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Stress Free 2017

Happy New Year! Make it your New Year's resolution to have a less stressful year. Go to the link below to to find out how to get my audio book (which teaches techniques on how to be less stressed) for 50% off (just $4.99). With this audio, you get two therapists walking you through a new technique every week for 6 weeks to help destress and enjoy your life more. All from the comfort of your home. Use discount code "2017STRONGER" here

New Therapist joins Wilson Counseling!

​ Wilson Counseling is pleased to introduce you to our newest therapist, Kenra Sulliavan!  Kendra is a Licensed Professional Counselor with  experience working with young children through adults from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. Kendra began her professional career in the elementary school classroom. After four years of teaching, she began working in the counseling field. At the core of her work, Kendra believes every individual is specially and uniquely created, and she delights in assisting individuals in achieving their full potentials. We are very excited to have someone on board with such strong skills, background and a passion in working with children. She also has really strong skills in working with people who have gone through trauma and loss.  If you think Kendra or any of our staff can be help you move past the places of pain in your life, please give us a call at 713-591-3612 or via email at nancy@wilsoncounseling.org. Kendra'

9 Mostly Polite Comebacks to Deal with Body Shaming Relatives

Some of you will be spending time with family this holiday. You know what they say; you don't get to choose your family. Family can sometimes feel all too free to talk about your body, your eating habits and your weight without any invitation to do so. It's annoying and even hurtful. For someone with an eating disorder, it can often trigger their eating disorder and signal for it to take over and rescue them from the body shame they feel. Even if you don't have an eating disorder, but you have overzealous family or friends who love to get in your business, this article on revelist.com entitled " 9 polite clapbacks to help you deal with body-shaming relatives " can help give you some good comebacks. They won't all fit for you, so feel free to be creative in coming up with your own comebacks. Your body and your food choices are your own. Don't let a well intentioned but mean comment ruin your holiday.

Seven Strategies to Ease Election Anxiety

image:nyt.com I will be glad when the presidential election season is over. In the mean time, I am mostly avoiding the news. Here is an article from Mindful.com with other strategies to ease election anxiety.

Eating Disorders in the Elderly

Houston dietitian Amanda Holben was interviewed on the NPR radio show Houston Matters about eating disorders in the elderly. You can listen to the interview here: http://www.houstonmatters.org/segments/segment-c/2016/10/26/eating-disorders-theyre-not-just-a-young-persons-problem

Is Body Tolerance Realistic?

I hate my body How do you go from hating your body to not only accepting it but feeling more alive in it? Is that even a realistic or worthwhile goal? Can you imagine looking at the loose skin on your stomach, stretched from carrying children, or the cellulite on the back of your thighs, or the dark circles under your eyes made worse by nights of worry and thinking that your body is acceptable, even sometimes beautiful and miraculous? Are you just wasting your time even trying? Hate -----> Tolerate ----> Liberate In this video Dr. Jennifer Kreatsoulas proposes there are three stages in being liberated from body hate: HATE, TOLERATE, LIBERATE. This does not mean you always love your body, but you can learn to "neutralize the charge of hate, feel your mind quiet down, and feel more in sync with your body." Neutralize body negativity Kreatsoulas discusses how the use of yoga can get you closer to that place of tolerance and liberation. It is not a once-and-done e

11 Ways to Get Past Painful Break-ups

Breakups are really hard. I showed you why breakups are painful in my latest post which you can find here. In this post I am going to show you how to get past a painful break-up. Purge your ex from all of your contacts Stay off of social media for a few weeks Pack up photos or other reminders of your ex Spend time with those who love you. Don't isolate even if that is all you want to do Journal about your feelings This photo was actually taken by my daughter (who is awesome). You can find her blog here.  Write a letter to your ex (but don't send it). This is just for you Acknowledge the good things about your past relationship (but don't over-romanticize it) Spend time doing things that recharge you Give it time. Rushing into a new relationship will not solve the problem  Make a list of your goals and dreams. This will help you redefine the life you want and get you thinking about the

