Wilson Counseling: The Armchair Chronicles

You may already know that sleep is necessary in order to stay emotionally healthy, but did you realize that getting sufficient sleep is also important for maintaining a healthy weight? This  article  on WebMD entitled  "Sleep More, Weigh Less" explains why your body is more likely to feel hungry, hold on to calories and crave starchy/sugary foods when you don't get enough sleep. It is a very interesting read. If you are looking for tips to improve your sleep, check out one of my past blog posts on this topic. Sweet Dreams! If you are struggling with pain or feeling stuck  in your life , professional counseling can help. You can contact our Houston therapists by phone at  713 - 591 -3612 , via email at nancy @ wilsoncounsleing. org or visit the Wilson Counseling website at  www.wilsoncounseling.org   to find out more. Help is just a phone call away!

image:deathtostockphoto.com Doing couples counseling can be some of the most rewarding and exhilarating work I do as a Houston therapist, but sometimes it is also heart breaking stuff. By the time couples come in to see me, they usually have years of frustration, anger and resentment coursing through their veins. They may even view their partner more as adversary than ally. Life is incredibly lonely and conflictual when you can not find peace in your home and in your marriage. But, if through therapy, couples can start to tear down the walls they have erected to guard their hearts, it is a beautiful thing to see the healing take place. I genuinely believe that marriage is one of the best places to heal all of the brokenness that world has thrown your way, but it requires consistent and often challenging work. One of the biggest myths about marriage that poisons the well for couples is the idea that if you find the "right" partner, marriage will be sm...

In couples counseling, I teach couples to use active listening techniques to improve their communication. Usually one of the the partners wants to "fix" their partners problem or fix their partner when the partner really just wants to feel understood and heard. This video makes light of this concept of listening versus fixing. It is pretty hilarious. Enjoy! If you are struggling with pain or feeling stuck  in your life , professional counseling can help. You can contact our Houston therapists by phone at  713 - 591 -3612 , via email at nancy @ wilsoncounsleing. org or visit the Wilson Counseling website at  www.wilsoncounseling.org   to find out more. Help is just a phone call away!

So much time wasted on fat talk How much time do you spend daily thinking about how dissatisfied you are with your body? Now multiply that by 365 to see how much time you spend annually feeling dissatisfied with your body. Then think about all of the people you know, and add up how much time, energy, emotion and money they spend disliking their bodies. Can you even count that high? One of the questions I ask to assess my clients who struggle with body image problems is, "what percentage of your waking hours do you spend thinking about food, weight, and your body?" The answers vary from 10% to 90%. Often these thoughts tend to be of the punishing variety, like "I hate my (insert body part)" or "My (insert body part) looks really fat." These thoughts do not necessarily correspond to reality; they are instead based on negative feelings we have about ourselves. I had a client named Kristie in my office recently. I think by accepted western standard...

It has been a long hard week for so many people in the Houston area.  When we went to bed on Monday night,  we could not have imagined what would soon be at our doorsteps, literally at our doorsteps. The thunder boomed, the lightning struck and the rain poured all night long. Many people stayed up anxiously waiting as the flood alerts rang on their phones.  And then they scrambled to move valued possessions as the waters started seeping into their homes.  The insurance adjuster who later came to assess the damage told us enough rain had fallen in Houston to fill the entire state of Delaware with 10 feet of water. On some parts of our street,  the water came up to my chest.  The city sent rescue boats to help the elderly,  or anyone else stuck in their homes. Imagine boats where streets used to be.  The air was filed with the sound of helicopters and rescue vehicles.  It is an incredibly surreal experience. ...

Sitting across from me on the sofa with her adolescent daughter, Lydia was tearful and a little overwhelmed. I had not planned to meet with them that day, but I had a cancellation and was able to fit them in. Lydia's daughter Sandy had been in treatment with me for the past few months for an eating disorder. Though she had made great strides, Sandy continued to struggle with stuffing her emotions down with food. Sandy was working out the trauma she had experienced as a victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a family member. Sometimes Sandy acted out, sometimes she numbed out. For her, going numb was easier than letting the pain of her experience live alert inside her. The trouble of parental guilt Just like so many of the mom's who bring their children in for treatment, Lydia was incredibly resilient and was determined to do right by her daughter. Watching your daughter deal with any illness is tough. For Lydia, this pain was compounded by the extreme guil...

image:yourtango.com Cindy came in feeling like things were falling apart all around her. She had had an altercation with someone at work and had been written up for it. This was pretty devastating to someone whose identity was wrapped up in her reputation at work. Add to that stress the fact that her and her husband were fighting more and she was questioning if marrying him was a mistake. Her communication with her husband had become increasingly combative. She felt he did not help out enough, was not contributing to the relationship financially, and did not listen to her when she tried to voice her concerns. Cindy did not want to leave her husband or her job, but she knew she could not keep things going the way they were. Sometimes when I write about my clients stories, I wonder if the words do justice to the real pain of their experiences. Words like stress hardly seem sufficient. When you think about your own life and the the conflict you have had with loved ones, you reali...