Flourish Psychology approaches your mental health treatment by trying to discover the most effective therapeutic technique for your specific emotional and psychological needs. We offer many approaches to therapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), DBT, Gestalt, and more.
One of the approaches that make us a bit different is that some of our counselors are able to offer “art therapy.” Art therapy, as the name implies, involves engaging in artistic expression while working with and talking to your therapist about your emotions and responses.
It allows for sharing feelings, understanding conflicts – even problem solving – all under the care of a therapist that takes a proactive approach to using art to help you resolve your mood and mental health challenges.
“But I’m Not An Artist”
One of the most common responses we hear from others when we recommend art therapy is that they’re not an artist, and do not feel like they can do art in a way that will help with their recovery.
But art therapy isn’t about art. It’s about therapy. This is not an art class, and you are not going to sell your art when you’re done, and the quality of your art is not part of the discussion.
Your art therapist is a therapist, and you are using art for expression in ways that words frequently struggle to convey. Essentially, art therapy is not that different from other forms of therapy, like CBT (considered by many the gold standard of therapy), but instead of words, you’re using paint or other mediums to help you convey what words cannot.
It’s a process that is also extensively researched and has been shown to directly help with many conditions, including:
Anxiety
Depression
Trauma
Low Self-Esteem
Any condition that affects mood may respond well to art therapy in NYC because many mood-related conditions are also exacerbated by situations where the individual is unable to truly say or understand how they are thinking and feeling. Art gives them an outlet where words can’t, and – when guided by your art therapist – helps you to better understand yourself and your feelings.
Choosing a Treatment Method for Your Struggles
Art therapy may be one of the best ways to treat your mood related challenges. It also may not be. We want to meet you first and do our best to see you in a way that will help us understand what treatment and support will help you the most. Let’s start a conversation today. Book a call today, and let’s talk about what you need and how we can help you get to where you want to be.
Many people with panic attacks develop a condition known as “agoraphobia,” which is best described as a fear of being out of the home or in places that are unfamiliar. One of the reasons that people with panic disorder may develop agoraphobia is because they start to avoid places where they feel like they might have a panic attack.
For example, if they have a couple of panic attacks while in the mall, they may stop going to malls. If they have it in a restaurant, they may stop going to restaurants. Over time, they become limited to very few places, and some people have a trauma response that makes them not want to leave their house at all.
But the problem is not just that people start to avoid places because they’re afraid they may have panic attacks. The problem is that they are often correct – if they did choose to go to a place that they feared, they would be very likely to have a panic attack. That is because panic attacks are self-fulfilling in a way that is caused by the symptoms of the attacks themselves.
How Panic Attacks Become Self-Fulfilling
Panic attacks are intensely physical anxiety events. When a person suffers from a panic attack, they often have rapid heartbeat, chest pains, light headedness, and a series of physical symptoms that can be so severe, they can be genuinely convinced that something is wrong with their health.
Because panic attacks are such overwhelming physical events, a symptom of persistent panic attacks is known as “self-monitoring.” People with panic attacks tend to pay attention to how their body feels at any given time in order to see if a panic attack is coming. If they start to feel the symptoms of a panic attack, it will often cause distress and anxiety – which then contributes to the attack.
In addition, people with panic disorder also develop what’s known as “hypersensitivity.” That means that they feel things stronger than other people do. While most people might not even notice a small pain or bit of discomfort, a person with panic attacks will not only notice it, but will feel it stronger. Both of these symptoms are also more likely the more anxious a person feels.
That is how panic attacks become self-fulfilling and reinforced. Let’s use the example of library.
Someone with panic attacks is worried they may have a panic attack at the library.
Because they’re worried, they’re a bit more anxious.
That anxiety causes them to experience a very mild sensation somewhere on their body.
Because of their hypersensitivity, the symptom feels worse than it otherwise might.
Because of their self-monitoring, they always notice it immediately.
That causes them to experience strong anxiety, worried a panic attack or worse is coming.
That anxiety triggers a panic attack.
Now their fear of going to the library is reinforced, and they may not go anymore.
This cycle can occur to anyone, even those without agoraphobia. Eventually, many people with untreated panic disorders will start to avoid places because of fears they may have an attack, or they may experience attacks more often because they have become self-fulling when they are out and about.
How Do You Stop the Self-Fulfilling Nature of Panic Attacks?
There are many ways to approach panic attacks and panic disorder, and you and your NYC therapist at Flourish Psychology will work to find the approach that makes the most sense for you. We may deploy treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), rational emotive behavior therapy, gestalt therapy, positive psychology, and more.
CBT, specifically, is often used to treat panic disorder, and many of the treatment approaches are specifically about addressing these issues:
Monitoring your body for sensations.
Misinterpreting those sensations.
Avoidance behaviors.
Many psychologists have identified these issues as some of the main reasons that panic attacks keep recurring. So, your therapist will provide you with actions that you can take to address these issues. Some of them may be uncomfortable – for example, you may have to put yourself “at risk” for a panic attack again as you stop avoiding places that caused them.