Why break-ups are so painful

Love hurts, literally You can see the physical and emotional pain in the body language of someone who has gone through a recent breakup. It hurts to exist. It looks like it takes all their energy just to hold themselves up. The metaphorical weight of the world seems to be literally propped on their shoulders, threatening to crush them. And the distant, glassy look in their eyes betrays the fact that they are not fully present. It is too painful to exist fully in the here and now. The most popular post I have ever written is entitled " Letting go of broken relationships ." It resonates with people because so many people in broken relationships can't let go. We fear the breakup. We are wired to avoid pain, so why would we court it by breaking up with our partner?  Some of the most depressed clients I have worked with are those going through recent break-ups. I had one client recently who commented, "My ex is already posting pictures of herself with

Curvy is beautiful, too!

via Are you trying to reach a biologically impossible ideal? Being bombarded with media images of the "ideal" (read thin) body shape, it is hard not to start believing there is only one type of beauty. One of the obvious problems with that is that most of us don't have bodies like the women who grace the covers of magazines. The natural comparisons, however, cause us to feel dissatisfied and down about our bodies and to pursue biologically impossible ideals we can never reach.  via Your body is a masterpiece: strong, functional and uniquely beautiful! I wanted to post some pictures of curvier women whom I think are beautiful to balance out the images that are probably thrown at you from tv, the movies, social media, and hollywood. Thin can be beautiful, and curvy can be beautiful, too. The important things is to learn to embrace and enjoy the body you were given. It is a complex masterpiece.  via Take a look at each of these women a

What do your cravings mean?

image:gratisography.com We all have cravings. Salty, fatty and sweet foods tend to top the list of foods we crave. Have you ever considered what your body might be communicating to you with cravings? Your body is smart, so stop ignoring it In a previous guest post  about learning to trust your body and its cravings, Courtney Wyckoff from momma strong.com pointed out that "Your body knows what it needs to survive. Every second, every day, its incredible web of communication and its interconnected system is in a constant pursuit of equilibrium. So when it comes to eating, it calls upon emotions and sensations at times to get the nutrients it needs." For example, when your body craves salt, it might be because your adrenal system is out of balance due to stress in your life, and salt can actually help heal that imbalance. I like to imagine that your cravings are similar to the signs we see on the highway which warn of us of wrecks and slow downs up ahead. We can i

What I have learned about race from being a therapist

image:gratisography.com One of the privileges I have as a psychotherapist is that I get to know people in a uniquely personal way. In the therapy room, people often pour out their hearts as they seek change and relief from their pain. We all have misconceptions When I came into this work, I came to it with all of the preconceptions and notions about race that my particular background lent to me. Some of those notions were examined through my coursework in graduate school. But, I could never have learned to truly appreciate the complexities of what it means to grow up Black in America without all of the hours I have spent listening to my client's experiences. As a therapist, I am called to bring empathy to a client's experience. I am a naturally empathetic person so it was not hard to listen, to care, to feel the pain. Empathy creates a safe place for my clients to be able to explore, process and to discharge their pain. image:gratisography.com It is impos

Feeling distracted? Read about what mindfulness can do for you.

image:gratisography.com  By Wendy Evans, LCSW Often when we are at work, we dream about the weekend, and on the weekends, we dream about vacation and on vacation, we worry about work.   These constant thoughts about the future rob us of the moment and can contribute to anxiety and depression.   Remaining in the moment enables us to live for today.    If you do not learn to be mindful, you will never truly enjoy your life Mindfulness is being in the present moment.   But what does this mean?   It means you are present in your body and aware of what you are doing.   You feel your feet on the floor, your hands in your lap, you notice when you get up and when you sit down.   You are present when speaking to another person and not thinking about your response but are fully engaged in what they are saying.   Why is mindfulness helpful? When you are present in the moment, you are fully engaged in life.   You begin to train your brain to observe your thoughts and feelin

