I just want to thank everyone who stopped by my booth at SpiritFest this past weekend at Mystickal  Voyage.  I met several people who are interested in counseling services.  I also met people who just wanted to chat and who wanted to do some really fast coaching on a specific problem.

I was struck by how most of those I met were already half-way towards healing.  Outside of spiritual communities this is not usually the case.  There is something to be said for participating in an empowering spirituality of your own choice where there are tools under your control to help yourself and a community that believes in you.  I felt lucky to be potentially seeing clients with such internal and external resources.

I was also struck by the potential of cooperation amongst healers.  How one healing modality flows into the next.  I was frequently a useful part of a bigger matrix of work going on.  We need to figure out how to get client to see (and how they pay for) teams of healers with complementary skills.

– Michael

I’ve been looking at several online packages for clients to work on their mental health.   There are plenty of online tests for assessing one’s condition (not all of them very valid).  There are also plenty of educational reading sites.  What’s largely lacking are interactive sites with worksheets, exercises, and feedback.  I’m mulling over adding an online tools section to my website for clients of mine.  Here are a few of the better packages:

WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plans):

Mary Copeland has a well-developed system for tracking symptoms, triggers, and activities to maintain or restore wellness.  Participants end up with a binder (or online management system) that they work with daily to maximize their health.

Basic reading about WRAP is at: http://www.mentalhealthrecovery.com/

The online tool I think is cool is available to all comers at: http://www.essentiallearning.com/wrap.htm

Online Mood Charting

I’m testing software from Optimism Apps designed to track user moods across time by many customizable variables.  If you’ve got the patience to rate your mood, symptoms, and wellness practices (take a walk, meditate, etc.) every day this software can chart out trends for you that you might not have seen.  So you might spot a monthly or seasonal cycle to your moods, see that meditating daily helps, or spot that eating habits matter.

http://www.optimismonline.com/

I suspect many blogs are being updated for the first time in a long while today in the Northeast as many of us are sitting at home in a 24″-30″ snow storm — grateful for Internet access, electricity, and heat.

I talked with one of my near neighbors in Baltimore, naturopathic doctor Janine Martin, a few weeks ago about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) lightboxes.  She mentioned that they may in fact be useful for yet another purpose — recovery from stress.  Apparently stress can damage the body’s natural sleep cycle rhythms.  Lightboxes may be useful in resetting these rhythms in order to restore the proper sleep cycle.  Critical if you are trying to rest-up after or keep up with stressful events.

This morning I opened an old issue The Week Magazine (January 15th — I have time today…) and saw that their “Health Scare of the Week” was about the number of near-sighted people rising 66% since the 1970s.  They cited epidemiologist Susan Vitale as saying that some evidence suggests spending too much time indoors during childhood “sends a signal to the eye to stop growing”.

I don’t want to read too much into this, but perhaps the use of full spectrum lighting indoors is not too bad of an idea for many reasons.

– Michael

I have an affinity for the Greek/Roman gods of healing (as you can no doubt tell from my business name — Hygeia Counseling Services).   I’m currently having a painting of Hypnos (God of Sleep and Dreams) done by Brian MacGregor — the artist who did my Hygeia logo.  He is working his way through drawings, studies, and now a black and white version of the painting.  He also had models pose for the work.  I had no idea how complex this was and I’m getting a real education in art.  Regarding the black and white version he says:

“Here is how it looks so far in the black and white stage….  I am going to work on the colors soon.  This took me all week to get to this point.  I included references from three different books on dreams and Hypnosis and the uses of it and its origins.  Also a chart of the sleep stages, and dreams.  I got to say I am loving this idea and making it museum worthy.”

I’m attaching below a few versions of the painting so far.  You can click on the small image below to see it larger.

I’m looking forward to posting items of interest about my therapy practice, trends in counseling, and mental health observations.  I think the items here will vary alot.  Sometimes they will be matters of opinion or personal sharings, and other times event announcements.  I hope this blog will help folks to know a bit more about me, counseling, and how to maintain mental health.