In our Mental Health Minute series, counselors from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center share insights on a variety of mental health topics. Click on each title to see a short video on the topic.
Merry Christmas! We've enjoyed bringing you a new Mental Health Minute each week since the early spring of 2020. In this edition, Dr. Courtney Miller pauses to thank you for watching our series, reflects on our objectives and accomplishments as our services did a pandemic pivot, and looks ahead to a few upcoming features in 2020.
Mental Health Minute: When Your New Year's Resolution is to Stop Yelling at the Kids
In this Mental Health Minute, Dr. Natalie Brei from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center addresses one of the common concerns she hears from parents: "If I could just stop yelling so much, things would go better!" This is easier said than done but there are proven tips to help accomplish this worthwhile objective. Dr. Brei shares in condensed form the advice she gives: attending to your own physical health; avoiding multiple warnings; monitoring facial/vocal cues, and using a mental image of a thermostat (a very helpful and creative visualization!).
The holidays are a time of both joy and challenge and come with good and bad stress. In this Mental Health Minute, Jillian Janousek from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center provides valuable insight and tips from the Mayo Clinic for managing our mental health during a holiday season unlike any we have faced before.
Happy and blessed Advent! In this edition of our Mental Health Minute. Dr. Courtney Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center focuses on the importance of holiday traditions, including Advent wreaths, Jesse Trees, and gifts in our shoes on St. Nicholas Day (Dec 6th). We wish you and your family a blessed time of preparation!
In this Mental Health Minute, Evan Divis from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares insight into the benefits of nature to our overall general health, overall well-being, and stress levels. After viewing this, you'll want to "air out your brain in nature"!
"Instilling gratitude values in our children in a time of instant gratification and overindulgence can have us feeling as if we're swimming against a current. However, it is so very important!" In this Mental Health Minute, Nicolette Machado from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center offers insight and tips to support our children in having an "attitude of gratitude".
This week's Mental Health Minute topic is lighter and a welcome breath of fresh air in these challenging times! Ann Peters Miller, M.S. from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares her personal reflection (and a few wonderful video examples!) on the benefits of laughter.
In this Mental Health Minute, Dr. Courtney Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center defines gratitude and provides 5 helpful tips for living a life graced with gratitude.
For more information about our counseling center, visit immaculateheartcounseling.org. For more information about our agency, visit cssisus.org.
When a medical problem with sleep has been ruled out, but bedtime problems such as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep during the night persist, there are several helpful steps we can take to help. Dr. Natalie Brei from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares 8 points (many of which apply to adult sleep issues as well!) to help manage sleep problems in children: Bedtime routine; Cut the lights; Know about "Sleep Associations"; Stay consistent; Rewards & "Bedtime Pass"; Fading Parental Presence; Handle Fears; and Relationship Context. As always, our counselors at IHMCC are available if you and your child need further help with this important issue!
In this follow up to his earlier Mental Health Minute on perfectionistic Christianity, Dr. Peter Martin from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center turns to the prescription for pathological perfectionism: "Four eyes are better than two when it comes to tempering extreme standards."
Is the glass half empty or half full? It's all about perception, and it's a powerful thing! In this Mental Health Minute, Dr. Courtney Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center discusses the importance of perception and shares illustrative examples of how our perception can literally change our outlook.
In this Mental Health Minute, Ann Peters Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center offers insight into the grieving process and how we can help others during their time of loss.
It's true that we all have insecurities and we all work hard to hide them from others. However, have you ever viewed our vulnerability as a source of goodness? In this Mental Health Minute, Nicolette Machado from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center explores the deeper meaning of vulnerability, the need for courage and compassion, and our call to connection.
Are you a "Pathological Perfectionist"? If so, you're not alone, as its "victims" come from all walks of life, all vocational states of life, and all levels of belief or unbelief. In this Mental Health Minute, Dr. Peter Martin from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center provides both a definition and helpful psychospiritual self-assessment guidance.
Did you know that there are 9 benefits of hobbies? Evan Divis from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares these benefits with us and encourages us to discover (or re-discover!) a hobby today.
