Blog Archive

You’d like to start therapy, but you don’t know how to work it into your overloaded schedule. Or, you aren’t ready to meet in person. Does online teletherapy work as well as in-person counseling? Learn more about this unique, effective option here.

You’ve heard of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but you aren’t sure it applies to you. Are you stressed? Did you experience trauma? Does something from your past haunt you still? Here’s how to tell.

You’re in a stressful situation, and your heart begins to race. It’s hard to catch your breath. You even start to feel like you’re going to faint. Are you just experiencing anxiety, or are you in the middle of a panic attack? Here’s how to tell.

You’re excited to start your eye movement densensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment. Finally, something gives you hope for putting your post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the past. But what happens when you do EMDR? Should you prepare?

Gloomy skies, chilly breezes, and holiday stress are enough to give anyone the blues. When your sadness or feelings of being overwhelmed persist through each calendar day, you wonder: Is it something more than just winter blues? Here’s how to tell.

Don’t get mad, get even; even-tempered, that is. If you find your blood boiling multiple times a day, you’re putting your health, your relationships, and even your livelihood at risk. How can you control your anger? DBT can help.

You chew on your hair. Your fingernails. You sneak a piece of plaster. Or swallow some paper. If you or your child craves and eats nonfood items,  a rare eating disorder called pica may be at the root of the behavior.

Someone you love was sexually abused. Either they told you directly, or you’ve inferred the abuse from comments they’ve made or a situation you’ve witnessed. What do you say? Should you say anything? Should you report the abuse? How can you help?

Whether your family is in crisis or faces unwanted change, you could benefit from family therapy. This short-term intervention helps you communicate more clearly to resolve conflicts and support one another. Is family therapy right for your family?

Teens are surly, rebellious, and difficult — right? But if your child’s mood or habits have changed dramatically, it could be a sign that they’re struggling with a mental health issue. Following are six signs that they could use some help. Everyone know

When you lose a loved one, your health, or a job, you may feel as if you’ll never recover. Any significant loss can trigger grief and make you question your future and your purpose. Grief is overwhelming, but normal. We can help you handle it. 

Depression is often equated with feeling blue or sad, but depression symptoms vary among individuals. When you’re depressed, you think that your situation is hopeless. Therapy helps you reframe your thoughts so that you can feel better, faster. 

Even before the pandemic, rates of anger were on the rise around the world. If you're in a near-constant state of irritation and anger, the stress affects your relationships, your work, and your health. Anger management puts you back in control.

At first, your teen seems interested in staying healthy by making good nutritional choices. But you notice troubling signs and symptoms. They restrict the foods they eat. They’ve lost or gained weight. Do they have an eating disorder?

You’re ready for couples counseling. Your partner isn’t. You certainly can’t do it alone. How can you help your partner understand the benefit of working together to increase communication and harmony? Here are some tips.

Considering how common it is, depression is one of the most misunderstood mental health conditions. Depression can influence every aspect of how you feel and function. Following are five myths about depression that need to be debunked — for good.

If you binge eat, making a New Year’s Resolution to eat less will probably only lead to overeating and feeling bad about it. Instead, resolve to find out why you binge eat, and get the expert counseling you need to change.

When somebody suggests you might benefit from anger management therapy, you probably feel skeptical and … angry. Isn’t anger management just a waste of time? Anger management can’t really fix your problems or make you feel better, can it? It can.

It’s normal, and even beneficial, to feel anxious when confronted with an unfamiliar or challenging situation, but if you feel anxious all the time, you may have an anxiety disorder. Generalized anxiety and social anxiety are two common ones.

When you lose the unconditional love of your beloved pet, you feel bereft and heartbroken. Sometimes the sadness is so intense that it interferes with your life, your other relationships, and even your vision of the future. Here's how to cope.

Depression is the most common mental illness in the United States, so it only stands to reason that it shows up in the workplace as well as in the home. How do you know if you or your coworkers are depressed at work? Here are the signs.

When your anger spirals out of control, you and those around you may be left wondering why. Anger is a normal emotion, but anger that’s out of proportion or frequent isn’t. Are you chronically angry or prone to rage? Here’s why that might be.

After you’ve suffered major trauma, you may feel like you’re trapped in the nightmare of reliving it again and again. But, with help, you can pave a new road for yourself that leaves the trauma, fear, and grief in the past.

