Relationships covid-19

Relationships in Covid-19

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Relationships in Covid-19

 

It’s easy to love someone when you’re in control of how much time you spend together. When life’s normal, it feels like we spend a ton of time with the people we love. 

However, what about when life’s not normal? How does quarantine change things?

The Covid-19 epidemic has upended a lot of what we think is normal. We’re all working from home, we can’t go out, and when we do, we have to keep a distance between us and other people.

A lot of public figures have tried to put a positive spin on social distancing by encouraging you to spend more time with the people you love. That sounds like a wonderful thing to do, nevertheless you may find it’s not always the easiest.

Unfortunately, the people closest to us often bear the brunt of our stress and frustration over things we can’t control. During these incredibly stressful times, we need to focus on how we can nurture relationships with the people we love and avoid turning on each other.

 

Recognize the Pressure You’re Under

When you heard your company was going all-week teleworking for the foreseeable future, you probably got a bit excited. You had visions of you and your partner at the dining room table, laptops out, taking turns on conference calls.

You’d switch making nice, home cooked meals for each other and watch the world go by.

If you’ve gone through a week or two of teleworking with family at home, you know by now that the dream is often not the reality. Working from home can feel extremely alienating. Until they’re gone, we don’t notice how sustaining the routine and social interactions we have at work are.

Remote work can feel very lonely, and absent the frequent validation we feel at work. We must take regular self-inventory to come to grips with the emotions we’re going through.

 

Validate Your Loved Ones

Knowing how much of a strain you’re under, you can bet that your partner is under the same pressures. Even if they are more used to working from home, they’re not used to you being around all the time. There may even be some insecurity about you seeing how they use their time. Maybe they’re worried about how productive they appear around you.

Relationships Covid-19

What you can do during Covid-19 isolation is offer more positive feedback and validation to your loved ones. That means your spouse, partner, kids, and whoever you’re at home with.

If your loved one is one of the few that are still going to work because they can’t telework or they’re serving a crucial function (like a healthcare worker), then they probably need even more support.

 

Periodic Relationship Social Distancing During Covid-19

Maybe one of the benefits of the Covid-19 crisis is that we’re all going to become a bit more emotionally mature. Even though staying at home more could sound like fun at first, you’re likely to find out rather quickly how important having space is.

Even though spending all day with the fam sounds like a dream, it’s gonna get old real quick. You need to practice social distancing indoors as well to keep things harmonious.

Don’t feel like you need to do everything together. Take a walk by yourself. Work in the bedroom one morning. If you’ve got kids, play a board game with them one afternoon so your partner can get some real work done.

Going from spending a few hours together each day to spending ALL day with your partner is a huge adjustment. Make sure you maintain some distance and help each other cope through this difficult time.

 

Find Ways to Relax

Yes, you should keep exercising during the epidemic. Stress eating is real folks, and a lot of us are doing it. Sadly, we’re not talking about going for an early jog.

I mean, no one works every minute of the workday while they’re at work. We have breaks, stop for lunch, and if you work in an office you probably don’t want to count how many times you’ve checked Instagram or texted with friends.

If you’re new to teleworking, it’s probably going to take a few days, and eventually, you’ll relax and realize that productivity doesn’t mean sitting in front of your computer waiting for an email to come in.

Push away from the table, leave your phone on the counter, and take a breather every once in a while. If you’re stuck inside all day with your partner, go over and scratch their back, take a break and cuddle on the bed. Increasing physical touch is a great stress reliever.

 

Creative Ways to Work Up a Sweat

Sex is perhaps the greatest stress reducer if done right. For you, with a hectic work schedule and other obligations, it may have been a while since you had sex in the morning or made love on the couch with the TV on.

When routines are thrown out the window during Covid-19, it’s the perfect time to shake your sex routine up as well. Finding creative ways to make love and connect with your partner is exhilarating. It’s the perfect distraction from the chaos around us.

If you want to do your partner a favor, turn it on in the bedroom and get kinky! Break out the toys and maybe even mess with a new identity. Things are wacky right now, so you can blame the experimentation on the times. It’s a great excuse!

Try to sneak a quickie in between virtual work meetings. Commit to having more sex! We’ve all got more time on our hands, so break out of your “weekend only” routines.

Sex, when done right, can be about excitement, connection, intimacy, and so many more things. You can try all sorts of different sex while we’re dealing with the situation, we find ourselves in.

Above everything else, we should find ways to do what we can for those we care about during turbulent Covid-19 times. Reach out, be there, and show love.

