Communication can be hard in a relationship and you may not always be able to tell her how you are feeling. With these 8 tips you can start to open up to her. Whoa. You never thought it would happen, but you've found someone you love going on dates with. She's pretty, she's cool, she's funny, and she's smart. So you better get this right. Relationships are scary, and starting to open up to someone is terrifying. Communication is the key to any good relationship. This is something you've undoubtedly heard before. But if you've ever had a relationship go south in the past, you might be afraid to open up again. There are some surefire ways to make it easier to open up to your significant other and make them know that you care. 9 Tips On How To Open Up 1) Listen More Than You Speak While we will add the caveat that of course this advice does not always apply to every situation, listening to your partner instead of blabbing all about yourself will help you to learn to engage with … [Read more...]
Emotional Eating: Steps for Overcoming Food Cravings
Emotional eating is the process of consuming foods (often high calorie, fatty foods) as a way to cope with personal stress and duress. Effective ways of curbing the habit of emotional eating involve finding new, healthier, methods of coping with—or altering—one’s emotional state. At Thrive Counseling, we have discovered that the following basic strategies are helpful to our clients. 1) Engage in alternative enjoyable activities. We turn to emotional eating because it improves our emotional state. Make a list of other activities that you enjoy—and review that list when you feel a craving coming on. For some of our clients, alternative activities have included: calling a friend, walking the dog, or downloading a song from iTunes. 2) Drink Water. Many of us live in a constant state of dehydration. When we’re dehydrated we can mistake thirst for hunger. Staying well hydrated can reduce cravings and provide you more energy throughout the day. 3) Substitute some lower calorie foods. If … [Read more...]
Discouragement: Information on Discouragement and Tips for Overcoming Discouragement
PORTRAITS Roger has been working two jobs for years just to make ends meet. Unfortunately, he recently lost the higher paying of his jobs. As if that weren’t enough, his son was also just suspended from school for drug possession. Roger feels that he has failed as a father and blames himself for not being home enough with his son. Amanda longs to have a husband and a family of her own. Now that most of her friends are married, she has been thinking a lot about her ex-boyfriend of five years. She blames herself for their breakup and thinks about how things could have been different if she had only been a better girlfriend. She has been spending most nights at home alone and her friends are beginning to worry. DEFINITIONS & KEY THOUGHTS Discouragement involves a lack of confidence or feeling of sadness that is the result of either a real or perceived event in life. Two of the main underlying causes that contribute to discouragement include lack of confidence in oneself and … [Read more...]
Will I Ever Find Love? What to Remember When Looking for “The One”
Some people search their whole lives for "The One." And they're constantly asking, "will I ever find love?" Here are a few things to remember during your search. Single life can be rough. Playing the field and enjoying your independence can be lots of fun, but the pressure to find someone to live happily ever after with is always looming. Especially in the age of social media, where we're constantly bombarded with images of loved-up couples. Eventually, you end up comparing yourself to them. You might start to ask yourself "will I ever find love?" If that's where you are right now, don't worry. Here are a few important points to remember when being single is getting you down: 1. It will happen when the time is right. It sounds cliche, but things will come together when they're supposed to. Lots of people who find their perfect partner say that they came along when they least expected it. While putting yourself out there by creating online dating profiles and going to … [Read more...]
Boston Premartial Counseling
The statistics aren't pretty: nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. As therapists, we see every day that the issues that broke a relationship apart after 5, 10, or 20 years, are issues that the couple could have started working on long before they became a wedge between them. That is one of the many important reasons that premarital counseling should be sought out when couples are considering marriage. In fact, pre-engagement counseling would be even better--working through important issues and creating a plan for your marriage before the wedding invitations are sent--but, pre-engagement is a romantic ideal. If you live in the greater Boston area and are considering marriage, or have a wedding on the books, Thriveworks offers professional premarital counseling in Boston and Cambridge, MA (as well as Westborough, MA). Through the premarital counseling process, couples will learn improved skills to communicate in marriage, identify potential conflict areas, resolve conflict … [Read more...]