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8 Possible Anorexia Treatment Modalities

8 Possible Anorexia Treatment Modalities

By Sandra Stein|2024-09-27T09:50:14+00:00August 23rd, 2024|Christian Counseling For Teens, Eating Disorders, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling, Men’s Issues, Women’s Issues|

Anorexia is an eating disorder characterized by a distorted body image and intense fear of gaining weight, that causes you to limit your calorie intake, and the types of foods you eat, and to engage in additional weight-loss behaviors such as compulsive exercise, purging through self-induced vomiting, or the misuse of laxatives. However, several anorexia treatment options are available. Because of the nature of the disorder, anorexia treatment needs to address physical problems as well as psychological ones and typically involves a combination of psychotherapy, nutritional counseling, and supervised weight gain. Its biggest challenge is getting a person to recognize and accept that he or she has a serious illness that, left untreated, can lead to malnutrition, starvation, and even death. The ultimate goal of anorexia treatment is to stabilize your physical condition, equip you with healthy coping strategies, and help you develop proper nutritional skills so you can regain and maintain a normal weight. Anorexia treatment modalities There are several evidence-based treatment modalities for treating anorexia that you can choose from. The following are some of the most common ones. Enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-E) Enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy is a modified form of cognitive behavior therapy that is used for treating eating disorders. It is considered to be a first-line, gold-standard option for the treatment of anorexia. CBT-E focuses on helping you understand how thoughts influence behavior, and on teaching you how to recognize and address distorted thoughts and beliefs about weight and appearance that are at the root of your disorder and driving your behavior, so you can modify it by changing the way you think. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) The goal of acceptance and commitment therapy is to motivate you to change your behavior rather than be wrapped up in your thoughts and feelings. [...]

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Practicing Peaceful Parenting

Practicing Peaceful Parenting

By Caitlin Mallery|2024-09-27T09:48:06+00:00February 6th, 2024|Couples Counseling, Family Counseling, Featured, Marriage Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Nobody can push a parent’s buttons like their own children. The tailor-made combination of genetics, expectations of society, and general humanness of your children has likely given you many a headache and caused you to lose your cool entirely and also lose sight of peaceful parenting. Both mom and dad can be made into rather fun acronyms such as Manager Of Mayhem and Disaster Assistance Director. But dad jokes aside, being a parent can feel like you are just barely containing a chaotic force of nature. Steps for Practicing Peaceful Parenting With the financial strain, the busy schedules, and the constant needs of children weighing on you, you may wonder if peaceful parenting is possible. Can you ever get these fearfully and wonderfully made children safe and secure without screaming or abusing them in some way? The answer is yes, it is possible. Peaceful parenting is not confined to snippets on social media. What is shown on social media is not a measure of your parenting prowess. So, start by putting down the measuring stick. Stop comparing yourself to other parents. You do not see other parents and children day in and day out. You don’t have the same kids, you don’t have the same problems, and you don’t need to judge someone else based on brief interactions and edited presentations on social media. Seek out parents you admire as friends and support each other. Wise parents know that there are ups and downs, as well as changing seasons. How you view other parents sets the tone for how you view yourself as a parent. By being supportive and generous toward other parents, you will prevent a lot of angst toward yourself and your children. Mom and Dad work together at parenting. No matter how the responsibilities shake out [...]

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How Do Birth Order Traits Influence Personality in Children?

How Do Birth Order Traits Influence Personality in Children?

By Cyndi Kay Green|2024-09-27T09:49:07+00:00November 21st, 2023|Christian Counseling for Children, Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured, Relationship Issues|

It is now believed that birth order traits can influence your child’s personality. Personality is affected by various influences throughout childhood. Different interaction techniques used by parents can influence each child’s personality traits. Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he grows older he will not abandon it. – Proverbs 22:6, NASB What is birth order? Birth order refers to the child’s position in the sibling hierarchy. In the simplest form, it is determined by the order in which a child is born. Depending on the size of the family, there are typically oldest, middle, youngest, or only child positions. The middle child position can be a little more complex if there is more than one child between the oldest and youngest. By understanding birth order, you can understand the various personality traits of your children. It is important to be mindful of the fact that other factors can influence your child’s personality. How do birth order traits affect personality? According to Alfred Adler, birth order impacts the personality of children that are common in most children in that same birth order. Personality is typically defined as the characteristics that a person displays in how he or she reacts. These personalities are formed as the child learns how to interact in his or her environment. Birth order can influence personality through the difference in parenting for each child. Sometimes birth order doesn’t have any influence on the traits that are typical for that birth order. If your child perceives himself or herself in a different role than his or her birth order, he or she may not exhibit traits related to that birth order. Birth order can also have effects on the way siblings interact with each other and their parents. This is typically [...]

