Mental Health Counseling: A Holistic Approach to Overcoming Addiction and Mental Health Challenges

In today's fast-paced world, many individuals find themselves struggling with various mental health issues, often exacerbated by substance use and addiction. As the stigma surrounding mental health continues to diminish, more people are seeking professional help to address their concerns. Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs) play a crucial role in providing support and guidance to those battling addiction, alcohol dependence, and a range of mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

One of the primary areas of focus for a licensed mental health counselor is addiction counseling. Substance abuse and addiction can have devastating effects on individuals and their loved ones, leading to serious health problems, strained relationships, and financial difficulties. LMHCs are trained to provide personalized treatment plans tailored to each client's unique needs, helping them navigate the complexities of addiction recovery.

Alcohol dependence is another common issue that LMHCs address. Excessive alcohol consumption can not only lead to physical dependence but also contribute to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. LMHCs offer a supportive environment where individuals can explore the underlying causes of their alcohol dependence and develop coping strategies to manage cravings and triggers.

Substance use disorders encompass a wide range of addictive behaviors, from illicit drug use to prescription medication misuse. LMHCs employ evidence-based techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing to help clients understand the impact of their substance use on their lives and make positive changes. Through ongoing therapy sessions, individuals learn to identify and challenge negative thought patterns and develop healthier coping mechanisms.

In addition to addiction counseling, LMHCs provide mental health counseling for a variety of conditions, including depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Depression is a pervasive mental health disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in activities. LMHCs work with clients to explore the root causes of their depression and develop coping skills to improve their mood and overall well-being.

Anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder, can significantly impact daily functioning and quality of life. LMHCs employ a range of therapeutic techniques, such as relaxation training and exposure therapy, to help individuals manage anxiety symptoms and regain a sense of control over their lives.

Low self-esteem is another common issue that LMHCs address in therapy. Individuals struggling with low self-esteem often have negative beliefs about themselves and their abilities, which can hinder personal growth and relationships. LMHCs help clients challenge these negative beliefs and develop a more positive self-image through techniques such as self-affirmations and assertiveness training.

What sets licensed mental health counselors apart is their holistic approach to treatment. Rather than focusing solely on symptom management, LMHCs address the underlying issues contributing to addiction and mental health challenges. By providing a safe and non-judgmental space for clients to explore their thoughts and feelings, LMHCs empower individuals to make positive changes and lead fulfilling lives.

In conclusion, licensed mental health counselors play a vital role in supporting individuals struggling with addiction, alcohol dependence, and various mental health disorders. Through personalized treatment plans and evidence-based interventions, LMHCs help clients overcome obstacles and achieve lasting recovery. By addressing both the symptoms and underlying causes of addiction and mental illness, LMHCs promote holistic healing and empower individuals to thrive. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or mental health issues, reaching out to a licensed mental health counselor can be the first step toward a brighter future.

Dr. Harry Henshaw

Relaxation Music for Reducing Stress

Stress is a significant factor that negatively impacts our health, specifically our physical and mental health. When stress becomes prolonged and overwhelming, the risks for mental health and medical problems increase. For example, long-term stress increases the risk of mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, bipolar and sleep disorders, as well as symptoms such as irritability and difficulty concentrating.

Stress that's not dealt with can also lead to many medical and physical health problems. A few of the medical issues that a person can develop due to an inability to manage stress effectively are high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma. Unresolved stress is also positively correlated with substance use or addictive behavior problems.

Difficulty dealing with stress can also negatively impact an individual's work and vocational pursuits. Prolonged stress can affect a person's productivity, job satisfaction, absences, tardiness, and a company's employee turnover rates. Mood swings, withdrawal, loss of motivation, lower commitment, less confidence, and increased emotional reactions such as burnout and being more aggressive can also be symptoms of stress.

Stress can also negatively impact relationships with family members, friends, and intimate, romantic partners. When people are experiencing high levels of stress, they become more withdrawn and distracted, and less affectionate towards their friends and loved ones. They also have less time for leisure activities, which leads to alienation between friends and partners.

