidence, or mood disorders like anxiety and depression it is easy to focus on the negative and forget about the positive that they have in their lives. When patients focus only on the negative it is hard to imagine a happy and positive life that has hope, […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When we are struggling with understanding our mood and emotions it helps a great deal to use a mood journal to keep track of daily activities, triggers from the day, and how we managed out feelings. Sometimes we get caught up in the day and forget to focus on what we are feeling, which causes […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Weekly mood charts are great ways to track the progress of a patient’s mood regulation exercises. With weekly mood charts the patient is able to record any successful or unsuccessful attempts of managing his or her moods and emotions. It is also very helpful for helping the patient identify his or her triggers and ability […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
An important step to understanding your anger is understanding how intense it can become and the situations that make it as intense as it can be. Patients with anger management issues sometimes find it difficult to assess a situation and their reaction to the situation. An anger thermometer is a good way to help patients […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Patients often have a pattern of how their mood affects them. Throughout the day there are certain triggers based on responsibilities, encounters, etc. that may cause a patient’s mood to fluctuate. It helps a patient prepare for triggers when they are aware of when and where they are likely to encounter a trigger, along with […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
After learning what cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is, how it works, and how components like cognitive distortions, automatic negative thoughts, emotions and behavior all contribute to our perceptions, it is important to provide the patient with an automatic thought record (ATR) assignment. An ATR pulls in all of the material to teach the patient how […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Cognitive distortions, or Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) are important for patients to understand when they are learning to challenge their thoughts and behavior. ANTs are patterns in thinking that typically make someone think in the negative and have negative expectations. This can be detrimental to the patient for many reasons, the biggest being it holds […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
A huge part of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is understanding what core beliefs are and how they affect people. Core beliefs are the perceived conclusions a person makes about themselves, the world, and their future, based on what they have learned through life experiences. The way a person sees each aspect of their world is […]
View More
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Arguably the most popular and useful therapeutic exercise for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the automatic thought record (ATR). Automatic thought records are useful because they help the client take a look at themselves and reflect on their own reactions to a given situation. This empowers the client to reflect and identify their own errors […]
View More