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Understanding and Supporting Your Teen

Understanding and Supporting Your Teen

By Kate Motaung|2024-09-27T09:53:51+00:00August 15th, 2023|Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured|

As your child grows up, he or she faces many challenges. What starts as learning rules and social norms in the early years shifts into opportunities to implement those things during the teen years. From ages 13-19, your child will navigate a variety of situations while balancing his or her responsibilities, managing relationships, and handling hormones. It may be inevitable, but it is far from simple and supporting your teen becomes all the more important. You have a role to play in this process for your teen. As you walk alongside your teen, you must focus on understanding him or her and implementing healthy, age-appropriate ways to support him or her. While this is important in practical ways like handling the pressure of school assignments or dealing with someone difficult, it is even more important when it comes to your teen’s mental health. The importance of understanding and supporting your teen. Parenting a teen is about far more than rules and school. Your teen is a complex person. Just as you want your teen to be physically well, you want your teen to have good mental health. This includes emotional, psychological, and social wellness. The teen years are especially precarious when it comes to mental health. That doesn’t mean your teen is bound to have mental health issues. Instead, it means recognizing that your teen is dealing with many social and physiological changes that impact him or her. When you are available and understanding, you can offer your teen support to help foster good mental health. Ways to support your teen's mental health. You can support your teen’s mental health during this time in a variety of ways. As you read through these ideas, consider how you can implement them and how they can benefit your teen. Start by [...]

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The Inside Job: Healing Trauma and Family Relationships

The Inside Job: Healing Trauma and Family Relationships

By Kate Motaung|2024-09-27T09:54:11+00:00April 28th, 2023|Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling, Relationship Issues, Trauma|

Scripture’s earliest images reveal the spectrum of challenges that all of humanity encounters. In family relationships, God set the blueprint at creation in a perfect environment. God created a world for His people to live in harmonious fellowship with Him and one another free from trauma. Despite this, a real enemy threatened what God had envisioned. He sought to destroy the Father’s Image by persuading Adam and Eve to not only doubt God, but themselves, and one another. Although Adam and Eve were made from the same material and fashioned by the same God, sin split their bond. Disobedience distorted their perceptions to view the Father as withholding goodness. Instead of acknowledging the role of the serpent and their own culpability, they blamed one another. Their experience reveals how sin fragments us and weakens our connections. We tend to believe the lies whispered by our enemy instead of embracing the Truth that we were created to live. Tormented by trauma The Genesis story is rather familiar because it seems that we have heard it many times. However, as many times as we have read about it, we don’t realize that we are often living the same script. Like the first humans, we mirror Adam and Eve who cowered in the shadows. While they assembled fig leaves to shield themselves from their awareness of vulnerability and exposure, we tend to cover ourselves with possessions, seeking people, or pursuing activities to keep our minds busy. In doing so, we break fellowship with the Father and injure one another because we worry about what we might discover about ourselves in the stillness. Rebellion created a chasm of emotional distance and dysfunction. Sin changed the way that humanity would experience relationships going forward. We still experience its effects today. Our fallen world, full [...]

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5 Signs of Early Onset Dementia

5 Signs of Early Onset Dementia

By Brooke Turbyfill|2024-09-27T09:51:01+00:00October 7th, 2022|Aging and Geriatric Issues, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, can show up earlier in life – in a person’s forties or fifties. Here are the five signs of early onset dementia so that you can recognize them in your life or in the lives of those you love. What is Dementia? Dementia is a general term used to describe struggles with memory, language, and problem-solving that are severe enough to interfere with everyday life. While many people associate dementia with memory, it impacts more than just that. It can alter a person’s behavior, ability to solve simple problems, and decision-making capabilities. An example may be that your mom, who is in her early sixties, has been showing small signs of early onset dementia over the last decade. More than simply forgetting where her keys are, it could be that she made a series of sudden risky financial decisions, her mood (which used to be generally sunny in disposition) shifted so that she has more days feeling blue and/or irritable, and her ability to re-trace her steps has diminished over the years. These may not necessarily be diagnosed as early onset dementia, but they are signs that point to an issue worth checking out. Signs of Early Onset Dementia If you think a family member or friend could be struggling with early onset dementia, a counselor in one of our offices can help you learn more. 1. Asking for the same information. If you or your loved one asks for the same stories to be told or asks about your children’s after-school activities multiple times, it may be something to which you should pay attention and take note. While asking for the same story to be re-told occasionally isn’t something to worry about, if your loved one asks detailed questions (the [...]

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