Seven Senses; No, Not the Paranormal Ones

on February 22, 2024 at 1:23 PM /

Mental Health Awareness

While in session with a client recently, they told me they had found a book which turned out to be one of the most helpful books they had ever read. Considering that I know this person has read a lot of books, I was intrigued. We discussed the book and the lessons in the book at length. I immediately purchased the book, You Are Not A Rock by Mark Freeman, following that appointment thinking, “wow, how many other people might also find this helpful.” Since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and considering the things Mr. Freeman has...

OCD at Home: How Families Can Work Together for Progress

By Rice Psychology Group

on October 10, 2023 at 5:28 PM /

Parenting is tough. Parenting a kid with OCD? Even tougher. Parents often do whatever they can to alleviate their child’s distress related to their OCD. Sometimes, though, what they do ends up reinforcing their child’s OCD, which can make their OCD stronger. Many families accommodate their child’s OCD. How could you not? It is difficult to watch your child struggle. Some family accommodations are appropriate as well. How do you know what is reinforcing their OCD vs. what is helping? At Rice Psychology in Tampa, we recognize how difficult it can be to make this distinction. Here are some examples...

Empowering Parents: Supporting a Child Who is Self-Harming

By Rice Psychology Group

on September 27, 2023 at 12:56 PM /

Finding out your child has self-harmed might be one of the most challenging things you can go through as a parent. You may feel disappointed, confused, angry, guilty, in denial, or all the above. How could the child you have spent so much time and energy on feel the need to hurt themselves? The answer is complicated and different for each child. What is Self-harm? Self-harm is any action that a person takes to cause injury outside of socially acceptable practices and without suicidal intent. Common forms of self-harm include cutting, burning, and hitting/punching self, but they can take many other forms....

Autumn Anxiety: Keeping Your Mental Health in Check this Season

By Rice Psychology Group

on November 18, 2022 at 12:44 PM /

Depression

The days of summer and carefree living are gone, and fall is in full swing. It’s the season of shorter days, school deadlines, sports events, holidays, and ultimately stress. Yes, with everything this time of year brings, stress and anxiety are on almost everyone’s plate. Understanding how to deal with these emotions this season can be difficult. Rice Psychology Group understands many people feel an increase in anxiety during the autumn months, and we have a few tips you can use to manage those feelings. Recognize What You’re Feeling It is normal to feel overwhelmed during this time of year. Maybe you...

Doing Away with the Back-to-School Blues

By Rice Psychology Group

on August 26, 2022 at 11:40 AM /

Anxiety Disorder

It’s that time of year again, kids and teachers are back to school. It’s not uncommon for children, teens, and young adults to groan and roll their eyes as they get back in the swing of getting up early, doing homework, and having late-night study sessions. Not to mention dealing with new teachers, new classmates, and new experiences. For some students, a new school year can be very exciting. For others not so much, as these new situations can bring about anxiousness and uncertainty. At Rice Psychology Group, our Tampa psychologists want to help you and your children understand and deal...

What Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is and How it Works

By Rice Psychology Group

on September 6, 2021 at 9:01 PM /

Consider the following story as it relates to this week’s topic. Mary gets the fifth call this week from her child’s preschool about her son hitting other kids, not listening to instructions, and generally being disruptive. She picks him up, tries to talk to him about what happened, and all he does is scream “No!” at her until she gives up. At the grocery store, her son continues to scream as he sits in the cart. Mary gets judgmental looks from other shoppers and does her best to ignore them but feels completely embarrassed. Finally, she hands her son her phone...

The Illusion of Control in the Year of COVID-19

By Rice Psychology Group

on June 7, 2021 at 10:27 AM /

June 2021 looks vastly different from June 2020, in the United States at least. We went from the uncertainty of what COVID-19 would bring, the difficulty of facing social distancing, and scrambling to find or make masks to having hope that we are finally getting a handle on this whole “COVID thing.” Many states are lifting restrictions on masks and social distancing, and more and more people are getting vaccinated every day. So, why are some people struggling with more intense fear and uncertainty? There is hope and our nation is recovering, yet here we struggle. Giving Up What Made Us Feel...

Some Insight from Our Team on Mental Health and Race

By Rice Psychology Group

on March 4, 2021 at 6:12 PM /

In a previous piece for Black History Month, I wrote about how therapy has evolved over the years to become a more welcoming space for People of Color. I encourage you to take a look at it before diving into this one. While I wrote about the importance of having a therapist who can and will talk about the impact of race and culture, I didn’t go into much detail. In this piece about therapy for Black and other non-White racial/ethnic groups, I’d like to share how our licensed psychologists and therapists in Tampa work with clients of various races and...

The Stigma of Mental Health in the Black Community

By Rice Psychology Group

on February 5, 2021 at 4:28 PM /

The origins of modern psychotherapy date back to Sigmund Freud in Vienna in the late 19th century. At that time, patients visited Dr. Freud several days a week to lie down on his couch and say anything that came to mind. During treatment for mysterious emotional or behavioral difficulties, Dr. Freud, who didn’t say much during the session, was the ultimate authority: interpreting, diagnosing, and prescribing treatment. Psychotherapy, in its original form, though helpful, wasn’t without its problems. It could be a judgmental environment where someone didn’t know what it was like to be his patient (most were women), and it...

Embracing First Times: What You Can do to Make New Experiences Easier

By Rice Psychology Group

on July 17, 2020 at 3:05 PM /

It can be especially challenging to navigate new experiences in the middle of a pandemic. It seems like we just can’t plan fast enough to keep up the pace when major changes are happening in the world. Over the past few months, I experienced more first times than I can count, and let me tell you, they were hard! I recently came across a podcast and blog by Dr. Brené Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston, where she shared how hard it is to be new at things. In the blog, she writes that “showing up and pushing...