CS Features – Expert Interviews, Guides, Professional Advocacy & Research in Counseling

Whether you are a client, friend, or family member, you can express gratitude for counselors and therapists’ invaluable contributions to mental health services.

Those who suffer from clinical perfectionism fear negative evaluation or failure. Some clients procrastinate, over-prepare for meetings, and seek over-reassurance from others because they fear the task they complete will not be exactly right.

CounselingSchools.com examined peer-reviewed research and other sources to explain what anger does to the body and compile tips for staying grounded when discussing heated topics such as politics with loved ones. Anger can take a physical toll by restricting blood flow and producing stress hormones, which can have short- and long-term effects on the body, particularly the heart.

It’s very common for counselors to struggle with a deep sense of “imposter syndrome” when we first begin our careers. Between the heavy nature of mental health counseling, the multifaceted approaches required to be an effective mental health counselor, and the steep learning curve involved, it’s no wonder that we may doubt ourselves or question our abilities.

Ageism, which includes stereotyping and discrimination based on age, is one of the most common forms of prejudice. A 2021 report from the World Health Organization found at least half of people are ageist against older people.

The root Latin manipulus means handful, as in a skillful handling of objects. A juggler, a card shuffler, and a bored student spinning their pencil in class are all manipulating objects. Applying this skillful handling to people, it’s no wonder we feel played with when we’re socially manipulated or powerful when we can manipulate others. In fact, the American Psychological Association defines manipulation as a “behavior designed to exploit, control, or otherwise influence others to one’s advantage.”

Many clients who struggle with substance misuse have experienced childhood or adult trauma. This is not to say every client who has had one or multiple past traumas will misuse substances. When treating clients with trauma, it is important to remember these experiences create a vulnerability in some individuals.

Somatic therapy focuses on the client’s physical experience by identifying how their body stores and releases stress. For many, this approach is quite intuitive, yet some anxious clients may initially struggle. Stressed out, over-caffeinated, and bouncing between past regrets and existential crises, they may have spent many years bypassing the discomfort in their bodies, doing mental gymnastics to stay cerebral.

Many families grapple with this question when trying to identify underlying mental health issues their child may be facing. Still, it is a complicated question. Throughout the stages of development—from toddlerhood to the preteen years and beyond—different challenges emerge, and each stage is defined by very different behaviors.

Over the past few years, teens have experienced an alarming increase in mental illness in the U.S. The 2010s, in particular, marked a decade of declining mental health capped off by the disruptive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. By 2022, national survey data from the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that around one in every five adolescents suffered from a major depressive episode in the previous year, continuing an upward trend in depression that began around 2013.