When was the last time you played with toys? If you’re a little surprised by that question, I wouldn’t blame you. Many of us forgot about the joy that came with playing with toys as we got older. However, as research has shown, there are many benefits to playing to adults and children alike; play therapy is something that psychologists can get trained and licensed in!

Sometimes it can feel like self-care is this inaccessible, unattainable thing; this habit that you know you should have, but one that feels like it’s impossible to really do. Maybe the first thing you picture when you see the phrase ‘self-care’ is a cruise ship, a day off of work, some designer clothes, or something else that seems like it’s weeks or months or years away from happening. Maybe self care looks doable, but you find it difficult to start or you don’t know where to begin. Sometimes, it’s easier to start small.

The journey to the first session of therapy is, in itself, a long one. You have to look for therapists, reach out to them, find or make a time that works for the both of you, fill out paperwork, the list goes on. And on top of all of that, it can be scary acknowledging that you want help. That’s why it’s important to note that the fact that you did all of that signifies how strong and courageous you are. And if you haven’t scheduled a first session yet or if you’re still thinking about looking for a therapist, I want to say that I’m proud of you too, because you’ve started this journey and that’s such a cool thing!

While mental health care can offer you various benefits, insurance providers see mental health benefits differently than a medical service or item, so there is a difference in costs.

With behavioral health services, terms such as in network with insurance versus out of network reimbursement, good faith estimate, and sliding scale are utilized when discussing provider fees. The overall costs of therapy services is often something that can be difficult to discern.

For many of us, much of our lives seem to revolve around the transitions in academic calendars. Our entire days revolve around school through high school, and potentially beyond; and if we are parents, our children go through much of the same routine as we had when we were their age.

When certain, potentially traumatizing events occur between the ages of 0-17, the effect they can have on that individual's life is massive; these events are often referred to as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). A prevalence of ACEs in someone’s childhood can lead to a number of different issues later in life, including physical health issues such as heart disease and diabetes; mental health issues such as being at a higher risk of suicide, depression and bipolar disorder, and other issues such as pregnancy complications, difficulty forming healthy relationships, and struggling to create a stable work history as an adult.

Though I’ve gotten a lot better at it, I still sometimes have to catch myself when I find that I am judging someone at first glance. As a psychology major in college, part of why I love psychology so much is because I feel like in no other field do you really get the opportunity to look at other people and deep dive into what makes them unique. People, in my experience, often have a lot more going on in their lives than is outwardly apparent.

A number of weeks ago we covered seasonal affective disorder (SAD), often called seasonal depression. Often, when people think of seasonal depression, they think of winter, with its lack of hours of daylight and the cold keeping us inside. You might imagine that, regardless of whether or not someone has SAD, that spring is a time for growing as a person and “spring cleaning” your mind. Both of these can be true, however, it’s important to recognize the pressure that putting those expectations on yourself and others can lead to.

There is something inherently unique to each and every one of us: our identity. Or, is it our identities? The idea of intersectionality is one that has started to pick up more eyes and ears as time goes on, and is one that is such an inherently cool concept. Think about it: we all have different aspects of ourselves that we share with others, perhaps it is your gender or your age or your race. We all have multiple different identities as well, like being a 40-year-old woman, or a non-binary individual whose religious identity is important to them. Put these two facts together along with our own experiences, and we are our own unique and inimitable selves.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a relatively new form of treatment, having only been developed in the last four decades. Originally, it was created for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but can and is often used for other disorders and situations such as phobias, pain management, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, and even dermatological disorders.

It often feels like, to me, that most people have heard of and have a general understanding of ADHD, but that they don’t necessarily know what ADHD is or what it is like to have. William Dodson, MD, a psychiatrist and author posits that children who have ADHD will, by the age of 12, “receive 20,000 more negative messages from parents, teachers, and other adults than their friends and siblings who do not have ADHD.” Being one of the most common mental disorders that affects children, one would think that we would have an easier and more effective time treating individuals with ADHD. This, however, as noted by William Dodson, is often far from the truth.

What do you think of when you hear the word “therapy?” What kind of setting do you picture? Chances are high that you probably picture two individuals across from each other talking. While that can be what therapy looks like, it doesn’t always have to look like that. Group therapy can often provide certain benefits that you don’t get from individual therapy.