When you take longer than anyone else to choose an item from a menu, or if you go back-and-forth on even small decisions, you may be grappling with low self-esteem. Self-esteem affects every aspect of your life, including how quickly you choose.

Having an anxiety disorder is different from feeling anxious or nervous once in a while. An anxiety disorder can affect everything from how you sleep to how well you digest your food. Do you have anxiety? Here’s how to tell.

The plaster in your walls is suddenly appetizing. Or you find yourself chewing paper. Or you have an uncontrollable urge to eat ice. Pica is uncommon in adults, but may be under-diagnosed. If you compulsively crave non-food items, you can get help.

If you struggle with mental health issues, you no longer have to leave the comfort and safety of your own home to get the care you need to feel better. HIPAA-compliant telehealth counseling appointments offer support, safety, and convenience.

Few people enter a marriage hoping to divorce one day, and absolutely nobody longs for a traumatic divorce that keeps you in turmoil and conflict. How do you stay civil while hashing out the details of a fair settlement? Divorce mediation helps.

You’re disturbed by what you see in the mirror. Whether it’s a flaw in your face or your body, you feel like hiding away so that nobody can judge you. But when you listen to others, they see something totally different than you do. Why?

When you grow up in a household with one or more members who are alcoholic, you may worry that you’re doomed for alcoholism, too. Although genes are involved in alcoholism, your genes aren’t your destiny. Here’s why.

If you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you’re caught in the nightmare of your past. Anything from a loud noise to a familiar face triggers an episode in which you relive your trauma. With help, you can leave the past behind you.

When you suffer sexual abuse, one of the consequences may be an unwillingness to trust others. In almost all cases, women, men, and children are abused by somebody they know and, until the moment of attack, trusted. You can learn to feel safe again.

Pica is a rare eating disorder in which you crave and consume non-food items, such as paper, hair, dirt, and plaster. Pregnant women sometimes experience pica, but it’s most common among children. If your child has pica, what can you do?

Anxiety is a common mental health issue that comes in many forms and affects all ages, genders, and races. Just because anxiety’s common, it doesn’t mean you must tolerate it. You can learn to feel more comfortable, confident, and anxiety-free.

Most people would prefer to age in place, surrounded by loving family members. But longer lives come at a cost to those family members, especially when the older loved one has a debilitating physical or mental illness. Family therapy helps you cope.

You lost someone or something you loved, either through death, break-up, or life change. You’re devastated. You can barely function. You cry all the time. Grief is a normal stage of dealing with loss, but if it persists, you may be depressed.

If you struggle with alcoholism, you may also struggle to maintain positive relationships, leaving you feeling abandoned and hopeless. Group therapy helps break your addiction while it provides a supportive community for healing.

If you have trouble managing your anger, it affects everyone in your life, including your partner. Couples counseling helps both of you deal with your anger more effectively by teaching you new communication skills. Here’s how.

About one in 10 people throughout the world have some type of eating disorder. Eating disorders are on the rise, especially among young people whose lives were disrupted by the pandemic. Do you or someone you know have an eating disorder?

If you’re having trouble communicating with your partner, or getting your needs met, you may benefit from couples counseling. With the help of an expert counselor, you and your partner can talk about anything and everything that’s on your mind.

If you’re plagued by anxiety or PTSD, you might benefit from a novel, drug-free therapy called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Through eight phases, you learn to process traumatic memories and move into your future with ease.

Anxiety is a “mental health” disorder, but you can’t separate mental health from physical health. You’re a single being composed of multiple, interconnected systems that influence one another. Here’s how “mental” anxiety affects you, physically.

https://www.happify.com/hd/6-self-care-solutions-for-work-during-covid-19/

If you crave or eat non-food items such as dirt, clay, paint chips, or paper, you may have an eating disorder called pica. Sometimes pica is temporary and caused by nutritional deficiencies. But if it persists, pica can be life-threatening.

The last thing you want is a failed relationship. Whether you’re still in the blush of new love or you’re encountering your first — or hundredth — bump in the road, couples counseling helps your relationship grow and deepen.

You know you need to get your substance use under control. But you aren’t sure you can do it. What will life look like and feel like when you stop self-medicating with recreational drugs, alcohol, food, or other substances? Here’s a glimpse.

You aren’t depressed, you insist. You’re just ticked off. Or you can’t focus. Or you’re sleepy all the time. Those traits, and others, are some of the lesser known symptoms of depression. Depression can be treated. Treatment makes you feel better.

