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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.

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The Real Face of Depression

Written by B. Imei Hsu, BSN-RN, MAC-LMHC, Artist

A few weeks ago, I found myself musing about the real “face” of depression.  I personally find it absurd to think that anyone who lives a full life can escape the feeling of being depressed at some point in their lifetime of 365-1/4 day trips around the sun.  A full life – one in which you choose to be awake  – includes its fair share of tragedies, heartbreaks, endings, and losses.  As I am writing this, we are on the eve of experiencing  a hurricane that affects hundreds of miles of homes and businesses, which can only mean that millions of people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake, and the thought of human loss is grieving and yes, depressing. Yet rather than sharing only statistics and norms and “how to’s, I’m sharing my personal and professional musings on depression not just as a situationally-caused mood disorder, but also as a real “face” that seemingly has no cause, or to which we look beyond cause. What is the real face of depression?

“I have no reason to be depressed”

Wil Wheaton, actor and writer, has gone on record to share his struggle with chronic depression. He is a real face of depression for many.

You probably know at least one person who tells you, “I have no reason to be depressed.” Such a statement falls falls from a mouth of an intelligent, successful, healthy adult man or woman who appears well-loved and appreciated for his or her contribution to the community, the workplace, and the home. She or he can count off at least ten or more reasons why depression should have no place in her life, and yet there it is: this heavy, achy, tired, brooding feeling of either not wanting to have to wake up to another day (with suicidal thoughts and fantasies of ending it all), or the same heavy- achy-tired-brooding-feeling, only without suicidal thoughts. That same person may have tried counseling or some form of “talk therapy“, and while strategies for managing the symptoms of depression are discussed and employed, the person expresses dismay that after six months of weekly sessions, she doesn’t feel much different. Just depressed.

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Client-centered Therapy Counseling Seattle Therapy

Props in Movement: Scarves Are More Than Just Fashion

Props in Movement: Scarves Are More Than Just For Fashion
by Allie Bulliman

I had an open house at the office here in Pioneer Square over a month ago as an opportunity for people to get a more in depth explanation and demonstration of “what I do.” Dance movement therapists do just what any other therapist does: listen. We create a safe space. We work with you to create your best life. I like to say I am just a regular therapist/counselor/psychotherapist (whatever you prefer) with an extra tool in my toolbox.

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