There are many coping mechanisms and stress management techniques that help with stress. Regular exercise, deep breathing exercises, massages, getting enough sleep, and guided relaxation techniques allow people to better cope with stress. In addition, seeking guidance and counseling, attending a support group, balancing work and play, and socializing with friends and family can help a person deal with stress better.

Therapeutic relaxation music is one of the most effective techniques for effectively and efficiently reducing stress and promoting relaxation. Listening to relaxation music has powerful effects on both the body and mind. Relaxation music slows breathing, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, quiets the nervous system, eases muscle tension, reduces anxiety, improves sleep, and can help with physical healing and recovery.

In my practice as a psychotherapist, I utilize therapeutic relaxation music to help my clients learn how to experience a deep state of relaxation and, as a result, reduce their anxiety and stress. When relaxed, clients tend to have a better and more productive outcome in counseling. I am a licensed therapist and a musician. As a musician, I have used my skills to create my brand of therapeutic relaxation music.

I have also mixed my therapeutic relaxation music, which is intentionally very slow in tempo, with binaural audio tones, primarily in the theta range. The binaural audio tones enhance the relaxation experience and response. Each recording of my music also includes a brief introduction to enhance the relaxation experience further. My therapeutic relaxation music is also excellent for the practice of meditation.

The optimal way to listen to my therapeutic relaxation music is with good-quality headphones. It is also important to rest comfortably in a chair or lie down while listening to the relaxation music recording. As you listen to my music, focus only on the relaxation music. When your attention wanders from the music, gently bring it back to paying attention to only the relaxation music.

As you continue to listen to the relaxing music, notice your breathing and ensure that you breathe slowly, feeling the air entering your nose and then exhaling as the air leaves your body through your nose again. Remember to pay attention to the relaxation music until the recording ends. Listen to the therapeutic relaxation music recording every day.

Each recording of my therapeutic relaxation music is approximately 30 minutes long and costs only $2.95. In addition, each recording comes with a full money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied. If you are a provider of healthcare services and are interested in how you can incorporate my therapeutic relaxation music in your clinical work, please call me at 305-498-3442 for a free consultation.

Dr. Harry Henshaw

Positive Affirmations for Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is essential to our health and well-being. Self-esteem affects every aspect or domain of our lives. Whether our self-esteem is positive or negative, it will affect our work and vocational aspirations, finances, relationships, and mental and physical health. When we have negative self-esteem and think and believe that we are not good enough, we tend to have a negative self-fulfilling prophecy and, as a result, self-sabotage.

Many people attempt to create positive self-esteem by having, doing, or by other people's opinions of them. Some believe that acquiring things of monetary value, like an expensive house or car, will make them think and feel good about themselves. Others believe they will feel good about themselves if they can do something, like a valuable job or essential profession. Still, others will think that getting others to like or think highly of them will make them feel worthwhile and increase their self-worth.

Many believe they can improve their self-esteem by utilizing the abovementioned methods, but none create lasting, authentic self-esteem. There is only one genuine way to improve self-esteem. The most effective method for improving or enhancing self-esteem is cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring is a technique that helps you identify and challenge negative thought patterns and replace them with healthier, positive ways of thinking.

Cognitive restructuring can involve using positive affirmations to help you redefine or transform your current negative self-image and, as a result, improve your self-esteem. An affirmation is anything that you say or think. We can transform our self-image by repeating positive affirmations throughout the day. While this process of transforming oneself is simple, it takes work. Transforming your self-image using a cognitive restructuring strategy with positive affirmations takes time and must be done daily to have the desired effect.

Positive Affirmations have a powerful and profound effect on our psychological and physiological well-being. Using positive affirmations decreases stress, reduces anxiety, increases positive self-worth and self-esteem, controls and eliminates self-sabotaging thoughts and speech, improves academic performance, improves mood, improves problem-solving, promotes positive coping, helps individuals be open to behavior change, improves work, improves relationships with others, improves your ability to be more optimistic, enables you to sleep better.

