• About
  • Our Team
  • Child & Teen
    • Resources
    • Blog
    • Book Blog
  • Fee
  • Contact
Menu

Quality Therapy in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Los Angeles

1934 Hillhurst Avenue
Los Angeles, CA, 90027
(323) 244-2066
Warm, effective therapy for anxiety, depression, relationship issues, LGBTQ, etc.

Quality Therapy in Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Los Angeles

  • About
  • Our Team
  • Child & Teen
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Blog
    • Book Blog
  • Fee
  • Contact
unnamed.jpg

Blog

Silver Lake Psychotherapy Blog. Exploring depression, anxiety, bipolar, love, sexuality, and other psychological issues that might affect todays east side los angeleno.

Excuse Me While I Do My Holiday Preset

November 27, 2023 Guest User

Luca D’Urbino

Excuse Me While I Do My Holiday Preset
By Alyson Krueger for the New York Times

Right after Halloween, Ashley Guerra started being inundated with invitations — for Friendsgiving, for holiday parties and for New Year’s Eve.

“The holidays always feel a little chaotic,” said Ms. Guerra, 33, who lives in Dallas and works in product marketing for a tech company. “It’s more eating, more drinking, more late nights, more energy in showing up for other people.”

So this year she’s preparing by taking some time for herself ahead of Thanksgiving. “I’m filling up on my own cup,” she said.

In other words, Ms. Guerra is trying to give her body a break.

The holidays can be taxing, both mentally and physically. According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, 31 percent of Americans went into the 2022 holiday season expecting to feel more stressed than they did the previous year, up nine percentage points from 2021. The indulgent and constant eating and drinking, the financial strain of buying gifts and traveling, and the reunions with family members and old friends can all take a toll.

But some forward-thinking Americans are taking steps now to get their bodies and minds in fighting shape for what’s next —

Read the full article here to learn how some are minimizing holiday stress.

Comment

You Can't Do Everything for Everyone

November 1, 2023 Guest User

Carissa Potter Carlson

Giving money and time to volunteer organizations is noble, needed, and fulfilling. But we don't have to give up our lives to give to others.

Read more
Comment

Four-Legged Reason to Keep It Together

October 25, 2023 Guest User

A tale of how a dog named Danger brought a fresh perspective during life's challenging moments.

Read more
Comment

Opinion: Have fun with strangers. Democracy and our mental health may depend on it

October 23, 2023 Guest User

David Tuman


Opinion:  Have fun with strangers. Democracy and our mental health may depend on it
By Jean Guerrero for Los Angeles Times

Over the past couple of years, I lost my fear of the Other.

It happened while I was picking up new hobbies, such as skating and dancing, while befriending a larger and more diverse array of people. In some cases, I bonded with people whose politics are very different from mine.

The disconnection I’d felt during the Trump administration and the height of the pandemic has largely waned, replaced by more hope and faith in my community and a stronger sense of well-being.

Could we all benefit from expanding our social circles?


Read the full article here.

Comment

A single grey hair springs to life in a playful exploration of ageing anxiety

October 23, 2023 Guest User

A ritualistic evening of self-care spirals into claustrophobic self-scrutiny when a woman discovers a grey hair.

Read more
Comment

Inga

October 18, 2023 Guest User

"Through her memoirs, Inga reflects about love, old age and death. We are invited into her home, as she doing her morning rituals and baths in the cold lake. The short portrait shows in artistic and intimate pictures, a day in a life, how it's like being old and what it means for Inga."

Credits
Director & Cinematographer: Uffe Mulvad
Productions company: Uffe Mulvad

Comment

You are such an interesting conversation.

October 16, 2023 Guest User

How To Belong Be Alone
Written and read by
Pádraig Ó Tuama


It all begins with knowing
nothing lasts forever,
so you might as well start packing now.
In the meantime,
practice being alive.

There will be a party
where you’ll feel like
nobody’s paying you attention.
And there will be a party
where attention’s all you’ll get.
What you need to do
is to remember
to talk to yourself
between these parties.

And,
again,
there will be a day,
— a decade —
where you won’t
fit in with your body
even though you’re in
the only body you’re in.

You need to control
your habit of forgetting
to breathe.

Remember when you were younger
and you practiced kissing on your arm?
You were on to something then.
Sometimes harm knows its own healing
Comfort knows its own intelligence.
Kindness too.
It needs no reason.

There is a you
telling you another story of you.
Listen to her.

Where do you feel
anxiety in your body?
The chest? The fist? The dream before waking?
The head that feels like it’s at the top of the swing
or the clutch of gut like falling
& falling & falling and falling
It knows something: you’re dying.
Try to stay alive.

For now, touch yourself.
I’m serious.

Touch your
self.
Take your hand
and place your hand
some place
upon your body.
And listen
to the community of madness
that
you are.
You are
such an
interesting conversation.

You belong
here.

Comment

Stop Looking for the Perfect Partner

October 14, 2023 Guest User

Brian Rea

Stop Looking for the Perfect Person
Is the pursuit of a partner who meets all your criteria worthwhile or unrealistic? Two women on choosing imperfect love.

