Mental Health In Color!

If there’s no more important lesson from this pandemic it’s: the power of COMMUNITY, COMPASSION, and COLLABORATION.
 
We’ve seen recording artists orchestrate Grammy-worthy concerts from their living rooms in different corners of the world. Neighbors coordinating neighborhood-wide dance parties and art/food collections. We’ve seen small businesses innovate by either taking their services online or getting creative with their delivery process.
 
All of this fills us with hope, and we’d like to encourage you to take the time to collaborate with like-minded business owners to create an EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE for the community!
 
Knowing WHERE and HOW to access helpful information about all 8 DIMENSIONS of WELLNESS (emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, environmental, financial, occupational, and social) will be CRITICAL as we all come out of lockdown and slowly start to rebuild our lives.
 
We ALL have some fundamental knowledge that we can share and collaboration reaches and benefits a MUCH LARGER audience faster, more efficiently, and ALWAYS to surprising results!
 
Recently, Counseling Space, collaborated with the talented Lisa Nelson, visual thinker, sketchnote artist, graphic recorder and Creative Director at See in Colors, to create a family-friendly animated video with HELPFUL TIPS on how to assess and invest in your mental health from home!

We are grateful for this collaboration as it allowed us to be creative while educating everyone in a manner that is visual, fun, clear, and easy to adapt and share!

In the spirit of collaboration, we’d ENCOURAGE you to share the video on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, etc. using the hashtags #seeincolors #counselingspace and #mentalhealthincolor!

 
Let’s make this EDUCATIONAL ANIMATED video viral!
 
This ensures that you, your loved ones, and the nation LEARN how to PROTECT MINDS and LOWER STRESS during and after these uncertain times.

Boost Your Immunity, Beat Stress and Support Your Team!

Everything's a whirlwind right now.

My email and social media inboxes have never been so busy. I am getting request after request to support clients, families, support groups and entire teams. 

Everyone is just doing their best to find some BALANCE — or a quick way to regain it if they find themselves wobbling. 

I want to encourage you to continue to express and move through your emotions in as many HEALTHY ways as possible. 

This will help you RELEASE and INTEGRATE and RESET to a new peace in your body, and new energy to begin again. 

If you are also looking for practical DAILY steps to BOOST your IMMUNITY and TACKLE STRESS from the time you wake up to bedtime, please download the following guide from our "Hero of the Week" Dr Adeeti Gupta! 

Dr. Gupta, an OBGYN in the NY area, founded the First-Ever Walk IN GYN center after witnessing the deficiencies in Women’s health care. Education, caring for all women with compassion and women’s empowerment through preventative holistic health care are some of the core values that she promulgates. 

And WHY is Dr Gupta Counseling Space's hero of the week? 

This past week, Dr Gupta contacted Counseling Space to request that we offer our Virtual Wellness Services to her team during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As she encourages at the close of the IMMUNITY BOOSTER AND STRESS BUSTER Checklist, she wants her team to be SAFE, STRONG, and READY in ALL WAYS. 

We admire that she recognizes mental preparation as a major component for coping during this current crisis. 

If you are a small business owner who is seeking similar support for your team  or needing support yourself, you can email us at info@counselingpc.com or BOOK BELOW. 

At Counseling Space, we are here to support teams like yours and Dr Gupta's so YOU can continue supporting others during this time. 

Let's help each other help others. 

And, in the meantime, please, take care of yourself.

With Wellness, 

Leslie M. Garcia 

From Stress to Success: How Therapy Helped a NYC Subway Rider Reach Their Destination

Written by Counseling Space Clinician, Evelyn Crespo, LCSW-R

Ever had the dreaded feeling of getting on the NYC subway?

You think, "It won’t be that bad this time, I’ll just get on the train and act like I'm okay. Like the overcrowdness doesn’t bother me, the threat of someone or me getting hurt doesn’t scare me, or that I won’t have a panic attack and lose my job because the train is late again. I’ll just pretend I don’t have those emotions or thoughts and get on the subway and hope for the best." But that’s not what happens - you get anxious, maybe you get off the train and decide to wait for the next one and end up leaving the station and going home, or you get into an argument with someone, or you witness something scary.

If you don’t have coping skills to manage these emotions they won’t get better, they may even get worse causing you to avoid the subway and take overpriced cabs or just miss living the life you want.

I was working with a client who would say the subway brought out the worst in him. He always felt people were looking at him and he would get all in his head, all the negative beliefs he had would take over and he would get restless, his heartbeat would rise, he would often get off the train at this point and never reach his destination. He lost many job opportunities because of it. One day when he was on the train and started to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and self-conscious he put on some calming music, drank some water, and used one of the crisis mode skills. Next session he happily reported making it to his destination on time and feeling empowered that the anxiety did not take control over him. He reported that this transformed his life. He felt he could take the train anywhere because he had this skill, this ability to tune out the negative voices in his head and focus on his goal. He was ecstatic and it was contagious; I was so happy for him.

The number of clients I’ve worked with that report that the mindfulness or other coping skills that I’ve taught them has helped reduce their stress is at least 80%. The research shows how daily mindfulness practice increases brain functioning and improvement. See this link for more: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/ce-corner.

I have my own mindfulness practice and notice the difference when I’m on my game and reaching goals. As I stated earlier, this client’s life changed, which is why I do what I do — I want to help people feel better and reach their life goals. His life is more his own now than prior to having these skills.

In the almost 14 years I have been a practicing NY psychotherapist, I have seen how this changes people’s ability to ride the NYC subway and break down the barriers preventing them from reaching their goals. For as much as we dislike the NYC subway most of us find ourselves taking it wherever we are going and if we want to get to OUR destination we need all the skills we can learn.

Anxiety is real and can take over your life but we don’t have to let it!

Click here and learn more about how we can work together to decrease your anxiety and learn to cope with proven and effective anxiety reducing coping skills that will get you on the train to wherever you choose your destination to be.