Five Tips for Surviving and Thriving in Your First Year of College
Beginning your first year of college offers new, exciting adventures, yet can push you into an entirely new routine that is challenging to navigate.
3 Manipulation Tactics and How To Respond
Dealing with people who engage in manipulative behavior can be extremely difficult. The interaction can leave you feeling guilty, angry, frustrated, and stuck.
Why Your Helping Isn’t Helpful and What To Do About It
Sometimes we help our loved ones so much they don’t have to help themselves. Sometimes we want them feeling better more than they want to be better. When this happens, our help isn’t helping. Additionally, we are hurting ourselves.
How Parents Can Help Regulate Their Child’s Emotions
We often assume our children deliberately choose to behave or misbehave. We don’t recognize that many of our children’s behavior is their body’s reaction to stress. A good amount of a child’s behavior emerges from unintentional, subconscious, and automatic responses to stress.
8 Ways You Can Better Manage Your Emotions…Starting Today
Regulating our emotions has many benefits. Our relationships improve. We are calmer and more at peace as we better manage ourselves. We know to admit we were wrong and ask forgiveness when we go out of control.
Stop Making This Big Mistake When You Feel Strong Emotions…and Do This Instead.
Taking responsibility of our emotions empowers us and gives us control over our lives. Recognizing this responsibility frees us to discover more about ourselves and heal from old wounds by seeing where our triggers come from. We see choices we can make in relationships and frees us to express ourselves.
False Guilt Holds Us Back from Healthy Relationships
There’s a difference between true and false guilt. Often, we don’t recognize the difference. When we don’t recognize false guilt, we treat it like it’s true. We believe we have done harm and we beat ourselves up. We put extra pressure on ourselves. We aren’t always sure what to do and how to fix it.
What To Do When You Can’t Forgive Yourself
Our physical and mental health improves when we forgive ourselves. We are more at peace with ourselves and others. Our relationships improve as we have a more positive outlook. Our thinking is clearer.
The Biggest Mistake People Make After They Forgive… and What to do Instead
Too many people think that when you forgive, it means the relationship should just go back to the way it was.
But that’s not always a healthy choice.
To have the relationships we want, we need to learn the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, and know when it’s appropriate (and when it’s not) to reconcile.
Forgiveness is Hard… and Healthy
Forgiveness is hard. When we forgive quickly, we can enjoy life, be more relaxed, and feel freer. Make forgiveness a regular habit.
5 Tips from a Therapist that Adult Children Can Use to Improve Their Relationship with Their Parents
Conversations about adult children and their parents have been making headlines recently. Some people are wondering whether therapy encourages adult children to distance themselves from their families.
At Light the Way Counseling Center, we believe effective therapy isn't about creating division—it's about helping people build healthier relationships whenever it is safe and possible.
Every family has conflict. Every family experiences misunderstandings. While some relationships require firm boundaries or even distance for safety, many strained relationships can improve through honest communication, greater understanding, emotional healing, and intentional effort from both parents and adult children.
5 Tips to Help Parents and Their Adult Children Improve their Relationship: What Good Therapy Really Encourages
Relationships are hard. As your child grows and matures the changes you see are challenging. As a parent, changes are hard. Allow yourself to mourn the losses of childhood while embracing the new adventures your adult child experiences