A couple of drinks take the edge off your day. And maybe a couple more help keep your spirits high and the conversation flowing when you’re out with friends. You think you’re in control of your drinking. But are you?

The stereotypical view of eating disorders is that they affect teen girls, who have anorexia or bulimia. But eating disorders strike all ages and all genders. If you’re a man with an eating disorder, early treatment is essential. Here’s why.

Anger is a normal human emotion that you may experience when a situation spirals out of your control. However, you feel angry most of the time. Or your anger is explosive. Is your anger normal? Or is it hurting you and others? Here’s how to tell.

Traumatic incidents can affect your wellbeing, even if they didn’t take place in your own lifetime. If your parents or other progenitors were victims of rape, genocide, oppression, or abuse, you may suffer the aftereffects. You can get help.

You’re madly in love. Or you’re not. In either case, you wonder if you and your partner could benefit from couples counseling. When is it time to seek outside help? Do you have to be in crisis?

Your anger may feel like a normal extension of your personality. But if your anger disrupts your relationships and puts you at risk of committing violent acts, it’s working against you, not for you. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Depression is a serious mental illness that affects other aspects of your health, too. If you have any type of depression, you’re more at risk for dementia, heart disease, other life-threatening conditions, and suicide. All depression is treatable.

Just about everyone you know has some sort of diet or eating plan that others find “peculiar”: Paleo, vegan, keto, fasting. So, the fact that you’re super conscious about what — and when — you eat is absolutely normal, isn’t it? That depends.

You love your partner, but you’re wondering if you’re going to make it in the long haul. The more time you spend together, the more you seem to clash. Once upon a time, you were on the same page. What happened? How do you get back there?

Dealing with family — during any time or circumstance — can be a challenge. Individual needs sometimes conflict with one another. Communication styles differ. How do you preserve the peace and help your family thrive? Family therapy paves the way.

Your parents, aunts, or uncles drank or did drugs. Now you abuse drugs and alcohol, too. Is substance abuse a learned behavior? Or a condition you inherit? It’s actually a little of both.

The world is messed up. You’re a failure. Everyone’s out for themselves. If you’re caught in a trap of negative thinking like that, you have false beliefs that reduce your enjoyment of life. Cognitive therapy helps switch that around.

Feeling anxious is a normal response to troubling or uncertain times. If your anxiety persists, however, it becomes a trouble, too. Despite what’s happening in the world or in your life, you don't have to feel overwhelmed by fear. You can get help.

Whether you were a child when it happened or whether it happened this morning, sexual abuse is a traumatic event that can affect every aspect of your life for years or decades. How do you cope with the aftermath of an act you never wanted?

You’ve heard that a new therapy called “eye movement desensitization and reprocessing” (EMDR) helps you process trauma without spending years in an analyst’s chair. What is EMDR? How does it work? And is it really as fast as everyone claims?

You always swore that if you got cheated on, you’d leave. Immediately. But now the worst has happened, and you wonder whether it’s better to leave or stay and repair the relationship? Couples’ counseling helps you answer those questions and more.

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director of The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling in New York, NY tells you how to be happy.

Things to Let go of to be Happier - a few words of wisdom from Anthony Freire, the clinical Director of The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling, located in Manhattan.

You like to stay slim and trim. However, if you’re eating in secret or vomiting to undo a binge, you have an eating disorder. Is willpower enough to develop a healthy relationship with food, or do you need a helping hand?

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director of the Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling in New York City, speaks to the Huffington Post about how to be Happier by letting some things go.

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director of The Soho Center, located in Manhattan, NY, discusses several things you can let go of to make your life happier in the New Year.

“I’m so OCD!” folks exclaim when they obsess over details, make extensive plans, or go overboard with keeping their spaces clean and tidy. But OCD isn’t obsessing about cleanliness or organization. It’s a serious, disruptive thought disorder.

10 Books that will help you create better habits in the New Year.

Good communication is the hallmark of a successful relationship. But, these days, you and your significant other aren’t communicating well at all. Whether you’re fighting, or feeling distant or neglected, you could benefit from couples counseling.

You’ve heard about PTSD for years, but that’s a condition that only applies to veterans, right? And if you don’t have flashbacks, then you don’t have PTSD … or so you’ve heard. Both of those statements are myths. Get the facts about PTSD right here.

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director at The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling in New York City, is quoted on MSN.COM about how to help someone deal with grief during the holidays.

