Blog Articles
Additional resources written by our PCS therapists.
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When Things Go South
Series Two; Blog Eighty-One Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.—Napoleon Hill If you have lived long enough you probably have experienced disappointment and failure in some endeavor that hurts so bad that every part of your existence just aches…. -
Dealing with Doubt
Series 2: Blog 80 “We’re our own worst enemy. You doubt yourself more than anybody else ever will. If you can get past that, you can be successful” —- Michael Strahan I have attended over 3,500 meetings in my recovery life and have observed that some of the nicest people… -
How to Differentiate Between Attraction and Objectification
Let’s start with the obvious: It is o.k. to be wowed by another person’s look, be attracted to them. It is o.k. to desire sex; it’s o.k. to be sexual. It is actually more than o.k.! It is part of healthy development and being human. Moreover, attraction is at the… -
Empathy
Empathy. This word seems to be thrown around a lot, but what really is it? First, it is important to differentiate between sympathy and empathy. According to Mariam Webster Dictionary, sympathy is defined as “the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s trouble, grief, misfortune, etc.”… -
POLARIZATION
Series Two; Blog Seventy-Nine Polarization is a problem in the world. Us versus them is a mentality that has always existed. The criteria for who is in and who is out are determined by those who have the power. Historically, the criteria for acceptance has been tragic. Jewish people were… -
God No God
Series Two; Blog Seventy-Eight “Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity”. The concept of God has always been problematic to the treatment of addiction. When people use the name God, the meaning is particular to that individual. There are concepts of God with… -
People, Possessions, and the Pursuit of Perspective
Series Two; Seventy-Seven “We are less than a speck in the vast universe and beyond, and yet an unrepeatable miracle in the universe–If you cannot connect to this reality you will live a disillusioned life.”— KW Once I toured a home owned by a friend that was massive. It had… -
What to Say When the Truth is You Don’t Know
Series Two; Blog Seventy-Six The discovery of relational betrayal is a shocking experience to everyone connected to the gauntlet of disclosure. The betrayer is challenged to expose hidden secrets that destroy trust. The betrayed wait for words that are daggers to the heart. The end result is a crushing carnage… -
Managing Your Feelings–A Way to Care for Your Soul
Series Two; Blog Seventy-Five “Like the flowers, today’s full bloom of joy all fade and wither into despondency, yet I will remember that as today’s dead flower carries the seed of tomorrow’s bloom, so too does today’s sadness carry the seed of tomorrow’s joy.” – Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman… -
The Wise Mind in Recovery
Series Two; Blog Seventy-Four When you lose your sense of being in all that you do, you become more vulnerable to living your life with a zero-sum mentality. This breeds an attitude toward breaking the rules, implying that it’s ok because I am a special exception and the rules do… -
Don’t Force It
Series Two Blog Seventy-three “You just have to take a deep breath, relax and let the game come to you”. – A.J. Green Embracing average means you have cultivated the capacity to allow life to flow to you rather than going after it and forcing things to happen. When I notice… -
Good Grief
Series Two; Blog Seventy-Two Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. ~Dr.Seuss No matter who you are, you will struggle some day with sorrow. Virginia Satir was right when she said, “Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The… -
Morning Attitude
Series Two: Blog Seventy One “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”— Victor Frankl Most days I wake up with a bad attitude. Bleary eyed, I… -
Series Within A Series: After The Session #3 | Cristine Toel, MA, LPC, S-PSB | EMDR
PCS’ Elijah Bedrosian continues his Series Within A Series: After the Session. Elijah speaks with PCS therapist Christine Toel about EMDR. -
Self Care and Self Resiliency – Michaela Ortega, Intern
The increase in discussion around self-care in our society today is important. Our culture tends to praise success to the extent that our well-being is compromised leaving people feeling overworked, overwhelmed, malnourished, and under slept to name just a few harmful effects. The pervasiveness of these damaging consequences has fortunately… -
Addressing Trauma
Jump in, the waters not too deep. When individuals present in treatment with significant trauma it understandably may give pause to a treating professional. Whether a single devastating event or a constellation of experiences, which lead to a designation of complex trauma, how best to initially treat the individual is… -
Collective Resilience
Series Two: Blog Seventy “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance”- Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper Resilience is the capacity that a person has to adapt and readily recover from adversity. It is evidenced in the picture that contrasts… -
Collective Grief
Series Two; Blog Sixty-Nine One in 500 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. More people have died from COVID than during the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. People older than 85 make up only 2 percent of the population in the U.S., but a… -
True Freedom–Letting Go of All Attachments
Series Two; Blog Sixty-Eight “The castle that provides our security also walls us in.” – Unknown Sometimes people think that being in control gives the freedom to do as you wish. This does not square up with the results for those who obsess about being in control. People think that… -
Empty
Series Two; Blog Sixty-Seven “I have poured my heart out …. And now I am empty.” ― Ranata Suzuki Recovery can be a precarious path. Dreams are dashed. Failure is encountered. Discouragement moves in like morning fog and dampens optimism. The every-day demand of a recovery program has a way…
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