“The only three men I had ever imagined a future with all told me that something was missing,” Oz Johnson wrote in her Modern Love essay. When Oz was 23, her boyfriend said she met 99 percent of his criteria, but she was missing 1 percent. Over a decade later, another man broke up with her via email. Their love was almost perfect, he said, but not enough to last.

What is this missing, unquantifiable feeling? Oz used to be haunted by these rejections, but now she has come to embrace the search for imperfect love.

After: Nancy Cardwell wasn’t looking for love — but then, at 58 years old, she fell passionately in love with tango. Her newfound zeal for the dance took her to Buenos Aires, where she fell in love again — this time, with a man named Luis.

“I believe that when you are with a wonderful person, but something is missing, you take your partner’s hand and search for it together.”

Listen to the episode here.

Comment

What Does It Really Mean to Dissociate?

October 11, 2023 Guest User

Jun Cen

What Does It Really Mean to Dissociate?
By Christina Caron for The New York Times

Have you ever zoned out?

Maybe you have experienced highway hypnosis, with no recollection of having driven from Point A to Point B. Or maybe you have zero memory of something you just read.

These are mild forms of dissociation, which is the ability to disconnect from our thoughts, feelings, environment or actions.

Dissociation can even help athletes do their jobs, for instance, because it “allows people to focus on the most salient or life-preserving aspects of a situation” without mental interference, said Janina Fisher, a psychologist who has been treating dissociative disorders for decades.

But sometimes people experience a major form of dissociation, often in the aftermath of overwhelming trauma. In this case, the dissociative symptoms become more extreme and frequent.

What are the dissociative disorders?

Rather than fight or flee in a stressful or threatening situation, some people “freeze,” said Dr. Frank W. Putnam, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and an expert on dissociative disorders. “That’s the dissociative state where you shut down and you kind of go away.”

Although dissociation can help a person mentally escape during a threat, it can interfere with daily life when people continue to dissociate during benign situations. Some people might find themselves in a new location without knowing how they got there, for example.

Frequent experiences like that make dissociation pathological, Dr. Putnam said. It becomes a disorder when you space out and “lose time” long enough that it interferes with your life in a significant way, he added.

The three most common and well-known dissociative disorders are: dissociative identity disorder, depersonalization/derealization disorder and dissociative amnesia.

The common thread in each is a disruption of identity.


Read the full article here.

Comment

Want to Believe in Yourself? ‘Mattering’ Is Key.

October 2, 2023 Guest User

Simon Bailly/Sepia

Mattering involves “more than feeling like you belong in a group

Read more
Comment

How to Get Over Someone, According to Psychologists and Relationship Experts

October 2, 2023 Guest User

Channing Smith

While there’s no surefire way to avoid a broken heart (unless you’re an unfeeling robot, of course), there is a way through it—even if, at the moment, you truly believe you’ll never be happy again. 

Read more
Comment

How To Be Alone

September 20, 2023 Guest User

How to Be Alone, reveals the possibilities and joys waiting to be discovered when we engage in activities on our own.

Read more
Comment

Music can serve as therapy. Here’s how it can help reduce anxiety.

September 18, 2023 Guest User

Sometimes, when we are gripped by panic and anxiety, we may not have the words to describe how we are feeling. Then, a song comes on the radio or our playlist, and it hits us: “That is exactly how I’m feeling!”

Read more
Comment

8 Solo Date Ideas That Can Help You Actually Enjoy Doing Things Alone

September 18, 2023 Guest User

Antonio Rodriguez

Going to a cozy bar or weekday movie by yourself doesn’t have to be awkward.

Read more
Comment

How to Have a ‘Sexual State of the Union’

September 15, 2023 Guest User

Sara Andreasson

Addressing intimacy isn’t always easy, here are some strategies for openly talking about sex.

Read more
Comment

Being Anxious or Sad Does Not Make You Mentally Ill

September 13, 2023 Guest User

Jan Buchczik

If you have recently been told that you have a mental-health malady such as depression or anxiety, you are far from alone. The rates at which these diagnoses are being made have exploded over the past few years.

Read more
Comment

The Benefits of Morning Meditation

September 6, 2023 Guest User

Lorenzo Gritti

Starting a regular practice doesn’t have to be hard — it can take as little as five minutes as soon as you wake up.

Read more
Comment

4 Phrases to use when fighting with your partner

August 24, 2023 Guest User

Pablo Delcan

When you find yourself in a storytelling spiral, pause and remind yourself that you care about the person who has upset you, Real said. Then ask if it’s a good time to talk.

Read more
Comment

Indoor Plants Have Surprising Benefits

August 16, 2023 Guest User

Illustration by Kim Sielbeck for TIME

Plants are soothing. In one study, researchers asked people to repot a houseplant or complete a short computer-based task, and afterwards, they checked participants’ heart rate and blood pressure.

Read more
Comment

4 ways to find and build meaningful connections for mental health

August 8, 2023 Guest User

(Celia Jacobs for The Washington Post)

4 ways to find and build meaningful connections for mental health. Connect with your inner self and others; explore forms of spirituality; and set boundaries to deepen connections.

Read more
Comment
← Newer Posts Older Posts →

323-244-2066   therapy@silverlakepsych.com