Categories
Client-centered Therapy Counseling Therapy

Holiday Entertainment For the Emotions

Music, Film, Art, Psychology, Emotional Well Being

Use art and activity to help you reflect on the year. And have a sleepy, zen kitty!
Use art and activity to help you reflect on the year. And have a sleepy, zen kitty!

After hearing Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer for the tenth time, perhaps you’re ready to listen to something more than nostalgic winter holiday classics!

The month of December is the perfect time for reviewing the year past, and yet it can dredge up a variety of memories and emotions that need both time and attention. Perhaps there was that breakup earlier in the year. An argument with an old friend that never got resolved. A tough break with an employer. Chronic battles with illness, financial stress, or a disappointment could leave you shaky and emotionally fatigued.

Because many of us receive some time off for the holidays, it’s an excellent opportunity to think about these events and take inventory with how you’re doing. One of the methods that I have recommended to my clients over the years is to try a little music, film, and art therapy (reading lists are reconsidered in June for summertime reading).

For my final blogpost for 2014, here’s my very short list of ideas, songs, films, and artistically-minded activities that may give you the emotional space to do your best thinking and feeling. Thanks to Atta Dawahare for helping me flesh out this idea; perhaps we’ll turn this into an annual post and keep adding more things each year!

We hope you have a Happy, Healthy, and thoughtful Holiday time with family and friends, and a Happy New Year! If you are thinking of starting therapy sessions for the first time and we don’t have room for you on our remaining December schedules, we’ll be back by January 5, 2015.

Categories
Change How to Relationships Therapeutic Photography Therapy

Bringing More Light into Focus

Editor’s Note: Bringing More Light Into Focus is a guest blog post written by Richard Wood. His post is a great way of introducing the concept of using photography to explore the interior world within us through an external avenue. While his account is personal and touching, the pracitioners at SDC recognize Mr. Wood’s experience as his own and not a means of therapeutic advisement for others.

In January 2007, I got my first cat, Phyllis. Phyllis McGillis Amaryllis, technically.  I found Phyllis while searching online for kittens and discovered the “Itty Bitty Kitty Committee” in Tacoma, WA, where I happen to be living at the time. If you ever visit the IBKC site, you’ll find amazing photos of beautiful kittens, adorable stories about their actions and complete personality profiles.  And to sweeten the deal the kittens are being adopted out on behalf of the Pierce County Humane Society.

Well, my entry into photography started there!  The site was so beautiful, the kittens were adorable and their website had THOUSANDS of followers who visited daily!  So, I thought Phyllis might want to continue her relationship with the followers of IBKC.

All photos courtesy of Richard Wood of kapchur.us

I started out with my point-and-shoot camera, but almost a year after getting her decided the PnS was NOT cutting it.  So I got my first dSLR camera, a Canon XSi kit with the 18-55 lens.  It seemed SO expensive at the time, ringing in at about $700!  But to see the photos go from great to fantastic was WELL worth the spend!

Shortly thereafter I adopted two more kittens with my partner.  These kittens, Rosalie & Renatta Pettibone (the IBKC started giving each litter cute last names to identify the litters).  And then started the new blog about all three called “Phyllis and the Aliens” (later transitioning to http://kittymeadow.com), mostly because that’s what Phyllis thought of the two new youngsters!

Anyway, this post isn’t necessarily about the adorable cats in my life. It’s about life change, what I saw as tragedy.