Anxiety Michelle Hession Anxiety Michelle Hession

6 Techniques for Calming an Anxiety Attack

Anxiety attacks feel scary. Your heart races, your mind spirals with worry, and it feels like you’ve lost control. While anxiety attacks are by nature difficult to control, there are effective techniques you can use to ground yourself and regain calm in the moment. When your mind is racing and your body is flooded with anxious energy, having a toolkit of proven strategies can make all the difference. Here are six practical tips to help you navigate an anxiety attack.

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Anxiety Michelle Hession Anxiety Michelle Hession

Understanding Anxiety: What It Feels Like and Why It Happens

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health issues, but many people don’t fully understand their own symptoms or even recognize that they’re experiencing anxiety. Whether you have a racing heart before a big presentation, restless nights filled with “what ifs,” or a persistent sense of dread without an obvious cause, anxiety can leave you feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what’s happening inside your own body and mind. Let’s explore what anxiety really is and where it comes from.

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Depression, Couples Michelle Hession Depression, Couples Michelle Hession

A Guide for Helping Your Partner Navigate Depression

When someone we love is struggling with depression, it’s hard to know how to respond. We want to ease their pain, but depression isn’t something that can be “fixed” overnight. It’s an ongoing process that needs our patience, compassion, and understanding. It’s also not a type of healing that can be forced on another person. If your partner is navigating depression, your role isn’t to heal them; it’s to stand beside them as they move through it. Here are some practical ways you can support your partner while also taking care of yourself.

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Couples, Relationships Michelle Hession Couples, Relationships Michelle Hession

Feeling Unheard? Here’s How to Reopen Communication in Your Relationship

When we feel unheard in our relationships, it can be deeply painful. Over time, that sense of disconnection can chip away at intimacy, trust, and even our willingness to speak up. It’s a common issue that brings couples into therapy every day. The good news is that communication ruts are normal in relationships, and they can be repaired. With the right approach, you can reopen dialogue and start feeling heard again and help your partner feel the same. Let’s explore why this happens and what you can do to change it.

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Guest Post William Dempsey Guest Post William Dempsey

How to Navigate Grief

Grief is, unfortunately, an inescapable part of the human experience. Even though we’ll all grieve someone or something at one point in our lives, it still feels incredibly isolating.

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Child Therapy, Play Therapy Michelle Hession Child Therapy, Play Therapy Michelle Hession

What Is Play Therapy? Techniques, Benefits, and Uses

Play is how kids explore the world, express their emotions, and make sense of their experiences. But what happens when a child is struggling emotionally or behaviorally and doesn’t yet have the words to describe what’s going on? This is where play therapy comes in. It’s a developmentally appropriate therapeutic approach that uses the power of play to help children heal and understand themselves better. Let’s explore what play therapy is, how it works, common techniques, and why it can be so effective.

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Anxiety, Child Therapy Michelle Hession Anxiety, Child Therapy Michelle Hession

6 Tips for Helping a Child with Anxiety

Anxious moments are a natural part of life, even for children. But when anxiety gets overwhelming or doesn’t go away, it can affect their health, relationships, and ability to learn and grow. As a parent, caregiver, or educator, it’s natural to want to help. But since children often don’t have the words to express their anxiety, you might have a hard time understanding the root cause of their behavior. Understanding how children experience and show anxiety as a form of distress is an important first step in helping them. Here are six practical tips to support a child dealing with anxiety.

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Teen Counseling Michelle Hession Teen Counseling Michelle Hession

Effective Strategies for Helping a Teen with Depression

Adolescence is a time of both self-discovery and emotional highs and lows. While it’s normal to be moody and occasionally sad during the teen years, persistent feelings of hopelessness, irritability, and withdrawal are symptoms of depression. This serious mental health condition affects an estimated 13% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the U.S.

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Teen Counseling Michelle Hession Teen Counseling Michelle Hession

Why Do Teens Have Mood Swings? A Guide for Parents

If you’re the parent of a teenager, you’ve probably experienced it: one moment they’re laughing with the family at dinner, and the next, they’re slamming their bedroom door with tears in their eyes. These emotional rollercoasters can be both baffling and frustrating, but they’re also incredibly common. Mood swings are a hallmark of adolescence, and understanding why they happen is a key step in staying connected with your teen.

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ADHD Michelle Hession ADHD Michelle Hession

How ADHD Affects Executive Functioning—And What You Can Do

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often misunderstood as simply bad behavior or being distracted. But beneath the surface, ADHD is a condition that directly impacts the brain’s executive functioning, which is the set of mental skills that help us plan, focus, remember instructions, and manage multiple tasks.

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Trauma Michelle Hession Trauma Michelle Hession

Trauma-Informed Therapy: Why It Matters

Mental health treatment has evolved significantly over the past few decades, and one of the most important developments is the rise of trauma-informed therapy. Rather than focusing solely on symptoms or diagnoses, trauma-informed care shifts the perspective to consider how traumatic experiences may be influencing a person’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotional responses.

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Teen Counseling Michelle Hession Teen Counseling Michelle Hession

Supporting a Teen with Anxiety: 8 Helpful Tips

The teen years are a time of big changes. From academic pressure and social media comparisons to changing hormones and an unpredictable world, today’s teens face challenges that can be overwhelming. If you’re a parent, caregiver, or supportive adult, knowing how to help a teen with anxiety can make a huge difference in their mental health. Here are eight tips for helping your teen through their anxiety.

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Teen Counseling Michelle Hession Teen Counseling Michelle Hession

Teen Depression—Common Symptoms and How to Help

Today’s teenagers definitely don’t have it easy. They face a world filled with academic pressure, social challenges, and the ever-present internet. While moodiness and emotional ups and downs are part of adolescence, it’s important to recognize when these shifts may be signs of something more serious, like depression.

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Couples Michelle Hession Couples Michelle Hession

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Gottman Couples Therapy

Couples therapy can be one of the best tools for building stronger, more resilient relationships, and one of the most well-researched approaches is the Gottman Method. It focuses on increasing respect, affection, and closeness between partners while improving conflict management and shared meaning. If you’re starting Gottman couples therapy or considering it, here are some practical tips to help you get the most out of the experience.

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EMDR Michelle Hession EMDR Michelle Hession

Exploring How EMDR Is Used for Anxiety

Anxiety can cloud your judgment, make you more afraid of normal situations, and interfere with your daily life. For many people, traditional talk therapy works, but others find they need a different approach to address the root causes of their anxiety. That’s where eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) comes in. Originally developed to treat trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), EMDR has become more popular for its effectiveness in treating anxiety disorders. But how exactly does it work, and why is it effective for anxiety?

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Couples Michelle Hession Couples Michelle Hession

Feeling Unseen? How to Cope with an Emotionally Invalidating Partner

Emotional invalidation can feel like a slow erosion of your sense of self. When your partner consistently downplays your emotions, responds with indifference, or turns your vulnerability into a debate, it’s harder to connect with them and with yourself. Over time, this pattern can leave you feeling invisible, misunderstood, and emotionally unsafe. Here’s how you can cope with an emotionally invalidating partner.

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