As a practicing psychotherapist, I have created positive affirmation recordings. I utilize these positive affirmation recordings to help my clients learn how to reduce their negative thoughts and increase positive thinking. This results in improved self-image, self-esteem, and confidence. When my clients use the positive affirmation recordings as prescribed, they get positive results.

My positive affirmation recordings use ten positive affirmations recorded and presented to the listener in a loop fashion. My therapeutic relaxation music is mixed with the positive affirmation recording to relax the individual listening. Research has shown that when a person is relaxed and comfortable, he is more open and receptive to fully accepting positive affirmations.

The optimal way to listen to this recording of positive affirmations is with good-quality headphones. It is also important to rest comfortably in a chair and in front of a full-length mirror while listening to my recording. Ensure you will have no distractions while listening to the positive affirmations on this recording. You must give your full attention to the positive affirmation recording.

When you eventually hear a positive affirmation, there will be a pause of about seven seconds before you hear the following positive affirmation. During this seven-second pause, you will repeat the positive affirmation you just heard aloud. It is essential to say the positive affirmation to yourself in the mirror. During the recording, keep your attention only on the recording of positive affirmations and the image of yourself in the mirror.

If your attention wanders from looking at the picture of yourself in the mirror or listening to the positive affirmations on the recording, gently bring your attention back to the positive affirmations and the image in the mirror. Keeping your attention focused on the positive affirmations and your image in the mirror is part of the meditative experience of the recording. Listen to the entire positive affirmation recording until it ends.

As the recording ends, choose one of the ten positive affirmations to rehearse verbally during the day. This is your positive affirmation to repeat to yourself throughout the day. Choose another positive affirmation the next day, and so on, until you have verbally rehearsed all ten of the positive affirmations on the recording. Continue this practice daily.

Each recording of my positive affirmations is approximately 30 minutes long and costs only $2.95. In addition, each recording comes with a full money-back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied. Click below to experience my positive affirmation recording and to buy it today. When you buy the positive affirmation recording, it will be emailed to you immediately.

Dr. Harry Henshaw

Being Aware of Resistance

Specific barriers exist to recovery and transformation. These barriers inhibit or even stop a person's healing and transformation from knowledge to wisdom. While resistance is a normal part of the change process, it can stop you from transforming your life unless understood adequately and appropriately. Resistance is primarily a psychological process whereby your unconscious program resists or attempts to prevent any new knowledge or information that differs from its inherent structure from being considered or accepted for implementation by the individual.

The first step in moving past your resistance to change is awareness. It is vital to your process and progress in transformation that you know that you are resisting change, resisting what you need to think and do to change, and, as a result, engaging in self-sabotage. Knowing how you resist change helps you move past your resistance and continue your recovery and transformation. When we adequately understand resistance, we can use it to help us continue to change and ensure the change is permanent.

Below are four prevalent, detrimental, and even harmful forms of resistance that can stop your efforts to change and transform your life. These forms of resistance are thought patterns that operate or function in your mind. However, they can be changed and transformed.

Impatience: Impatience is one of the most common and powerful forms of resistance. It occurs when a person wants the rewards or destination of the change process but wants to do something other than the specific work necessary to achieve a state of wisdom. Impatience is based on a solid allegiance to immediate or instant gratification as a way to live life. The solution is to practice patience in all of your daily affairs.

Not following Suggestions: Suggestions are ideas or thoughts from another person designed to assist you in your journey from knowledge to wisdom. Resistance occurs when you do not accept or openly refuse to consider the ideas and thoughts given by another individual to help you successfully travel the road from knowledge to wisdom. The solution is to follow all of the suggestions of your therapist and sponsor without question.

Procrastination: Procrastination is a powerful form of resistance in that the individual constantly puts off doing what he knows he needs to do for his well-being and transformation. Procrastination is continually avoiding the vital work necessary to change one's life. One place where procrastination has shown up is with the implementation of the Daily Health Plan. Procrastination is about believing that you do not deserve the change and transformation. The solution is to know or be aware that you are procrastinating but do what you resist anyway.

