GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Children can have a particularly difficult time communicating how they feel. There could be a few different reasons for this. Whether they are afraid, frustrated, or simply do not understand how to express emotions, the ability to talk about how a child feels is important. An emotion that is especially important to be able to […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
The first step to managing stress is learning how to recognize stress. Most people who experience symptoms of stress do not realize that it is a physiological reaction. They also do not realize how often daily occurrences can be triggers for stress. When working with a client who is struggling with stress-related issues, it is […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When working toward learning steps to manage anxiety, it is important to learn how to challenge anxious thoughts. Anxious thoughts can stem from anywhere, and can affect a client at any time. Being sure that your client is well-equipped with coping strategies to manage anxious thoughts will have a major impact on how he or […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. In turn, it will facilitate how a client will react to a situation. In order to ensure behavior is healthy, appropriate, and promotes mental […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
When teaching a client how to use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for managing anxiety it helps a great deal to provide a visual aid. Clients who suffer from severe or chronic anxiety struggle to maintain control over anxious thoughts and resulting anxious feelings and behavior. It is important to teach clients in CBT treatment to […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
We all know that worrying consumes time and energy, and is a feeling that is often hard to shake. Patients often struggle to cope with worrying, and may not even realize how severely they are affected by their worrying. do not quite understand that they have the power to control how their thoughts affect their […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a very popular and effective treatment modality that is used for many different types of cases. Whether the patient has depression, anxiety, borderline personality, low self-esteem, poor impulse control, anger management issues or otherwise, CBT is an excellent form of treatment that provides the patient with tools needed to identify […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Anticipatory anxiety is a struggle for many people. Often we see things like catastrophizing when people experience anxiety about upcoming events. When it comes to anticipatory anxiety the thought of the worst case scenario is enough to have a patient be overcome with worry, which will sometimes affect performance and their mental and emotional health. […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, their world, and their future based on what they have learned through life experiences. When a person develops negative, irrational, or maladaptive core beliefs, the […]
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GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Arguably the most popular and useful therapeutic exercise for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the automatic thought record (ATR). ATRs are so useful because they help the patient take a look at himself and reflect on his own reactions to a given situation. This empowers the patient to reflect and identify his own errors and […]
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