Your therapist may even have you mimic some of the same symptoms that you’ve had before that have triggered panic attacks. For example, if you get dizzy with panic attacks, you may be asked to make yourself dizzy so that you can learn how to calm yourself when you experience those sensations.
The approach that we take will be based on your specific situation, but much of addressing panic attacks comes from breaking this self-fulfilling panic attack cycle.
Depression can happen to anyone. It is a condition that can occur gradually, as a response to life trauma or inability to cope with stresses. It can also occur suddenly, after a major loss or struggles at work or in a relationship. As therapists for depression in NYC, we know that there is no “type” of person that may struggle with depression.
Yet the data does show that lawyers experience depression more so than nearly any other profession. As many as 28% of lawyers show signs of depression – more than 1 in 4, a 400% increased risk compared to the general population – and many others experience work stress and anxiety that could lead to depression someday.
The data is clear: lawyers have a higher rate of depression than almost every other career. Understanding why this may occur is one of the first steps toward addressing it.
Risk Factors for Depression in Lawyers
Because depression can happen to anyone, there is not necessarily a single reason that attorneys may be more prone to depression, or a single cause that can be identified in order to address it. But there are many factors that are likely at play, and any combination of these can be a contributor.
Binary Success – One reason that lawyers can struggle with depression is because the career itself is based on binary success. You either win, or you lose, with rarely much middle ground in between. You’re constantly in competition with someone else, and – depending on your specialty – someone’s money, health, or life may be directly tied to you winning. Even the best lawyers lose cases, and that can hit people very hard.
Peer Competition – Similarly, many lawyers feel in constant competition with their peers. Not only is that true in the courtroom, where you are tasked with trying to “beat” someone as part of your role, but also those that are trying to grow their practice are in competition for clients and revenue. Those comparisons and that competition can lead to a considerable amount of stress.
Financial Concerns – Though not true of every specialty, most lawyers receive payment at seemly random times, going for months – or sometimes years – before getting paid for a case that you’ve been working on. That inconsistency means a lot of challenging times financially, navigating banks and debt to pay your staff before hoping that you receive payment on time.
Lack of Sleep – Sleep is critical to our mental health. Many lawyers struggle with sleep, either because they’re working too late at night or they are heavily focused on their cases and struggling with insomnia. No matter the cause, a lack of sleep makes people more prone to depression.
Lawyer Characteristics – The same strengths that draw people to the legal profession may also make them more prone to depression. For example, “perfectionism” is a common quality of those drawn to law, and perfectionism is considered a risk factor for depression. This would mean that there may be some self-selection involved in why lawyers experience depression.
These are only some of the many reasons that lawyers may be more prone to depression. Drug and alcohol abuse and relationship issues are also more common among lawyers, both of which also put people at greater risk of depression.
The Challenges of New York City
Lawyers all over the United States are going to be more likely to have depression based on that factors outlined above. But we are in NYC, and here in NYC, these same pressures are multiplied considerably. Manhattan and Brooklyn are home to some of the most “high powered” lawyers in the entire world, and that means that attorneys here face tough legal battles, bigger stakes, and even more pressure to compete and succeed in this environment.
Depression Therapists for Lawyers in NYC
Flourish Psychology has a team of carefully selected NYC therapists led by Dr. Sadi Fox. Our private practice recognizes your unique experience as an individual, and seeks to use the best possible treatments to support a recovery that is sustainable and actionable for your long term mental health. Contact Flourish Psychology today to schedule an appointment.
We hear many people say that “the mind and body are connected.” We often feel this in ways that are hard to describe but noticeable when we see it. There are some situations in which this link is incredibly apparent, such as the way that many of us feel “depressed” when we are sick with the flu, or the way we feel generally unwell when we feel sad or nervous.
But we’re still discovering ways that our bodies and minds are linked – often ways that we still do not fully understand, but can prove nonetheless. One such example is the way that over-developed and under-developed muscles, especially in the core and posterior chain, can lead to developing some fairly significant anxiety symptoms.
How Could Muscle Development Affect Anxiety?
We spend a lot of our time leaning forward. We slouch when we sit and watch TV. We slouch forward in the car. We slouch forward when working on our computers. Now, with smartphones, we even slouch forward when we walk and stand. We also do all of this while we exercise less and – even those that do go to the gym – tend to focus on the most visible muscles, such as the chest, the abs, and the biceps.
What’s happening to many of us is that some of our muscles are tightening and overdeveloping – often in the front of our bodies. On a physical level, this can cause all sorts of challenges, such as a hunchback and back pain as we age. If you feel like your lower back is often achy or your shoulders are frequently tense, that is an example of what these issues can cause.
Entire textbooks have been written about the ways that this affects our body – causing our muscles to not communicate properly, increasing stress on the nerves, and so on. But our focus here is on how these underdeveloped muscles can cause anxiety, and one of the many ways they do this is by causing dysfunctional breathing.
When your front muscles are tight and your back and core muscles – especially those on the back side of your body, like the glutes – are underdeveloped, it leads to poor posture and shorter, shallow, and less consistent breaths. These breathing pattern problems lead to a host of different issues, most notably, hyperventilation:
We breathe in too much oxygen.