You can get more free content on relationship and sex tips by checking out my Youtube Channel – The Sex Healer. 

If you know someone that would benefit from this information, feel free to share it. 

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a relationship coaching and sex therapy practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible, multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systemically-trained and licensed therapists! 

Our team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help Millennials and Baby Boomers alike who visit us for a variety of relationship, intimacy and sex problems. 

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs. For clients hoping to take their intimate lives to the next level through personalized coaching on YOUR terms, learn more about our Text Therapy Program.

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your life at What We Do. 

Call or text us at 203-733-9600 or make an appointment.

coronavirus

Coronavirus and Text Therapy

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Coronavirus and Text Therapy

 

Whatever you do, don’t panic. That was easy to say when Coronavirus was a problem other countries far away were dealing with, but it’s still true even today. Now that major sporting events are canceled and celebrities are posting that they’ve contracted the virus, everyone’s scratching their head about how concerned we should all be.

We’ve received a lot of inquiries about how the Coronavirus outbreak is going to affect counseling sessions and the way we interact with our clients. For sure, the response to the pandemic is going to alter all of us in the coming months.

CoronavirusWhat we do now to prepare will help us manage any turbulence ahead. How we manage our jobs, whether we can manage text therapy with our counselors, and maintain relationships with so much stress will be a challenge. As always, having a plan will help build certainty when it’s so hard to find in other places.

 

Relinquish Control of What You Cannot Change

This mantra has applications in responding to a Coronavirus outbreak and life in general. So many of us, clients and even therapists struggle to accept that change is part of being human.

We all can plan for something for years, however, when something crazy happens it’s rarely what we imagined. This is a great example right now. If you’d asked people a month ago what would send people running to the grocery store to stock up on toilet paper, they may have said something like a terrorist attack or some type of armed conflict. There was nothing like a pandemic on the horizon.

Coronavirus

Change happens fast, with medical issues, relationships, self-development, and many other areas of our lives. The sooner we accept that the less of a rippling effect change will have on us.

 

Build Contingency Plans for a Coronavirus Outbreak

Freezing economic and social activity is a massive challenge. If you think about it, we all have different tolerances for what’s acceptable. You might be ok with spending a week staying at home with your kids out of school trying to get some work done. But what about a month or three months? What if this thing is still going after six months?

Coronavirus

At some point, there’s only so much we can take. Maybe after struggling through some conference calls with kids screaming in the background, you’re willing to take your chances on the subway again. That’s obviously a joke, but the point is that perspective matters.

With so much out of our control, we have to try and control what we can. Creating a contingency plan for how you’re going to manage life in a new environment like the one Coronavirus is currently imposing on us is a good start.

List out the things you do regularly. What are you doing in person that can be done virtually? What are the “optional” activities that you participate in that can be postponed? If you can’t go in person, is meeting remotely even an option?

Getting a grip on what’s a “must” and what are the “maybes” will help you manage the chaos if it deepens.

 

Prepare What You Can

Ask your therapist if they offer remote therapy sessions. A lot of practices give video therapy sessions that provide a good alternative when meeting physically isn’t feasible.

We, and some other therapists, also give clients the option to practice what’s called text therapy. With text therapy, you get to engage with your therapist is a more casual form via text message. Conversations, due to the time it takes to type, aren’t as long or as in-depth, but there are some definite benefits.

Here are some of the positives of text therapy:

Text When You’re in the Moment:

How many times have you thought something or come across a situation and thought, “Ooh, I need to talk about this with my therapist!”, only to forget what happened because your next appointment is a week away?

With text therapy, you can shoot a message to your therapist in real-time. You can list your emotions, what triggered the scenario, and reflect on how things went after the fact. Your therapist will see you as you’re raw in the situation. Some great breakthroughs can emerge as a result.

 

Group Chats are Easy on Schedules:

It’s hard, especially when you’re in therapy with a spouse or partner, to get everyone’s schedules aligned. Text therapy is a great alternative because you all can engage and respond when you’re free. There’s always a written record of the conversation to go back over if you’re in the middle of something. There isn’t anymore, “Do you remember when you said…?”

 

Therapy from a Distance:

You don’t need to be in the same room with your therapist. Even if you aren’t locked in your room waiting for Coronavirus to recede, you can get help and talk things over. You might be on a business trip or a vacation and need to run something by your therapist. It’s a great way to keep a constant flow of communication.

