Therapy Counseling Services

Nightmares

June 24th, 2018jm@ownhope.org0 Comments

Nightmares are not something you may have to live with. There are both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic options that may help reduce nightmares. The DBT and CBT protocols involve a combination of relaxation exercises, writing the nightmare out (with a different ending) and imagining the nightmare (with the new ending) before sleep and throughout the day. If the nightmares are related to PTSD or a trauma event an additional option includes EMDR which is specifically designed to help those with traumatic memories eliminate or reduce the distress associated with the memories and change their thinking about the trauma. CBT and DBT …

Sleep keeping you up?

June 21st, 2018jm@ownhope.org0 Comments

A common barrier to sleep is the worry of not being able to fall asleep. DBT encourages us to aim for restfulness when we’re having difficulty sleeping. One mindfulness activity I share with clients involves having them close their eyes and simply watch the movie in front of them, sort of like when you were a kid and tried to pick out shapes from clouds…..or maybe you were doing that yesterday, which is cool. Give it a shot tonight when you go to bed and see how it works for you.