Life Path Counseling Blog

  On May 26th, 2021, Life Path Counseling PLLC became accredited by the  Better Business Bureau (BBB) , after a deep examination of the Mental Health Counseling practice and its adherence to solid standards of ethics and professional services. This accreditation is a milestone for the practice, in promoting the quality of the services provided and the integrity of its business dealings with the public. While the Better Business Bureau is not a government agency but rather a private not-for-profit organization, it supports marketplace trust and ethical business practices. To that end, Life Path Counseling has been awarded recognition based on the BBB's  Standards for Trust . It is hoped that this will provide prospective clients with an additional feeling of comfort and confidence in choosing Life Path Counseling PLLC for their counseling needs.

As I write this short blog post today, I am very much aware of the struggles that people are experiencing in the world around this virus. Many people have lost someone close to them, or have seen the ravaging sickness take hold of family members and count themselves blessed or lucky when the family member recovers. There are those who do not believe that this virus is real. There are those who feel that the virus might be real but that they themselves are invincible, capable of withstanding what it throws at them and that the virus would not make them sick. The reality is that the virus is very much real, and no amount of ignoring it will change that fact. The virus does not discriminate based on age, or gender, or economic standing, political or social power. It doesn't care who you are, or how strong you think you are…it can become a part of your life in a very negative way. Many of the clients I have served over the last year have been impacted economically, personally, emotiona

Do you have people in your life that give you trouble? Do you often feel that you are not valued by those in your life who are friends, or maybe even family? We form connections with people outside of our family, but sometimes those engagements are not always beneficial to us. Sometimes the relationships we have start out as healthy, but end up being not as healthy as they were when we first met the person. If you find yourself in such a situation, you might find it useful to consider what you need to do to create that healthy space in your life. For some people, this might entail communicating with the person in question and expressing your thoughts and feelings about what isn't working in your connection with the friend. If there is difficulty in doing this, maybe writing down some free flow thoughts on paper to get to a place where you can center your thoughts on the actual problem you are experiencing. Then having an open and honest conversation with your friend to see if there

These two words, represent an idea that few people seem to do effectively. Most people work long hours until they get sick, do not eat well, fail to get adequate rest, and do other things that are not healthy or good in providing positive results in their life. If you find that this might be true in your own life, then I encourage you to keep reading. I too am just as susceptible to this lack of awareness in keeping myself balanced. I tend to try to do too much in one day, and usually end up being ineffective in doing most of it when I don't take time out to rest, eat, enjoy life, and find balance. I spoke to a woman today who works 12 hour days, and commutes. I commented that when we get to the place where we forget to take care of ourselves, it becomes a routine not to do it, and that we then run the risk of a whole host of other issues. Poor health, exhaustion, and lack of balance, just to name a few. We need to decide to give ourselves time for ourselves. We need to reflect on

Focusing on the various problems and concerns in our life brings about different results. These results can usually be due to effort we give to a particular goal or problem. Sometimes, they are the manifestation of the ideas and thoughts that dictate where we put our energy. When we want to have a particular outcome, we play a huge role in the what, where, how, and why of focusing our thoughts and energy to obtain a specific result. Many people may have different ways of seeing this concept, but it is really quite simple. Where you put your focus, impacts the result or outcome. Many people go through life thinking negatively. This is counter-productive to thinking about success. We find it is difficult to gain what we want when we focus on all the things that are wrong in our life, or not working, or just plain broken. Shifting that way of thinking into an approach that is more positive, can actually help reverse the negative flow of energy in our lives. If you find yourself walking ar

We live in a fast paced world, wouldn't you agree? We are bombarded by so many things during our day, that it is hard to not be affected by the numerous excessive stimuli coming at us. At some point, we might tell ourselves that we can "handle it", but how successful are we at actually doing that anyway? I know for myself, that if I don't find the time to gather my strength to move forward with all that I have to do, I will be impacted by the many different directions of negative energies from events and people. This is where having time for ourselves plays a real part in our ability to deal with day to day life. Most of us tend to ignore such an idea that promotes self-care, and just power through the day. But at what cost? Yeah, sure, we get things done. Yet, we likely tend to feel as if we just fought a battle with the wind and ultimately lost (in whatever way we are keeping score). We may even find ourselves exhausted and occasionally sick.  The title of this post

Depression is one of the biggest issues dealt with in therapy. Clients who come to therapy seeking help with this condition, often have a hard time even getting out of bed to attend the session. If you are suffering from depression, you should know that you can overcome it. Between taking prescribed medications and going to sessions to explore the issues that are causing the depressive symptoms, you can learn strategies to bring yourself out of the depressive state of mind. It is challenging to think yourself into a new way of acting - especially when your mind is telling you it isn't worth it, or shows you all the reasons it will fail. This will only fuel the feelings and emotions that are keeping you at bay from making changes. So rather than listen to those thoughts running in your head that are often dictated by negative feelings, why not try to act your way into a new way of thinking? Rather than sitting around trying to decide if you want to go for a walk (for example), why n

Therapy can be a place where we allow ourselves to reflect and examine the issues that we have avoided for any length of time. Sometimes we do not know where to begin in this process. Clients in this practice, are treated with unconditional positive regard. You are clinically supported to explore the deepest fears, emotions, concerns, struggles, and even shortcomings in your life. This is not a time to self-ridicule or demoralize yourself. It is a time to find the strength to turn your challenges into moments of growth and change. In therapy, we often think that if we are seeing a counselor, then we must be crazy, or defective, or just plain damaged. This simply isn't true, and more so not even likely to the extent that you might have created that idea in your own mind. Yes, people go to see a counselor when something is wrong. When was the last time you heard someone say, "Oh, I have no problems at all, but decided to see a counselor anyway"? It doesn't usually happe

Counseling can be a scary proposition for many people. The idea of going to a place to meet with someone you don't know, and to be expected to open up to that person about who you are and what is going on with you, is no easy task for most people. You want the experience to go well, but fear may hold you back. What might be helpful to keep in mind, is that the counselor by and large is often just as nervous to meet you. They want you to feel comfortable meeting with them, and they are trying to put their best foot forward in providing you with an experience that is warm, friendly, and done with an understanding that you might be scared of being judged or seen as crazy. Counselors are well trained, and many tend to understand what it is like to be a client because they have done their own work in seeing a therapist. So in coming to therapy for the first time, one of the things you can do, is begin a conversation of what you expect from your counselor and what you need from them in t