Everything You Need to Know About Diagnosing and Treating Panic Disorder
Do you ever feel like you’re living in fear…of fear? If you’re looking for an overview of panic attacks and the best panic disorder treatment, you’ve come to the right place. Learn more about diagnosing the panic disorder, its most common symptoms and your therapy and medication options below. What is panic disorder? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (fifth edition), or DSM V, is the tool compiled by the American Psychiatric Association and used by medical and mental health professionals to recognize and treat conditions like panic disorder. The manual lists the following criteria to identify a [...]
Preparing for Mental Health Teletherapy
Finding mental health teletherapy Teletherapy has been an accepted treatment modality for the last several years, but it has gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health counseling via teletherapy is particularly valuable because it provides access to treatment and convenience factors that are not available with traditional in-person therapy. In addition to online mental health counseling, several other types of therapy can be made available on a telehealth platform: Addiction counseling: Online addiction counseling is a great medium for those in recovery who are still looking for outpatient support. A teletherapist specializing in online addiction counseling can provide treatment [...]
Knowing What You Need For Your Recovery Process
Coming to the realization that you or a loved one is in need of drug rehab can be a scary thing. Not only is it frightening because of the reality of addiction, but also because of the sheer number of treatment centers, counseling services and therapists available. Would virtual or in-person therapy be better? What about options like inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization or outpatient treatment – how do you determine which one you need? Because each individual’s addiction story is going to be different from the next person’s, it’s important for the success of the recovery journey to ensure [...]
What Types of Therapy Are Helpful For Depression?
Depression is a potentially debilitating mental health disorder. It’s also one of the most common. The CDC states almost 5% of adults report suffering from depression each year. However, cases may be underreported. Other sources place the actual number of individuals living with the disorder much higher. There is good news: depression is highly treatable. Each year we continue to learn more about mental health disorders and effective methods for treating them. Therapy is one such depression treatment. Therapists use a range of therapeutic techniques to help their patients overcome depression. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, [...]
Teletherapy and Online Substance Abuse Treatment: What You Need to Know
Teletherapy combines the use of technology with therapy to deliver treatment through video conferencing and web-based tools. In today’s world, it’s increasingly important to provide accessible, safe, and effective treatment options to patients. For this reason, teletherapy is becoming a more common option for patients seeking addiction treatment. It allows a person to receive effective treatment often without requiring them to leave the comfort of their home. It can be easy to think of teletherapy as only being useful for mental health treatment; however, teletherapy is also just as effective for substance abuse counseling and treatment. If you or someone [...]
Trauma Recovery: 6 Ways Your Body Can Be an Ally
Written by Gwen Blumberg Islam, LSW, Clinician for High Focus Centers in Paramus Often after experiencing trauma, the body can start to feel disconnected or even like the enemy, and reconnecting to it can be a scary thing to consider. There was likely a time when being in your body was a painful place to be, and it might have seemed safer, and even necessary, to disconnect from it. There’s a good chance your body might still experience pain or discomfort as a result of past trauma, and it’s only natural to have an initial urge to avoid that. However, [...]
What Are The Benefits of Telepsychiatry?
Telepsychiatry, or teletherapy, allows patients to use telecommunication software and devices such as computers, tablets, or phones, to receive online mental health and substance abuse treatment. Telepsychiatry offers a number of benefits to both patients and their therapists, including increased accessibility to services, more comfort, and convenience, among others. We’ll detail some of the top benefits of telepsychiatry below. Telepsychiatry Provides Comfort To Patients For patients with extreme anxiety or who feel uncomfortable in a clinical or unfamiliar setting, telepsychiatry allows patients to meet with their therapist virtually from the comfort and safety of their home. Similarly, for patients who [...]
How Does Teletherapy Work?
As our new normal continues to evolve, technology has made communicating and staying in touch with friends and family easier than ever. Through FaceTime and video conferencing, we can reach out to friends across the country or conference remotely with coworkers. This same technology and need to adapt have also had an effect on medicine, including psychiatry. You may have heard about “teletherapy” and are wondering what exactly it means, how it works, and what it looks like. We’ll explain what teletherapy is, what its benefits are, and answer questions you may have about this growing practice. What is Teletherapy? [...]
Tips to Prepare for a Telehealth Therapy Session
With the COVID-19 pandemic leading to business closures across the country, the mental health treatment industry has had to quickly adapt to continue providing clients with much-needed counseling and care. One way that the industry has responded is by offering “telehealth” therapy sessions. Teletherapy at High Focus Centers Telehealth utilizes HIPAA-secure video conferencing platforms to allow therapists and their clients to connect without having to meet in person. Telehealth mental health treatment has become instrumental in providing continuity of care during the coronavirus pandemic, and there are some useful things to keep in mind that will make your experience a [...]
What is Cognitive Defusion?
Cognitive defusion, also known as deliteralization, is a technique used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people cope with uncomfortable or unhelpful thoughts and feelings. It is a useful technique for people with depression and anxiety, as uncomfortable and unhelpful thoughts and feelings are often a part of their experience. Cognitive defusion involves creating space between ourselves and our thoughts and feelings so that they have less of a hold over us. How Does Cognitive Defusion Work? To understand how cognitive defusion works, hold both of your hands about two inches in front of your face. All you can [...]
Life Skills You’ll Learn in Addiction Recovery
Going through substance abuse treatment and addiction recovery programs is more than just finding freedom from substances – it is a way in which you can completely turn your life around, reject the old lifestyle you once pursued and build recovery skills. These life skills are a key component to any recovery program as they provide you with the tools you need to get back into the world with a newfound strength, healthy goals and coping mechanisms that will sustain recovery for the long run. What are recovery skills? Recovery skills are introduced in substance abuse treatment as tools [...]
How to Find a Substance Abuse Treatment Program to Meet Your Needs
Deciding to enter an addiction treatment program is a huge step in your recovery. But beginning the process includes researching and finding a treatment program. If you've begun this process, you already know how overwhelming it can be with the number of available treatment centers in the US. Hopefully, to help minimize any stress you may feel, we've narrowed down a few things to keep in consideration – such as location, levels of care and accreditation – to help you find an effective program for drug or alcohol addiction. Not only will the best program provide you the best treatment, [...]