 

Give Text Therapy a Dry Run

There’s no harm giving text therapy a dry run to see if it’s for you before something like social distancing is encouraged or even mandated. Ask your therapist if you can give it a try and see how you feel and respond to the new way of communicating.

coronavirus

A lot of people are surprised to find that they’re more introspective when they have to type down their feelings. When we’re in person, there’s a beauty to the free flow of words streaming from our subconscious. However, having to take the time to write down our thoughts can also be beneficial because it captures how we truly feel.

We should all be grateful that technology has come so far in recent years to give us the option to work from home, find out what’s happening quickly, and even text with our therapists if necessary. Generations ago, who knows what kind of impact the Coronavirus outbreak would have had when staying home for weeks wasn’t an option for so many people.

Text therapy is a fantastic tool that can help you get the counseling and encouragement you need even when life throws a major curveball that’s out of your control.

You can get more free content on relationship and sex tips by checking out my Youtube Channel – The Sex Healer. 

If you know someone that would benefit from this information, feel free to share it. 

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a relationship coaching and sex therapy practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible, multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systemically-trained and licensed therapists! 

Our team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help Millennials and Baby Boomers alike who visit us for a variety of relationship, intimacy and sex problems. 

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs. For clients hoping to take their intimate lives to the next level through personalized coaching on YOUR terms, learn more about our Text Therapy Program.

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your life at What We Do. 

Call or text us at 203-733-9600 or make an appointment.

Trauma Meaning

What is Trauma? Introducing the Trauma Meaning

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What is Trauma? Introducing the Trauma Meaning.

There is so much debate as to what to include and exclude in the trauma meaning. 

Trauma. Ugh.

Throughout history, the trauma meaning specifically centered around serving those in the armed services, firefighters, war veterans, police officers, and first responders experiencing symptoms after exposure to one event.

The natural progression for trauma connected to symptoms after one event began to expand and connect to those individuals who have experienced physical abuse, domestic violence, and / or sexual violence. 

Those individuals who are exposed to a threatening or disturbing event or series of events that have lasting distressing mental or emotional responses, causing the individual to feel overwhelmed in their ability to cope and integrate into their current life experience is what we define as the most broad “trauma meaning.” 

trauma meaning

This quickly didn’t serve individuals experiencing trauma though, because more seemed to be happening. Why was it that two people who experienced the same event could each process this event differently – where one may have experienced it as a trauma, the other may not.

After 10 years of being a trauma therapist, I realize the massive amounts of individuals experiencing varying levels of trauma that this PTSD trauma meaning has left out.  

Trauma as only from the perspective of the individual is not an trauma-focused approach to therapy. 

We must consider the effects that come from our societal beliefs, systemic impacts, and cultural constructs, so you can begin to notice what I see becoming a public health issue. 

 

The Progression of Our Understanding of Trauma

Initially, the definition focused on the individual and how the individual experienced the traumatic event. Similarly, the trauma meaning had to do with a specific event or events (like those listed above).

Massive research has been under way for the last fifty or so years, identifying that symptoms related to trauma is more about the way our brain responds to various events or experiences over time.

These experiences shape individuals and families and can reverberate through the family system into other relationships throughout the course of people’s lives, even if they were not direct experiencers of the trauma. 

Trauma effects are intergenerational. 

These dynamics can unconsciously continue from generation to generation, until one or more people decide to make the change. 

We now are able to see that trauma is relational, it does not exist in a vacuum affecting only one person. The trauma meaning has to include the ripple effect across that individual’s world. 

In my practice, I see that the massive impact of trauma on individuals, families, friendships, and their romantic relationships. 

Confronting these realities and having insight to them allows for opportunities for growth and healing. 

You can get more free content on relationship and sex tips by checking out my Youtube Channel – The Sex Healer. 

If you know someone that would benefit from this information, feel free to share it. 

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a relationship coaching and sex therapy practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible, multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systemically-trained and licensed therapists! 

Our team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help Millennials and Baby Boomers alike who visit us for a variety of relationship, intimacy and sex problems. 

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs. For clients hoping to take their intimate lives to the next level through personalized coaching on YOUR terms, learn more about our Text Therapy Program.

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your life at What We Do. 

Call or text us at 203-733-9600 or make an appointment.

video chat therapy

Video Chat Therapy Bringing Therapists to You

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Video Chat Therapy Bringing Therapists to You

 

Anyone who’s been to a therapist session generally becomes a therapy evangelist and we continue this by bringing Video Chat Therapy to you! 

You tell all your friends how great it is to have someone trained to listen and guide you through past trauma, marital issues, and sex therapy. Opening up and working through problems is a freeing process that, unfortunately, too few people know.

