Community Content
Meet Our Practitioners
Explore by Topic
Our Most Recent Post
The Unexpected Virtue of Anxiety
In a time where the whole world feels that nagging sense of worry and concern, we can take wisdom from those who have experience in this area: those with ongoing anxiety. Holly Schweitzer Dunn, LISW, has heard this three times already this week: "Having anxiety has helped me know what to do during all this craziness." There is a lot we can learn from people with anxiety. As one client said, "I've been preparing my whole life for this." People who manage their anxiety daily are...
Gratitude in the Holiday Season
Gratitude in the Holiday Season As the aisles fill with tinsel and holiday cards, we recognize that to some people the jingle bells and mistletoe are welcome reminders of years of joy and tradition. Yet for others, it triggers a sense of grief, anxiety, and depression. Many might feel all of these things in the same day. One tool for navigating the sometimes-overly-cheerful season (along with approaching it mindfully) is the daily practice of writing in a gratitude journal. The routine of...
Work Life Balance
One of the first responses to chronic stress is evaluating our work life. Often, well-meaning friends and family suggest getting a better grasp on a “work/life balance.” The assumption is that you work too much and live “real life” too little. Therapist Landon Dunn, LISW, LICDC, suggests this is a false dichotomy. “There is no work vs. life. All of life is just life.” What someone might be seeking is for a person to spend less of his/her life working, which can bring balance to the physical...
When Work Becomes Addictive
Our culture honors hard work to the point of sometimes worshiping it, so often we cannot see the tendencies of our hardworking nature to cross into the realm of addiction. Because working is praised by society and is necessary for well-being, it can hard for a person to admit that they have an unhealthy attachment to a good thing. With other addictions, specifically chemical dependency, the person attaches to something viewed as negative. But because work is a positive thing, the attachment...
Why We Work
We're designed for meaningful work. It gives us a sense of purpose, which is innate and imperative to feeling fulfilled. Even earthworms are purposeful in their work; they know instinctively to move through the dirt for a greater goal. Just the idea of purpose drives much of our efforts, both at work and in service. From the TED stage, Dan Ariely explains how some people will quit working, even for higher pay, when they infer that the efforts are meaningless. Some people find significance...
Living in Disagreement
In today’s culture where politics and other dichotomous issues seem to divide, we will come across people with whom we do not share similar opinions. We may work with them, raise children amongst them, and even live with them. As tragedies and disasters swirl around us, the solutions we offer may not match the ideas of those around us. So how do we live in disagreement, peacefully? How can we respond when we feel hurt by comments from those with whom we share life? First, we begin with our...
Stress and the Strong Young Women
Over the years in our practice at Mind Body Health Associates, we have noticed patterns that comes with the beginning of the school year. One consistency is the increased number of calls to our office from concerned and loving parents, regarding his/her teenaged daughter. Often, this girl is intelligent, scoring top grades in her classes. She is active in sports and/or music and other extra-curricular activities. She might have a summer or after-school job and she likely volunteers or...