Help for Seasonal Depression

Has your mood taken a downward turn now that the nights are longer and the daylight hours much shorter?  

If this describes you, you may benefit from increasing your exposure to daylight, especially in the mornings before noon.

However, if you have to spend most mornings indoors due to school, work, or caregiving duties, then you might want to talk to your doctor or therapist about light therapy.

Light therapy is using really bright light to treat seasonal symptoms of low moods and depression.  You can buy light therapy lamps online and at some big box retailers.  Look for lamps that give off 10,000 lux (a measure of intensity or brightness of light).  And be sure to ask your provider about how long and when to use your light therapy lamp.

A brighter mood may be just a light switch away.

Be well!

Teresa

Teresa Heald LCSW, MSW, ASDCS

Autism Certification

This month, I am officially a Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist, certified by Evergreen Certifications!

The training I completed in order to achieve this certificate has well-equipped me to provide even higher quality service and more targeted treatment to individuals on the autism spectrum, as well as their families and other loved ones.

Contact me at teresahealdconsulting"at"gmail.com if you would like to schedule a consultation (nationwide in the USA) or an assessment for yourself or your child/teen (Idaho residents only).

Be well!

Teresa

Teresa Heald LCSW, MSW, ASDCS

How to Help Your Teen Understand and Resist Peer Pressure

One of the best ways to help your teen understand and resist peer pressure is to spend more time around your teen.

And by "time," I don't mean sitting in different parts of the living room while you both are slouching, heads down, glued to your different devices.

All humans crave connection.  When you stay connected to your teen, they are less likely to be overly influenced by peers and the pressure they feel to fit in with their peers (virtual ones, ie their "peers" on social media, and their real-life peers at school and in their neighborhood and community).

Plus, when you schedule activities that both you and your teen enjoy and participate in them together, your teen has less time to doom-scroll, on-line game, SnapChat, and TikTok for hours on end. 

Why not try scheduling an extra few hours per week with your teen?  It's one of the best antidotes to peer pressure out there!  And it's within YOUR control.

Be well!

Teresa

Teresa Heald, LCSW

Mindfulness for Stress Reduction

Mindfulness can be an excellent tool to help reduce your experience of stress and help you to live a better life.

Mindfulness is simply being aware of your present situation, emotions, environment, body, thoughts, etc.

Let me give you an example: 

You and your teen-ager are discussing their use of the car this Friday night to go to a school function.  You say that this privilege is contingent upon their completing three missing assignments in math class.  Your teen begins to whine, complain, and resist.  Your blood pressure rises, as does the volume of your voice.  Then your teen gets defensive.  Before you know it, both you and your teen are in a full blown argument.  How did that happen again?

Without self-awareness and other-awareness, situations like this will continue to play out until your little darlin' launches off to college, career, or the military.

How do you practice mindfulness?

Good news!  Mindfulness is a learnable skill.  Here is a quick way (of many ways) to begin using mindfulness:

Take a deep breath.

Seriously.

Five or six in a row.

And just observe how you're feeling, what you're seeing, if your jaw or shoulders are clinched, what sounds you're hearing.

And pause.

Practicing mindfulness when you are alone and not agitated is a great way to improve the skill, so that when you ARE in a situation like I described above, you will be able to calm your nervous system and be able to think and act in a calmer way.

Try it, not just for a few times, but for a few times per day for several weeks.  Your experience of day-to-day stress is likely to drop, if not a large amount, then at least a small (but not insignificant) amount.

I believe you'll be very surprised at the results.

Peace and calm to you,

Teresa

Teresa Heald, LCSW