In this week's Mental Health Minute, we're excited to introduce our revamped postpartum support group- Loving Hearts & Little Feet! This five-week series (September 28th to October 30th) will consist of educational videos released each Monday, followed up by a live online support group meeting from 9-10 am each Friday and facilitated by Ann Miller and Dr. Natalie Brei from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center.
We're excited to announce the launch of our "Partners on the Journey" program! The Partners on the Journey marriage enrichment series combines a Catholic theology of marriage with the findings from scientific research to offer married couples both inspiration and practical help. Our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center is providing this wonderful series through our agency YouTube channel. You will need to purchase a workbook in order to access the video series (each couple needs just 1 notebook). Watch this week's Mental Health Minute for more details!
Now that school is back in session (whether in the classroom or at home), our time is once again more structured, with tasks and deadlines. Dr. Natalie Brei from our ImmaculateHeart of Mary Counseling Center provides useful guidelines and tips for implementing a rewards system that motivates and teaches our children how to reach their goals in a positive manner.
Our careers, friendships, family connections, and romantic relationships are all impacted by our ability to communicate. The good news is, improvement is possible and doesn't have to be a complex process! In this Mental Health Minute, Nicolette Machado from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares a set of effective communication strategies to follow in our daily lives.
In this week's Mental Health Minute, Dr. Courtney Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares insight into post-abortive care for those affected by abortion and highlights the important work of Project Rachel- a Catholic resource for services (hopeafterabortion.com).
Everybody wants to have a happy life but really, what does that mean? In this Mental Health Minute, Dr. Jeff Vance from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center explores three types of happy lives: the pleasurable life, the good life, and the meaningful life.
In this Mental Health Minute, Ann Peters Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares encouraging words for those grieving the loss of an infant through miscarriage, neonatal death, or stillbirth.
Nicolette Machado from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center introduces us to 5 foundational components we can use in our homes to establish a connection between children and parents: PLACE (playfulness, love, acceptance, curiosity, and empathy).
Isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic presents unique challenges to the elderly. In this segment, Ann Peters Miller offers insight and ideas to help support the elderly.
What is leisure and its relationship to our mental health? In this mental health minute, Dr. Peter Martin from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center defines, explores, and offers insight into the important connection between leisure and our mental health.
Nicolette Machado from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center discusses the impact of technology on our children and offers guidance to ensure that it has a positive effect on their behavior and development.
Dr. Natalie Brei shares insight into our invitation to be more "in the present" and the value of God-centered mindfulness and "being in the moment".
Dr. Peter Martin from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center shares a special message for fathers on "their" special day!
Evan Divis from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling center discusses the ways that exercise can help us not only physically but mentally.
Much like our spring, summer 2020 will be like nothing we've ever experienced as parents. How can we best support our children during this time? Dr. Courtney Miller from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center provides key guidance by suggesting 3 P's: predictability, positivity, and presence.
Have you ever considered loneliness as a warning signal? In this Mental Health Minute, Dr. Jeff Vance shares how to recognize, understand, and respond to our loneliness.
Have you ever thought of downtime as an invitation to reflect on our priorities and then rearrange our lives to match our values? In this episode, Dr. Natalie Brei from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center talks about finding and pursuing your values during downtime.
Social media. It's a useful tool to communicate and connect with each other. Have you ever stopped to consider its effect on our mental health? In this episode, Nicolette Machado from our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center discusses the connection between our time on social media and our mental health.
Did you know that about 1 in 9 new mothers will experience postpartum depression? Ann Peters-Miller, M.S., Licensed Mental Health Practitioner at our Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center, shares insight and tips to help new mothers dealing with postpartum depression.
Happy Mother's Day!
On this special day, Dr. Courtney Miller, IHMCC director of clinical services, shares with us a beautiful reflection on the joys, challenges, and blessings of motherhood
Dr. Courtney Miller shares insight and tips regarding the importance of maintaining our mental health during the pandemic.
We're excited to introduce our new #MentalHealthMinutes feature, which we're launching during Mental Health Awareness month. Click to watch Dr. Miller's introduction and welcome. #MentalHealthMatters
