I remember hating the movie Groundhog Day when I was younger, mainly because it felt like the movie would never end – which was the point as far as I can tell. It dawned on me recently that this is very much like grief. The process often feels so slow it’s like you’re waking up in the same day over and over again. Nothing seems to change and all you want is to get out of it. Just like Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, we often feel like going to any extreme just to change the persistent pain and monotonous...
Depression, Mistakes, and Another Year
Today is New Year’s Day, and many of us are just waking up after a late night of celebration, counting down in eager anticipation of the new year. This day is lauded as more than just the first day of a new calendar; it is the dawn of a hopeful new era of possibility. Many of us even make resolutions about how we plan to make this year better than the last. For others of us, however, today is the next day of a long winter. Hope seems far away, and simply making it through the next 24 hours is...
Anxiety!
Anxiety is the only mental problem with which I KNOW I’ve ever been diagnosed. (How’s that for an opening line?) As such, I’m intimately aware of how exhausting it can be. For example, I used to fill my plate with food, then proceed to eat only one item at a time. I’d sooner walk across hot coals than speak in public. I’ve been known to be slightly obsessive about the seam across the toes of my socks. Of course, I’m all better now. Especially about eating only one thing at a time. I never do that anymore. Just ask my wife....
Cultivate Your Child's Worldview
I was the kid who was constantly on his bike, and when I say constantly I mean it. I was also the kid who could never quite manage to make it home on time – after all, what shade of ‘dark’ did my Mom mean when she said ‘Be home by dark’? At some point a young friend and I decided to push our limits, riding past the boundary of the big hill towards uncharted territory. The thrill was intense, causing me to feel like my heroes, Indiana Jones and MacGyver, all at once. Then came the dogs. Big ones...
Donate to TSS
The Shepherd’s Staff is a 501c3 non-profit organization. This sets us apart from many other counseling groups in that we are not sustained by a parent company, state funded organization or grants. All the administrative, marketing and financial responsibilities are met by our group of therapists, with a board of directors who meet quarterly to supervise, advise and provide constructive feedback. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to The Shepherd’s Staff there are several ways to do so. 1. Paypal/Credit Card- Click on this donate button in order to provide a donation through Paypal with your credit or...
Play Therapy – What is it?
So what exactly is play therapy? How is a child sitting with a trained therapist and engaging in play a helpful resource? Landreth and Bratton summarize it well: “Because children’s language development lags behind their cognitive development, they communicate their awareness of what is happening in their world through their play. In play therapy toys are viewed as the child’s words and play as the child’s language–a language of activity. Play therapy, then, is to children what counseling or psychotherapy is to adults. In play therapy the symbolic function of play is what is so important, providing children with a means of expressing their inner world. Emotionally...
Why use Gottman's 7 Principles In Your Relationship?
The Upcoming 7 Principles Class is 7 Tuesdays from March 24th to April 28th, 6:30 – 8 pm $25- Registration/ $325- (Class, 7 Principles Book and 2 Workbooks) For more information and to register: [email protected] or 601-951-3131 I, Lida Caraway, am thrilled to be offering a relationship class at The Shepherd’s Staff in September, 2014! It’s a dream come true for me! As I have talked with friends, clients and couples about the upcoming class, I realize that I can’t communicate my excitement and energy without wanting to start with my whole long professional love-affair with John Gottman! The How and...
Boredom – The Roots and Remedy
“I’m bored…” The phrase nearly every parent hears throughout the summer, and it seems that it does not matter how many activities, camps, groups or events your child is signed up for – the issue of boredom is constantly lurking around the corner of the next hour. Inevitably, it happens around day two of summer. Day one is filled with the joy of being unrestrained by school and homework. Day two is then filled with the despair of several months with ‘nothing to do’. In my own work with adolescents this is an issue that gets brought up consistently, and...
The Heartbreak of Miscarriage
It’s June 24th, and I am sitting in my office after an unscheduled early morning trip to the doctor. My wife and I are expecting a child in January, and we’ve been through the ups and downs of several miscarriages before now. Because of that fact we are understandably a little jumpy when it comes to cramps and pains and other symptoms that can be scary. Thankfully everything is okay, and we feel a great sense of relief having just heard our baby’s strong heartbeat for the second time. We haven’t always had that sense of relief, however. In fact,...
Why Do I Yell at My Kids?
I always wanted to be one of those parents whose kids would grow up to say that their dad never yelled or snapped at them, that he was always cool and collected, disciplining out of love rather than reactivity. Unfortunately, I’m already ten years into this parenting thing and have botched it too many times to count. So what do I do when I screw up and snap at my kids? I can think of only a few options. The first is to blame. Use a lot of ‘buts’, such as “I know I yelled at you, but ____.” Blame work,...