Creating Excuses: Excuses are seemingly compelling thoughts and ideas that stop a person from doing the work of transformation. Excuses will initially appear to the person as valid reasons to do or not do something another person has suggested to help them transform their lives. Excuses are used to stop a person from carrying out his Daily Health Plan. The solution is when you become aware of the excuse preventing you from doing what you initially planned, do what you had initially planned.

While it is essential to occasionally ask yourself if you are resisting change, if you think you might be resisting the work necessary to transform your life in a healthy way, it is equally important to ask another person. While it is essential to have this insight yourself, you may also want to ask your therapist or a trusted critic if they detect any resistance patterns you may be running or using to avoid change. Sometimes, another person can see our "blind spots" much better than we can and, in the process, help us to move past them.

Dr. Harry Henshaw

Loving yourself is the only solution

Loving yourself is the only solution to addictive behavior and mental health issues. To change and transform the current trajectory of a person's life, to end an individual's addiction and dependency upon drugs and alcohol forever, and to find an actual resolution to mental health problems will require that the individual learn how to authentically respect, approve, accept, acknowledge and eventually come to love himself just as he is now, in the present moment. 

Learning what loving himself is all about and bringing the knowledge of self-love into his life will give him true wisdom and genuine happiness. Experiencing authentic self-love is simple but requires commitment and dedication to transformation. The individual will need help from others and, as a result, must be open and willing to accept and follow all of the suggestions from others who know about and live the principles of transformation.

To transform himself, the individual will need to learn the knowledge necessary to transform and practice it daily to experience and bring the wisdom of self-love into his life. An individual can transform only if he changes his negative thinking about himself, especially his thinking about his perceived value and worth as a human being, into that which is authentically positive. Any negative ideas, thoughts, beliefs, or considerations about oneself must be given up absolutely and replaced with positive ones. 

When a person comes to think and believe positively about himself, he will come to think and believe that he is perfect, whole, and complete, that he genuinely matters, that he is good enough, that he is enough, just as he is in the present moment and will cease all self-harm. When a person comes to think positively about himself, he will come to love himself authentically, he will no longer have a desire or need to use drugs or alcohol or feel depressed, anxious, and worthless, and he will be accepting and approving with who he is in the present moment, in the Now. As stated above, self-approval and self-acceptance are the keys to genuine self-love.

Dr. Harry Henshaw

Cause of Addictive Behavior

The actual cause of drug and alcohol addiction, addictive behavior, is a thought or belief. The exact cause of an individual's addiction or dependency to drugs and alcohol and many, if not most, mental health problems is that the individual thinks and believes that he is not good enough or less than others, and as a result, there is a lack of self-love due to his negative thinking about his value and worth as a human being.

When a person believes that he is fundamentally not good enough, referred to here as his core or self-limiting belief, he will continually engage in self-destructive or self-sabotaging behaviors that will support, reinforce, and even validate his negative thoughts and beliefs about his perceived value and worth as a human being. What a person thinks and believes about himself will affect, if not determine, how he feels about himself and how he treats and behaves toward himself.

As a result of his negative thinking about himself, he will also source or attract specific dangerous experiences and substances into his life, including and especially drugs and alcohol, that will not only validate his perception of himself but will harm, if not eventually kill him if he continues with that type of behavior. The cause of a person's addiction to drugs and alcohol is in his mind, his mental health, psychology, and thinking, especially in his thoughts and beliefs about himself and not in his body!

Drugs and alcohol are not the real problem; they never have been. Drugs and alcohol are merely symptoms and instruments a person uses to inflict self-harm. More precisely, I believe that drugs and alcohol are simply the instruments that someone uses to self-execute. The actual cause of drug and alcohol addiction is the belief that I am not good enough, inadequate, and do not matter. This principle applies to all other addictive behaviors, including gambling, food disorders, porn, and sex addiction, as well as many, if not most, of the mental health disorders.

Dr. Harry Henshaw