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director of the Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling, discusses his own coping mechanism for dealing with family issues during the Holidays.

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director at The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling in New York City, Speaks to the Huffington Post about his own coping skills in dealing with Family Issues at the Holidays!

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director at The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling in Manhattan, New York discusses ways in which we can help those who are grieving the loss of a loved one during the Holidays.

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director at The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling in Manhattan, speaks to the Huffington Post about Nightmares and what they really mean.

Grief is hard enough. The holidays can make it feel worse. Anthony Freire, Clinical Director of The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling, speaks to the Huffington Post about ways in which we can deal with grief during the holidays.

When you receive a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, you finally understand why you’ve experienced so many highs and lows. Although you may be distressed to realize you have a disease, you can learn to manage your symptoms and live a rich, full life.

The unexpected death of someone who’s important to you, or losing something you valued triggers an intense emotion called grief. Grief is a normal response to loss, but sometimes grief’s intensity threatens your wellbeing. Here’s how to cope.

This article discusses the important of sleep and how sleep issues and disorders can impact your emotional and physical health. Here at The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling, in New York City, we work with clients to improve sleep hygiene.

Below, Vanessa Sepul-Azcarraga, an Advanced Clinical Intern at the Soho Center and NYU graduate student in Mental Health Counseling, discusses the role breath work plays in our emotional and physical well-being.

New York City is one of the most exciting places on earth. But excitement, like other aspects of modern life, can be stressful. Here’s how to tell if stress is affecting your mental health.

This article discusses the role that more "spiritual" and "alternative" beliefs, like tarot and astrology, play in the therapy room with clients.

What do dreams mean? When should you get help? Anthony discusses dreams in this article in the New York Times

Anthony Freire, Clinical Director of The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling, writes op ed piece for New York Post about ThriveNYC's recent pull-out from a scheduled psycho-education training with NYC police because of #BlueLiveMatters sponsorship.

After appearing in the Huffington Post, Anthony Freire, LMHC, NCC, NCMHC, was asked by Empower Magazine to help talk about the stigma around Mental Health issues in the Middle East. Along with his Colleague, Dana Tuqan, LMHC, they discuss this issue.

Your anger is out of control, and you know it. Even small frustrations — like getting cut off in traffic — send you into a rage. You’re thinking about anger management therapy, but you aren’t sure it can combat your level of aggression. It can.

If you were ever sexually abused — either as a child or an adult — physical intimacy may trigger unpleasant memories and intense emotions, such as anger and fear. Recovering from abuse and reclaiming your sexuality take time, but you can do it.

Anthony Freire, LMHC, NCC, CCMHC, the Clinical Director and Founder of The Soho Center for Mental Health Counseling was asked to contribute his expertise in the field of Trauma. Anthony chimes in on way therapists can avoid vicarious trauma.

Your loved one’s suddenly changed their diet or meal habits. Does this mean that they’re taking control of their health? Or that they’ve developed an eating disorder? Learn the early signs of eating disorders, so they can get the help they need.

You’ve finally found The One. Or, at least, The One to Whom You’re Ready to Commit. But you know the stats, and they aren’t good. Can you do anything to strengthen your relationship, so you grow closer through the years, instead of drifting apart?

Nightmares, flashbacks, and a feeling that you aren’t safe are hallmarks of a psychiatric disorder known as PTSD. Cutting-edge therapies, such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), help you leave PTSD in the past where it belongs.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is more than copious hand washing or worrying about things that are unlikely to happen. Not having control of your thoughts and actions due to OCD may interfere with your routine and diminish your quality of life.

Sentiments around childhood tend to revolve around images of innocence and bliss. Unfortunately, for a large number of women and men in the U.S., childhood was anything but blissful. If you had a negative childhood, how do you heal as an adult?

The bad news is, women are about twice as likely to be diagnosed with clinical depression than men are. The good news is, they’re more likely to seek treatment and feel better, too.

The long winter months can be trying, but, for some, they bring with them a type of depression that comes and goes with the season. Here’s what you should know about seasonal affective disorder and what we can do about it.

You find yourself reaching for a drink even when you know you’ve had too many, and even though you know it could make you miss school or work the next day. You start to wonder: Am I an alcoholic? Or just a “problem” drinker? Is there a difference?

Anxiety disorders may be the most common form of mental illness, but they’re also highly treatable. If you often feel worried, fearful, or anxious, here’s how to tell if you need professional help.