One benefit of therapy is learning about available resources that may be useful to you depending on your circumstances. Here at 253 Therapy and Consult, we love sharing resources with our clients AND we love hearing about your favorite resources that have helped you cope with everyday life, anxiety, stress, depression, etc.! Today's blog dives into some of our favorite resources to share with clients and may help you get to know a little bit more about our team.
MICHAEL "BUCKY" HOURIGAN (HE/HIM)
"My favorite resources to share with clients are:
Goblin Tools (https://goblin.tools/): This is one of my favorites for neurodiverse brains. It's got helpful tools including the Magic To Do List, which will automatically break your task up into steps for you; the Judge, which can help estimate the tone of someone's email or text; and the Chef, which can take any ingredients and guidelines you have, and suggest food you can make (since we know deciding what to eat might be one of the most exhausting things we do on a daily basis...) It's also available in app form!
How to ADHD (https://www.youtube.com/@HowtoADHD): This YouTube channel has a ton of videos and information about ADHD, specific ADHD-related experiences, and strategies for dealing with some of those challenges. Because of the volume of information in here, I do suggest folx take what feels helpful, and leave what doesn't. Everyone is going to be different in terms of what works for them!
The Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/): The Trevor Project is a great site with resources for LGBTQIA+ youth and their parents. The website includes resources such as information on gender and sexual orientation, mental health, and suicide prevention. The Trevor Project also includes their own crisis/mental health support line, as well as a social media community for LGBTQIA+ youth called TrevorSpace, so they can connect with other supportive and affirming folx. The website also has a feature where if you press "Esc" three times, it will shut down and go to Google-- as a safety feature if youth may not be living in a supportive environment.
SAVANNA HARMON (SHE/HER)
"My favorite resources to share with clients are:
Hope For The Day: (https://www.hftd.org/ local resources: https://hftd.findhelp.com/ military/first responder resources: https://www.hftd.org/blog/2021/3/22/project-red-team)
HFTD is an amazing non-profit and resource for suicide prevention, support, awareness and education. I often utilize their site myself for education/training opportunities, community outreach, and resources.
HFTD’s slogan is “It’s Okay Not To Be Okay”, a sentiment I share with clients and remind myself of daily as well.
When sharing HFTD with clients, I often share two of their major resource focuses, and those are their “Find Help” site and their “Project R.E.D Team.”
On HFTD’s “Find Help” site, clients can search for local resources in their area for help with food, housing, transportation, health, money, caretaking, education, work, legal, and more. All they have to do is type in their zip code and HFTD does the rest, providing itemized lists and contacts for folks to pursue when they are in need of assistance.
“Project R.E.D” is HFTD’s resource team specifically geared toward supporting military veterans, active duty members, first responders, and their families. Their slogan is: “Reminding Everyone Deployed (RED) It’s Okay Not To Be Okay”. This program provides training and resources for military personnel and emergency workers and their families and works hard to normalize mental health struggles within our armed forces and helping fields and provide care for coping through the struggles that come with these lifestyles.
HFTD also sells merchandise with positive reminders that again let us know “It’s Okay Not To Be Okay”. 100% of their proceeds go toward their mission of providing nation-wide suicide prevention, awareness, support, and education.
Root’d App:
Root’d is an app I recommend for folks struggling with anxiety, panic attacks, intrusive thoughts, catastrophizing, and dissociation.
This app provides an easy and fun but supportive way to work through a panic attack with a helpful little mascot cheering you on and guiding you in the process.
This app offers breathing and grounding techniques, guided meditations, calm-down questions, education regarding mental health and coping, a mood tracker, in-app journaling, sleep assistance, and a celebratory tracker that motivates you through your coping and congratulates you on your progress.
This app also can help connect you to loved ones, friends, or emergency responders should you need further assistance within your panic.
I highly recommend for those moments when anxiety comes on outside of a session and you just need to be…rooted.
Take Space & Journal:
For folks in relationships handling difficulties together and those pesky arguments that often come from miscommunications and high stress I almost always recommend the “Take Space & Journal” conflict resolution and communication exercise.
This exercise has a few steps, but the point is to help people in relationships take time to process their thoughts and feelings and be able to share them in a way that removes the negative outbursts that so often come with frustration, the interruptions that come from feeling unheard, misunderstood, or attacked, and the difficulty of communicating when escalated.
In this exercise people in relationships call a time out, set an agreed upon time to come back together, set their timer and separate.
During the separation time (I usually advise starting with 20-30 minutes), each member of the relationship journals their feelings openly and honestly, including their frustrations.
When they are finished venting into their journal, they go back through and highlight the core communication points they want to share with their partner. This allows for removal of negative or hurtful things that aren’t helpful to be shared but did need to be let out in a safe space (the journal).
The partners compose their thoughts into a journal page(s) that they are willing to share, and at the agreed upon time, the partners reunite and either read their pages aloud, or have their partner read what they wrote while they read their partner’s writings. This sharing time is meant to be a time of peace with no interruptions, good listening, and the simple reminder that within a relationship, you are a team, it is your partnership versus the problem, not partner versus partner."
PHEBE BRAKO-OWUSU, LMFT; FOUNDER/CEO (SHE/HER)
"I encourage clients to use the Calm app for meditation.
Therapy for Black Girls is a podcast on mental health I love.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Tawwab is my fav book resource."
JATOU SAHO (SHE/HER)
"My favorite resources to share with clients include:
Safe People:
Helps readers identify characteristics or safe and unsafe people. Disclaimer: this book does use a lot of biblical references.
What Happened to You (book+workbook):
Gives insight on why people behave the way they do after trauma, and how it can shape a person’s worldview. It also gives examples of how people have overcome adversities to go on and thrive while breaking generational patterns of abuse and neglect.
Esme and Roy (show):
Great series for young children that focuses on emotional regulation and expression, problem solving and social and emotional skills.
NATALIE CALLELY (SHE/HER)
"My favorite resources to share with clients are:
Insight Timer: My favorite meditation app! Thousands of guided meditations, my favorite include Glenda Cedarleaf's and Michelle's Sanctuary. Especially useful when having difficulties falling and staying asleep.
Book and workbook: "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents" by Lindsay Gibson. This book helps you identify the four types of difficult parents and the impact they may have had on your life as an adult:
The emotional parent instills feelings of instability and anxiety
The driven parent stays busy trying to perfect everything and everyone
The passive parent avoids dealing with anything upsetting
The rejecting parent is withdrawn, dismissive, and derogatory
Wellness Wheel: This resource takes a holistic look at your wellness and includes spirituality, financial health, mental/emotional health, physical health, career, recreation, and relationships. It provides guidance to helping you establish balance between these domains and figure out which areas of your life you may be neglecting.
Here at 253 Therapy and Consult, we look forward to working with you and sharing more of our favorite resources! If you feel ready to take that first step towards healing, contact us today to schedule an appointment.
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