The initial meeting with a therapist is the hardest part. Once you make an appointment, you start a journey of exploration and healing that often is not possible alone. 

Some people, for several reasons, are hesitant to meet and talk with therapists.

Therapists are responding to client concerns and increasing their outreach by making video chat therapy sessions available to everyone. 

Now, practices around the country, and the world, are meeting with clients via video conference. They’re talking to them when they’re on vacation and work trips. 

They’ll meet with you if you’re more comfortable in the privacy of your home.

There’s a lot to consider when you’re looking for a therapist or thinking about starting sessions. Video conference capability is just one more piece of the puzzle. Here we discuss some of the main benefits of video therapy sessions and why they may work for you.

Video Chat Therapy

 

If You’re Apprehensive About Meeting

It’s perfectly understandable why you might feel anxious about going to see a therapist. I mean, we’ve all been there. For most of us, the first few times we walk into our therapist’s office can be uncomfortable. “Will I see someone I know there?” “How can I simply open up about my feelings to a stranger?” These are all reasonable feelings to experience.

One of the great benefits of video chat therapy is that there’s a low barrier to entry. It’s easier to say yes to making an appointment, and you’ll enter the session more relaxed because you’re in your home, or someplace else comfortable. You might even feel it’s easier to open up to your therapist because you’re not physically face to face.

 

You Can Meet with a Therapist Earlier

Meeting over the phone or through a computer also prevents the issue of problems festering for too long. You don’t have to wait until you’re close to the edge to schedule an appointment with a therapist. So many couples walk through our door when they’re desperate. Whether they’re dealing with sex issues or struggling with money, too often they come in so frazzled that therapy is a last-ditch effort to salvage the relationship.

Video chat therapy

The ease with which you can meet with your therapist via video chat means you don’t have to wait until things get dire. You can reach out to them as soon as something comes up and deal with it appropriately before it grows into something larger.

 

You Might Have a Reluctant Partner

Say you’ve been meeting with a therapist for weeks or even years. By now, you’re probably a huge advocate of counseling and how it can help your development. But what about your partner?

Frequently, couples come into therapy sessions with one partner dragging the other in by their collar. For whatever reason, they may not be a believer. Perhaps they had a bad experience in the past that soured them to therapy. Maybe they did marriage counseling years ago but now they’re back where they were. Those feelings are also understandable.

You have to realize that every relationship ebbs and flows. Sometimes you’re the one keeping the two of you together, and sometimes your partner is picking you up off the floor. Video chat therapy is a great way to ease a reluctant partner in speaking with your counselor.

You can meet when you want, in a non-threatening environment. If tensions are running high, you can even three-way conference from separate locations.

 

Doing Your Research to Find the Right Therapist

If you’re in a state of panic or high-stress, you may be tempted to reach out to the closest, quickest therapist around. That works sometimes, but it can certainly backfire as well. Every therapist has a different background. They focus on different specialties and bring their own life experiences into their work. All of those factors will impact how things go in your sessions.

If you’re dealing with past trauma from serious childhood abuse, then a marriage counselor may not be the best fit. You need to spend time finding a therapist who is qualified to help you and work with you to manage what you’re dealing with.

You should also check to ensure therapists you’re considering are appropriately licensed and allowed to practice in your state. That’s a big issue with video chat therapy because it could present legal complexities if you’re living in a state where your therapist isn’t allowed to practice.

One thing a lot of practices do to help is conducting a brief written or verbal consultation to find out what you’re looking for. They also use this initial conversation to get an idea of your background, personality, and what kind of therapist would match well with you.

That’s a lot more personal of an approach than selecting someone off a website. You’ll come into the first session knowing that this person has been selected for you based on your stated criteria, and they’ll have a baseline understanding of what you need.

 

The Trend is Promising

Research suggests that video chat therapy is exposing more people to therapy and counseling help than ever before. Some popular video therapy practices report that the majority of their clients have never had counseling before. That means the fact that you can meet over video chat makes you more inclined to speak to a therapist and deal with stress, anxiety, or whatever else you’re managing.

At Life Coaching and Therapy, our clinicians are trained in systemic therapy and sex therapy! Every therapist has a Master’s or Doctoral degree in their field and is accredited by their state’s board, with at least 3 years and over 5,000 hours of clinical experience. Video chat therapy may be new to you yet with our professionalism, it will feel comfortable!

If you know someone that would benefit from this information, feel free to share it. 

 

Make an Appointment

 

About Life Coaching and Therapy

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a therapy and coaching practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible. Multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systematically-trained and licensed therapists!

