Do you think you or someone you love is an addict and/or alcoholic? Are you curious what kind of chemical dependency programs are available? Please continue to read to find out.

What is Chemical Dependency?

First of all, it is important to know that chemical dependency is a disease that is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5th edition (DSM-5). There are people who still question that. This is a disease where a person becomes chemically dependent on a substance: drugs and/or alcohol.

As the disease progresses, the individual struggling continues to use substances even when they start to have negative consequences. These consequences can be many things, including: significant conflict in relationships, losing relationships, financial damage, physical issues like liver damage, Hepatitis C and many other medical concerns, including death.

People who become addicts are not always the stereotypical homeless person. They can be men, women, wealthy, poor, white, black . . . this disease can happen to anybody. In most cases, the individual wants to stop using substances or at least stop the negative consequences but cannot manage to do that on their own.

An addict will try many different efforts to try to “control” the use. These efforts could b...

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. – 1 John 1:9-10

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.– Ephesians 4:32

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. – Matthew 18:21-22

When I have worked with individuals and with families, forgiveness has often arisen as a stumbling block in the path of progress. It’s a simple concept, to forgive, but often so hard to truly do.

In marriages, the inability to forgive can begin to eat away at the foundation of the relationship to a greater extent than the act that needs forgiving, itself. For individuals, holding onto anger and bitterness towards others can dampen moods. Holding onto anger directed inward, even more so.

The inability to forgive acts like an anchor, keeping us from growing and living a m...

Does online couples therapy work? Before I can fully answer this question, let’s first talk a little about what couples therapy is.

A Definition of Online Couples Therapy

By its very nature, the definition of couple’s therapy is a form of mental health counseling used to treat relationship distress, such as poor communication skills, incompatibility or a wide variety of other psychological disorders. Its purpose is to restore functioning to the coupled relationship and address the reasons for the distress in the first place.

There are several different theories of couples-based therapy treatments that have proven to be effective in various forms. According to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders (www.minddisorders.com) below are some of the more commonly used models for treating couples.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the different schools of thought related to couples therapy, but just an idea of what types of therapeutic practices your particular therapist might employ.

• Traditional behavioral therapy which focuses on behavioral change, communication, and problem-solving.
• Psychoanalytic therapy where the focus is on unresolved childhood conflicts with parents and how these are part ...

* Please note: This article contains mature content. 

Mignon McLaughlin describes it best when she says, “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”

Marriage is beautiful, but just like the saying every rose has its thorn, so does marriage. Marriage is always depicted in romantic comedies as easy and fun, carrying a lighthearted energy when the woman is in the presence of the man.

Culture and films create an unrealistic expectation for married couples today, making them fall into traps of dissatisfaction because they do not hold this fictitious story tale.

There are many reasons you could be reading this article right now. Maybe you feel that your sex life has become monotonous and you are seeking adventure. Maybe you feel that you and your spouse are so emotionally disconnected that creating a romantic atmosphere is difficult.

In marriage, there can become so many facets and explanations as to why your sex life is suffering. It is important to be aware of factors that may be complicating your sex life. At times when we are struggling with issues with our spouse, it can creep into the bedroom, making it challenging to get in the mood of being intimate.

Communicating with your partner and being able to b...

If you are thinking about marriage counseling, don’t be surprised if you feel a lot of resistance to finding a therapist and scheduling an appointment. Couples who see marriage counselors typically have reached a point where things are so bad that they are willing to see a stranger to talk about it.

Often there are feelings of shame associated with the marital disruption, which makes it even harder. To make the decision even more complicated, you may be asking the question, "Does marriage counseling work?" Not surprisingly, the answer ends up being, yes, usually depending on both spouses’ commitment to the process.

Does Marriage Counseling Work?

While there are arguments for and against, you are trying to preserve your most important relationship on earth, and you may have to overcome a lot of reluctance to make the journey.

Arguments for Marriage Counseling

1. We Need a Mediator

Usually, by the time we need help with our marriage relationship, communication has broken down enough that we can’t discuss issues that matter without it turning into an argument.

We need a referee to call timeout, to call fouls or out of bounds, and generally direct the way we are talking to each other, so each side is heard and emotions are k...

Many successful and joyful people have worked with dedication and responsibility on their life’s work, only to find that along the way somewhere, they have lost their love of life.

The opposite of play is not work – the opposite of play is depression. Over the long haul, when these spice-of-life elements of play are missing, what is left is a dulled soul.

Play and work are mutually supportive. Neither one can survive without the other. We need newness of play, its sense of flow, and being in the moment. We need the sense of discovery and liveliness that it provides. We also need the purpose of work, the economic stability it offers, the sense that we are doing service for others, that we are needed and integrated into our world.

And most of us need also to feel competent. Even people who are independently wealthy and never need to work a day in their lives find that they need to volunteer or donate to good causes to feel that sense of connection and purpose.

The quality that work and play have in common is creativity. In both we are building our world and creating new relationships, neural connections, and objects. Respecting our biologically programmed need for play can transform work. Play is nature’s greatest tool for creating new neural networks and for reco...

Most people I work with who are feeling “burnt-out” describe feeling like being a gerbil on a hamster wheel. Some describe it as that panicked feeling, a fluttering, or a “wash of overwhelm” that is difficult to manage, and has started affecting their everyday way of living.

For confidentiality, we’ll describe the following client as ‘Nancy.’ Nancy is a healthcare provider who came to me for burnout coaching and anxiety counseling during a crisis.

She was balancing over 70 hours a week in an emergency room, and had arrived at a point where she had driven her car to a cliff and contemplated continuing off of it.

She felt drained, rarely replenished, suffered from extensive ‘mom-guilt’ for not being able to see her kids and family anymore, and was no longer keeping up with the demands of work. On top of it all, her entire work was focused on helping people in trauma.

She was exhausted.

Her first instinct was to blame herself, and maybe you’ve been here: “I should find a way to make it all work. There’s really no time to take time off right now because nobody is available to cover. My kids are angry, and my husband and I don’t talk much anymore.”

The reality is, according to Gallup.com (2017), people in the United States work longer hour...