Substance Use Therapy

People often use the word mania to describe their increased energy or why they cleaned their kitchen so thoroughly. It has become a bit of buzzword that gets used casually. However, mania is both more severe and more serious than a bout of increased energy. Mania comprises signs and symptoms that characterize a mood disorder, not a mood.

The surge of research and understanding of trauma in the past few decades has been crucial in getting people connected to meaningful support.  Part of developing understanding is having a common language.  Unfortunately, sometimes widespread awareness of something can create an opportunity for the language around it to become co-opted.

We live in a culture in which we have become accustomed to things happening fast.  Food is fast, online order deliveries are often same...

Interestingly, ayahuasca is not a plant, but a recipe made from two different plant species. Portions of the liana vine (Banisteriopis caapi) and leaves of the chacruna bush (Psychotria viridis) are boiled together until the contents become a brown syrup.

Ketamine has an interesting history. Developed in the early 1960’s, it has well established safety as an anesthetic and analgesic. Yes, it is used as an animal anesthetic, but it was also widely used during the Vietnam War and its therapeutic potential was noted in the 1970’s, but research into various applications was thwarted (along with many psychoactive substances) during Nixon’s war on drugs efforts.

The concept of gaslighting is not new, but the term has gained massive attention in recent years. The benefit of the increase in attention is that it sheds light on something many people have experienced and they now have a way to identify it. The downside of important terms like this gaining so much attention is that they become over used or used incorrectly. This serves to minimize the severity of something that can be very real and very scary.

When our bodies or our property are violated, we tend to know it. Although painful, there is a sense of clarity about what has happened. We know if someone has pushed us, stolen from us. These events are considered crimes and frequently they leave behind physical evidence. But what about emotional or psychological violations against us? We may still experience a feeling of being violated, or having felt frightened but are we as likely to recognize these experiences as a

Change is hard, especially changing our habits. Compounding the difficulty is often the expectation from others and ourselves, that change should happen quickly. Our modern society is partially to blame for this. Entire bathroom remodels are shown in 30-minute episodes. The 8 Minute Ab work out video did not make $20 million because we are all amazing at being patient. So, we decide need, want, must make a change and then we become utterly defeated because…change is hard.

Eat better. Exercise more. Quit smoking. Get organized. Drink less alcohol. Wake up earlier. Stop using drugs. Spend more quality time with your family. Spend less time on screens. Many of us make the same resolutions year after year, only to see them fail by March…or January 15th. And yet, the next year we will resolve to make many of those same changes again. So why aren’t we succeeding? Well, lots of reasons. According to research, we are more likely to stick to resoluti

During my work as a clinician, I have encountered many kinds of people, with varied and complex issues. However, the most predominant theme I have seen are feelings of worthlessness. It would be simple to cross reference that trait with the list of depression symptoms, check a box and pat my clinician self on the back for making the correlation between feelings of worthlessness and depression. But, as anyone forced to take a statistics course knows, correlation does not imply

We all know we must protect our money. We know we are not supposed to flash it around in public or leave it unattended. We lock it up, we put it in banks, we carefully consider who we share it with. Yet, if time really is money why don’t we safeguard it in the same way?

Of all the types of boundaries, emotional boundaries are without a doubt the hardest to navigate. Trying to identify them can feel elusive, like trying to hold water. We can think of emotional boundaries that are too rigid as impermeable—no water gets through. Too loose and we drown . When our emotional boundaries are not working for us, we are not taking care of ourselves or those we care about. When our emotional boundaries are intact, we can be both compassi

Long before the required social distancing of the COVID-19 era, Seinfeld was well attuned to the discomfort that occurs when people get in our space. The close talker episode is one of the most famous and for good reason—most of us can relate to being in a similar situation. Jerry Seinfeld’s monologue at the end of that episode discusses respectable space needed at ATM’s and urinals, stating, “…I guess whenever someone's taking something valuable out of their pants you want t

When I think of boundaries, I think of the way they build skyscrapers. Modern day skyscrapers are designed to sway in the wind. Too rigid and they would snap under windy conditions and too much movement and you no longer have a building to bother with. How much they need to sway is of course dependent on geographic wind conditions, building height and a multitude of other factors beyond the reach of my therapist brain. Ideally our boundaries function in the same way.

Problems managing anger. Poor self-esteem. Communication issues in relationships. Feeling the effects of burnout at work. Believe it or not, lack of assertiveness is often at the root of these seemingly different issues. Assertiveness is often misunderstood. Many people think assertiveness is a fixed trait or think being assertive is about being intimidating. Both are untrue.

Whatever our reasons may be, none of us are better off by not getting enough sleep. It is consistently reported that a little over one-third of Americans do not get enough sleep. Lack of sleep can impact our mental health and cause or worsen issues with drugs and alcohol.

First, good for you for deciding to make your mental health a priority. Just making this decision to move forward is one of the hardest parts. So, you have decided to make a change, but now you actually have to find a therapist in Austin. Fortunately, Austin is a town that values mental health, so you will have a lot of options. The downside is that there are so many options, it can be a little overwhelming.