Get to know our founder and owner, Amanda Pasciucco, (a.k.a. The Sex Healer) PhD, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), and an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist (CST) that has developed innovative therapy programs and therapy videos that get results.

Our team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help all clients who visit us for a variety of personal, relationship, intimacy and sex problems.

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs.

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your life at What We Do. 

Remove term: behavioral teleheath behavioral teleheath

Behavioral Telehealth

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Behavioral Telehealth

I was so excited to see this article below on the future of therapy in MedCityNews.com. We have already been offering secure video chat and text therapy for several months. Online therapy is great for patients who need convenient and intensive therapy options. Additionally, patients can quickly reference discussions since the the conversations are recorded. Millennials, who do everything on their phones, really like the idea of telehealth.

Telehealth’s emergence as the initial gateway into behavioral health services

By LINDSAY HENDERSON

While in-person visits with mental health providers won’t go away anytime soon, behavioral telehealth is expected to surge. This is due to younger patients seeking convenient ways to engage with a provider to address mental health problems.

behavioral telehealth

The escalating shortage of behavioral health providers couldn’t have come at a worse time especially for millennials.

Rates of major depression rates soared 31 percent among millennials from 2014 to 2017, according to The Health of Millennials report, also noted increases in substance-use disorders among millennials.

There is a silver lining to the mental health provider shortage, which could positively impact millennials and future healthcare delivery. More patients in the 35-and-under demographic are now using telehealth — or interested in using telehealth — to meet their behavioral health needs.

Forty percent of individuals born between 1981 and 1996 who answered a recent survey said they would regularly use telehealth for behavioral health management. This is higher than any other demographic. Also, millennials are nearly three times as likely to have had a video visit with a doctor compared with other demographics.

If this trend continues, telehealth’s role as a gateway into behavioral health therapy will only deepen. This suggests that there may come a day when the majority of behavioral health encounters are over a virtual connection.

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a relationship coaching and sex therapy practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible, multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systemically-trained and licensed therapists! 

Our team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help Millennials and Baby Boomers alike who visit us for a variety of relationship, intimacy and sex problems. 

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs. For clients hoping to take their intimate lives to the next level through personalized coaching on YOUR terms, learn more about our Text Therapy Program.

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your life at What We Do. 

Call or text us at 203-733-9600 or make an appointment.

 

 

 

 

Online Therapy

Online Therapy for Couples or Individuals

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Online Therapy for Couples or Individuals

Have you heard about online therapy to solve your issues? 

Although it is a relatively new practice, online therapy and texting with a coach is the fastest way to get the results you want!

Online Therapy

Why Online Therapy?

Rather than setting up appointments for in-person sessions, just text your coach! You’re assigned a coach who gets back to you quickly, which is ideal when you need answers in a fast-paced world. Another key benefit is that you can always quickly refer to your past conversations!

Getting to an appointment to see a therapist or coach can be difficult and less frequent. This can be due to traffic, transit costs, disability, medical conditions, scheduling, or anxiety. Online therapy is easy, convenient and as frequent as you need it.

 

Who Can Benefit?

Online therapy and texting works with a diverse variety of clients!

Presenting issues such as:

  • Affairs
  • Infertility
  • Sexual Dysfunction
  • Building Self Confidence
  • Depression
  • Anxiety

How can it work for all of these issues? Well, text therapy works on your terms! Even those who are newly dating can get an extra push to help with what they need.

 

Effective Online Therapy

Just like all successful therapy, an assessment period is required to make sure that you are a candidate for online therapy. Millennials and Gen Xers alike all seem to love the option of texting instead of driving into the office. See some examples of online therapy conversations below:

 

text

 

Learn more, and sign up here for our online therapy program.

 

Life Coaching and Therapy (LCAT) is a relationship coaching and sex therapy practice that transforms our clients lives through our flexible, multi-technique approach and pleasure-skills training provided by systemically-trained and licensed therapists!

Amanda PasciuccoOur team of compassionate, licensed therapists and certified sex therapists help Millennials and Baby Boomers alike who visit us for a variety of relationship, intimacy and sex problems.

LCAT provides on-site appointments, as well as video chat and text therapy programs. For clients hoping to take their intimate lives to the next level through personalized coaching on YOUR terms, learn more about our Couples Cure text therapy program.

If you know someone who would benefit from sex, intimacy and relationship knowledge, feel free to send them a link to Amanda’s YouTube channel – The Sex Healer!

Learn more about how LCAT can help improve your relationship and ignite your sex life at What We Do. Call or text us at 203-733-9600, or make an appointment.