individual therapy, family therapy, relationship therapy
Whitney Christmas MS, LMFT
Beyond Sadness: Understanding Grief

Just because grief is part of the human experience, doesn’t mean we have to cope with it alone, or reign in how we express it. In this post, we’ll explore different kinds of loss and grief, and how to know when it’s time to seek therapy for grief.

Beyond Sadness: Understanding Grief
individual therapy, therapy methods
Leticia Perez, LPC
5 Tips for Healing Your Self Image

In this post, we’ll talk you through healing your self image, the therapy interventions that can help, and five tips for getting started.

5 Tips for Healing Your Self Image
individual therapy, relationship therapy
Gia Scalise
Coming Out to as Queer to Your Straight Partner

Many LGBTQIA+ Americans living today realized their orientation and came out of the closet when they were teenagers, there are many adults who experience this at an older age and have the challenge of coming out to a romantic partner. In this post, we offer some guidance in this post to help you prepare for the conversation.

Coming Out to as Queer to Your Straight Partner
family therapy, individual therapy, relationship therapy
Danielle Zawadzki
Collaboration, Connection, and Community: ...

Not all therapists start out knowing they want to be therapists. Some, like ECC Affiliate Therapist Peter Beer, start out in an entirely different field and realize that human relationships are what they want to dedicate their careers to. In his Q&A for our blog today, Peter shares about what led him to therapy and the approaches he finds beneficial in working with clients. And with June being Men’s Mental Health Month, he shares about the most common issue he sees among young men seeking therapy for the first time—loneliness—and how he coaches them through it.

Collaboration, Connection, and Community: Q&A with ECC Therapist Peter Beer
individual therapy, therapy methods
Gia Scalise
Applying Harm Reduction in Mental Health Therapy

In a therapy setting, harm reduction is a useful–and proven–approach to treating people who engage in higher risk behaviors. In this post, we explore how and why harm reduction is improving mental health outcomes. 

Applying Harm Reduction in Mental Health Therapy

Therapy

Understanding Domestic Violence

Understanding Domestic Violence

Seeking out individual therapy is not only healing, but also informative. As a client, I was describing what was going on in my personal relationship with my partner as we were cohabitating. I continuously felt like I was walking on eggshells and communication with friends and family became limited. As I was describing my day to day living, my therapist stopped me and said, “Do you understand you are in a domestic violence situation?” I was confused, I made sure she understood I wasn’t being hit. The statistics are astonishing, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men face severe domestic violence from an intimate partner.

Meta-Emotions: Having Feelings about your Feelings

Meta-Emotions: Having Feelings about your Feelings

Two friends Paul and Marty are out for a coffee catching up about life and work. At some point near the end of their catch up, Marty mentions a recent promotion - a promotion Paul himself had been vying for as well (unbeknownst to Marty). This sparked immediate jealousy in Paul. Slowly after his initial glimmer of envy, Paul quickly began to become angry toward himself for feeling jealous, which spirals him into self-shame and deeper despair. He thinks to himself, ”how can I be feeling this way? I am such a “bad friend”.”

Mapping out Therapy - An Interview with founder Danielle Zawadzki

Mapping out Therapy - An Interview with founder Danielle Zawadzki

Have questions about what to expect when coming to therapy? What types of therapy are there? How to know if a therapist is a good fit? Empowered Connections Counseling Founder, Danielle Zawadzki, LMFT sat down with Palos Heights’ (PHTV4) Living Well program to discuss the ins and outs of therapy. Below is a brief summary of her interview, and be sure to check out the full length interview with more in depth insights at the link below.

What is Self-Care?

What is Self-Care?

Self-care has become a buzzword on the internet and across social media platforms. Google’s formal definition states, “the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.” Self-care is vital during moments of stress. However, creating purposeful rituals is most helpful when they are established before those periods of stress. Have you ever heard the phrase, you can’t pour from an empty cup? Well, someone once told me, the truth is hidden behind the word cliché.

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