When we fall in love with our spouses or partners, we never imagine that someday the honeymoon phase might end. We want to believe those Hollywood romantic comedies that make us believe we will “live happily ever after.” The truth is, all couples have their fair share of ups and downs. That’s natural. Healthy relationships […]

Beginning in 2021, Avalon Counseling, LLC will be administering cutting edge treatment for anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Virtual Reality (VR), also called Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) is where Acceptance Commitment Therapy meets the latest technology.  In VRET, patients are fitted with a headset and headphones and with the help of the […]

This article is part three of a three-part series on attachment styles. The first describes the four attachment styles.  The second describes four critical ways your attachment style affects your relationships. Before we talk about how to overcome insecure attachment, let’s have a little refresher on attachment styles. They’re patterns of how we think, feel, […]

Have you seen the show How I Met Your Mother? It’s about a bunch of flawed but lovable New Yorkers trying to find (or hang onto) love as they go through life’s changes, which range from silly to momentous. It’s a funny, feel-good, and sometimes poignant sitcom. But what I like most about it is that […]

Let’s say you’ve been dating someone for three months, and things have been going well. You have a great connection; you share a sense of humor; you like each other’s friends; you haven’t seen any red flags. You haven’t been going on dates with anyone else for a couple of months now. One evening, this […]

Each of us has someone in our life who makes us feel as invalid as an expired coupon. All too often, that person is our very own self, but sometimes it’s a parent, a partner, or a friend. Many of my patients want to know what to do about a person in their life who […]

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects millions of people and causes a lot of mental, physical, and spiritual distress. Because OCD can be debilitating, it is important to note that the problem is not the disorder itself; rather, it is the anxiety that comes from the symptoms of the disorder. So when you are compulsively demanding […]

Have you ever found yourself caught in a downward spiral of negative thoughts? It’s as if your mind is like a funnel with thoughts racing towards the bottom only to get stuck in the neck. The more you try to think your way out of the funnel, the more distressed you become because there appears […]

All parents remember the emotions experienced when their first child was born. Besides boundless joy, we also experienced an overwhelming sense of responsibility. We realized we needed to make adjustments. For instance, when a young friend became a father for the first time, he and his wife were worried about leaving the hospital with their […]

Many of us may have grown up with the idea that making mistakes is a bad thing. When we received a bad grade or things didn’t go as expected, we may have felt distressed as we told our parents about it. We worried about their negative reaction. The urge to avoid errors goes back to […]