Why we blame others for our problems

We will never experience intimacy in relationships if we blame others for our problems "I don't share anything personal with my mom", my client told me. "My mom is one of those people who always blames other people for her problems. When I was growing up she told me the reason we did not have enough money is because my dad had abandoned her by divorcing her. According to her, my dad was also the reason she did not have any friends, that she gained so much weight, that she had to live in a broken down house, that she was alone in life. At first I thought my dad was a bad person, but I figured out after listening to my mom blame others for every problem in her life that she had a messed up perspective. I knew if I shared with her things I was struggling with, I knew that she would go negative, blame me or someone else, and the whole conversation would just depress me." Blame is the discharging of discomfort and pain Why do we blame others for ou

Be strong and courageous

image:gratisography.com "There is no passion to be found playing small -- in settling for alife that is less than the one you are capable of living."  -- Nelson Mandela A little encouragement for those of you who feel broken down. When you feel unsure, try being courageous. If you don't feel it, do it any way. Strength only comes from doing the hard stuff in life. Fake strong till you become strong. Sounds trite, but try it and you will accomplish more than you thought possible. Try something you were afraid of; challenge yourself a little more each day. Don't be afraid to pursue the life you are capable of. Don't be afraid to fail. Even in the failing (especially in the failing), you learn to be strong  if you just keep fighting. If you are struggling with the pain in your life,  professional counseling can help. You can call our Houston therapist at 713 - 591 -3612, or visit the Wilson Counseling website at www.wilsoncounseling.org  to

Trust your body to make good food choices: Emotional eating as friend

Sometimes you just want to eat some doughnuts, chips, or ramen noodles. But, inevitably, there is a sense of regret. And then the internal berating: Why was I so weak? Why did I eat that crap? There are physiological reasons why your body has these cravings. In this guest post, Courtney Wyckoff of Mommastrong.com , writes about how you can make peace with your body and your cravings. Your cravings are trying to tell you something The truth is that our cravings are instructive. They are a flashing signal to our brains indicating what our bodies need. But we have to learn to read the signals.  Sound strange? Courtney Wyckoff explains below how to read the signals and honor your cravings and your body. By the way, I will be talking more about Mommastrong.com in future blog posts. They are a fitness program for moms. Their slogan is "Instigating an adventurous life through strength that matters." I appreciate their focus not on weight, numbers, or an ideal body t

New audio resource to cope with stress and depression--now available from Wilson Counseling!

Who Wouldn't Want Less Stress? It has been incredibly gratifying to see my clients go from being anxious and depressed to hopeful, joyful and resilient. There are many simple yet powerful techniques that seemed to work over and over. After years of teaching these techniques to clients, a colleague and I decided to record them so that more people could have access to them outside of therapy sessions. The audio recording is entitled "6 Keys to Conquering Stress, Anxiety and Depression: Learn to Thrive, Not Just Survive." Learn to Start Taking Control of Your Own Life In the audio you will learn to •      Calm your mind and body •      Decrease your stress and increase your productivity •    Deal with difficult people  •     Increase your confidence •   Get rid of the dark cloud of depression In short, you will learn to thrive in your life.  Bring the Therapist's Voice Into the Comfort of Your Living Room  A lot of clients have remarked that it has be

The Problems with the Paleo Diet (and Dieting in General).

image:gratisography.com The Tragedy of Dieting Most diets will fail you. It is hard to get clear statistics, but it is generally believed that around 95% of people on diets will not be able to sustain the diets for very long and many will gain back even more weight than when they begin dieting. A 95% failure rate is a depressing statistic, especially after all of the effort, denial, and thought you put into dieting in the first place. Dieting can sometimes read like a tragedy, beginning with deprivation and ending with weight gain. As a Houston therapist that works with people struggling with disordered eating and body image issues, I hear a lot of diet stories. I have one client, Danielle who told me about her mom taking her to the weight loss clinic at age 10. Danielle was the only child of a single mother, so she spent a lot of time with older women. Women who were always on this diet or that. Danielle was also a people pleaser. When her mom dieted, she wanted to support