We breathe carbon dioxide out too quickly before we have a chance to make more.
We *feel* like we are not getting enough oxygen, leading to attempts to draw in more.
We start to experience lightheadedness, rapid heartbeat, and other symptoms as our bodies need a certain carbon dioxide/oxygen balance to work efficiently.
If you’ve ever had a panic attack before, some of these symptoms will sound familiar. That is because hyperventilation is a key part of a large number of panic attack symptoms. Without the right oxygen balance, our bodies also become stressed.
What happens next?
When our bodies our stressed, we start to experience more anxiety and stress as well. Sometimes, this can lead to full-blown panic attacks. But even in those that are not prone to panic attacks, it can make us feel more stressed and anxious generally – even though we may not entirely understand why. When we’re faced with other types of stress and anxiety, they may also feel more severe, as our bodies are already starting from a more anxious baseline.
All of this because of posture and muscle strength.
Does This Mean a Gym Will Cure Anxiety?
We now know that our posture and our muscles are linked to issues like breathing and anxiety. But does this mean that all we need to do to reduce it is to go to the gym and work on our squats? Will strong glutes cure anxiety?
Typically, no. Once we have developed anxiety, poor breathing habits, and other mental health challenges, we often need professional support in order to learn to manage them effectively. Similarly, while we know that poor posture and poor muscle development can lead to anxiety and stress, we also know that anxiety and stress can lead to poor posture.
People with depression, for example, are far more likely to slouch their shoulders and hunch their back. This postural change ends up causing tighter muscles in the front of the body and weaker, stretched muscles in the back, leading to poor breathing habits. But in this situation, the depression came first. Exercising our muscles could theoretically help relieving some of the symptoms, but the depression would still be present.
Still, it’s important to recognize that our lives benefit from holistic healthier living. When we take care of our minds and our bodies, we are more likely to see an improvement in our quality of life.
As specialists in eating disorders, our team here at Flourish Psychology often work with individuals that do not necessarily fit the mold of what an eating disorder looks like. Most of us are at least moderately familiar with conditions like anorexia and bulimia, which tend to be not only more widely reported, but also more likely to have symptoms that are associated with disordered eating, such as starvation, binging, and purging.
But not all forms of disordered eating fit into these labels. Some people – even more so now with the rise in social media influencers – have eating disorders that manifest in different ways, and one of those ways, which is frequently hard to spot, is in those that would otherwise be considered healthy eaters.
Healthy Eating that Goes Too Far
Not enough of us eat as healthy as we should. Most of us do not eat enough greens. Most of us have too much fat or processed foods. Many of us do not get enough protein, or have enough vitamins and minerals in our diet. It would absolutely be better for most of us if we were more conscientious eaters and aware of what we put into our bodies.
But, like most things, healthy eating can go too far. We should eat healthier. But healthy eating shouldn’t be an all consuming trait – or one where we feel intense distress when the foods that we deem healthy (that may or may not be healthy) are not available. We also benefit as human beings from a slightly more varied diet, from carbohydrates, and from types of food that aren’t always available in a “clean” way.
This type of healthy eating disorder has even been given a term, called “Orthorexia.” People with orthorexia often display patterns with food that mirror those with anorexia, but instead of caloric restriction, the focus is on healthy eating. Examples include:
An unhealthy obsession with food and what you eat.
Intense distress when you are expected to (or forced to) eat food that you do not feel is healthy.
Compulsive checking of the nutritional labels of different foods.
Strong interest in social media and blogs as it relates to healthy eating.
Some people with this type of condition do eat what most doctors would agree is a healthy diet. But the level of intense distress they experience as a result of their connection to food dramatically impacts their quality of life for the worse. In addition, while some people with “orthorexia” are still generally healthy, others may not be. That is because this same obsession with healthy eating can lead to:
Cutting out otherwise important food groups, like carbohydrates, because you deem them to be unhealthy, in ways that may hurt your body in the long term.
Accidental caloric restriction – for example, eating salads without enough fats or proteins and not receiving enough calories from other food groups.
Openness to propaganda and misinformation as it relates to food and health. For example, seeing an influencer claim that something is unhealthy because it is unnatural, even against the findings of science.
Somep people with this type of eating disorder do eat healthy enough, but not everyone will and even those that do eat healthy are often suffering from psychological and social consequences as a result of this healthy food obsession.
How is “Orthorexia” Treated?
Even something as generally good as healthy eating can go too far, and unfortunately many of those that struggle with this condition do not seek help, because it is very difficult to identify it as a problem. In addition, these behaviors appear to be more common now than they were in the past, and so there have not been many studies that address this as a specific condition.
Still, this type of disordered eating does respond very well to existing treatments, and therapy that provides support for conditions like anorexia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and more do seem effective at helping people with this type of challenge.
If you or someone you love may have “Orthorexia,” or have an unhealthy relationship with food in any capacity even if it does not fit what we traditionally consider an eating disorder, we encourage you to contact Flourish Psychology in NYC, today.
Location: 300 Cadman Plaza West Floor 12 - Brooklyn, NY 11201
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