Help Offered:

Self Assessment Tests

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the treatment of psychological and emotional disorders, dysfunctional relationship patterns, and the healing of emotional or traumatic wounds. The goals may be relief of symptoms, changes in unhealthy behavior, improved social and relational functioning, spiritual and/or personality growth. Whatever form of psychotherapy you choose, research has shown that the relationship with the therapist is the key factor to patient satisfaction and therapy outcome. We hope we will be able to meet your needs here at Florham Park Counseling.

Couples/Marriage Counseling

It is our nature as human beings to want to feel connected…attached to someone. That’s why most people marry or make life commitments to each other in the first place. But then, slowly, something goes wrong. The relationship and authentic communication takes a back seat to careers, computers, hobbies, drinking, drugging, friends, or kids. Not to mention the whole extended family. If your primary connection in life shifts away from your partner, it is likely to prove fatal to your relationship. But with commitment and hard work, you can learn to communicate lovingly, reconnect, stop fighting, and become the happy couple you yearn to be.

About Imago Therapy: http://therapyct.com/aboutImagoTherapy.html
Stepfamily Association of America: http://www.saafamilies.org/index.htm
Gottman Relationship Quiz: http://www.gottman.com/marriage/relationship_quiz/quiz1/

Women’s Issues

Women sometimes have problems they find difficult to talk about: painful life choices, sexuality, patterns of choosing the same wrong partner, in a different body, over and over! Other sensitive issues include fear of intimacy or abandonment. Physical losses such as miscarriage and mastectomy. Post-partum depression and menopause. Some are recovering from the devastating effects of abuse, incest, or rape. Or secretly living in an abusive relationship. You may cope self destructively, in secret. It helps to talk to a professional you can feel comfortable with, who has experience and sensitivity to your needs. You deserve to feel better and you can feel better.

PostPartum Depression:http://www.4woman.gov/faq/postpartum.htm
Miscarriage: http://medicalreporter.health.org/tmr0397/miscarriage0397.html
Sexuality: http://www.newshe.com/transition/
Menopause: http://www.menopause-online.com/
Domestic Violence: http://www.dasi.org/
Rape, Abuse, Incest: http://www.rainn.org/
Self Injury: http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/injury.html
Sexual Orientation Info: http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html

Anger Management

We offer a two pronged approach to anger management:

First, in order to keep yourself and your loved ones safe, it is necessary to learn and apply immediate behavioral skills. We teach clients to identify the beginnings of anger before it escalates into full blown rage. By learning to notice the very early physical sensations, you control them before they control you. This is a combination of traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and mind body work.

Second, we work on eliminating the "buttons that got pushed" in the first place, which nearly always date back to childhood isues triggering the adult rage response. Through the use of EMDR, DNMS or hypnotherapy we extinguish the "buttons" so that they are no longer in existence to be pusehd. Through these methods we’re obtaining exciting and very promising results in our work with anger problems. We offer it in both individual and couples work, which often results in better intimate, family, and work relationships.

Male Anger: http://www.malehealthcenter.com/c_anger.html
* Strongly Recommended: http://www.menweb.org/terrreal.htm

Male Depression

Men are underserved in the field of mental health. Way too many men are depressed and unaware of it. Why? Because our culture raises men to not even feel their feelings, never mind recognize or talk about them. Chronic negativity, irritability, a quick temper (see Anger Management above) lack of sexual desire, sleep difficulties, and social withdrawal are all signs of depression. We can help you to conquer the depression that rules your life, and all too frequently your relationships as well.

Info: http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/depression/men_2.asp
Male Menopause: http://www.midlife-passages.com/depressi.htm
Sexual Orientation Info: http://www.apa.org/topics/orientation.html

EMDR

EMDR is a treatment used to help people who’ve been physically or emotionally traumatized. Trauma symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, spacing out, panic, numbness, being easily startled, or a sense of a foreshortened future. These symptoms may be signs of full blown PTSD, (posttraumatic stress disorder) or general trauma responses.

EMDR helps people who can’t get over the trauma. You may notice you can’t get your thoughts, emotions and behavior to work altogether in a healthy way. This happens because sad or traumatic
life experiences seem to “freeze” our emotional logic and trigger us into seemingly irrational feelings and behavior. We may know one thing, but feel or behave completely differently. We feel out of control. If we experience any kind of assault or even witness it, we somehow think it’s our fault.

It’s really not irrational. You needed to “freeze” at the time of the trauma in order to survive. But what’s happening now is that present situations are triggering that “frozen” emotional state, making you feel as if your survival is again at risk. Something happens which takes your body sensations or thoughts back to the bad experience and you have an emotional “meltdown”. In other words, you react to certain present situations as if you were still back in the traumatic event. What helped in the past is a problem in the present.

EMDR is an effective therapy in which the therapist guides you in your own self healing. It helps you get unstuck. You free yourself of negative thoughts about yourself by focusing, at your own pace, on
the traumatic “freeze”: body sensation, thoughts and emotions surrounding the traumatic event. With the support and skills of the therapist, the psyche remembers what it already knows: its not you, it’s what happened to you.

You deserve to feel better.

Further reading: http://www.emdr.com/q&a.htm

Adolescents

The years of adolescence can be hard on all involved, but with love and careful guidance the transition can be a time of growth for the whole family. Teens and their families often need help during this difficult transition. It’s hard to know what’s normal vs. cause for concern. We can work on personal or social issues, emotional and behavioral problems and family conflicts. The years of adolescence can be hard on all involved, but with love and careful guidance the transition can be a time of growth for the whole family.

Communication: http://therapyct.com/teen_communication.html
Teen Depression: http://parentingteens.about.com/b/a/181355.htm
More Teen Depression: http://parentingteens.about.com/b/a/181355.htm

Grief

Grief can feel unbearable or abnormal. You may feel stuck because people expect that “by now you should be over it”. Or, “its time to move on.” What they don’t understand until they go through
it is there are no timetables when it comes to grief. Support may be lacking if people do not understand the significance of your relationship with the deceased friend, lover, family member or pet. It helps to have a caring professional to talk with who can guide you through your process.

Grief Support: http://www.journeyofhearts.org/jofh
Pet Loss Support: http://www.creatures.com/PetLoss.html
Men & Grief: http://www.lupusmn.org/Education/Articles/ForbiddenGrief-MeninPain.htm
Families and Grief: http://www.archrespite.org/archfs21.htm

DNMS

DNMS is a gentle kind of therapy that helps you get needs met now that you missed out on as a child, such as the need to feel safe, warm, protected and nurtured. DNMS is especially helpful for adults traumatized as children, adults left alone as children, adult children of alcoholics, and adults abused as children. It also helps the depression and anxiety that result from such painful early years and is showing promising results in lasting anger management. More...

Substance Abuse Counseling

You may want to seek a substance abuse screening if...

You have chronic hangovers, difficulty studying or working, or otherwise question your relationship to alcohol and/or drugs.
Someone who cares has expressed concern about your use of drugs/alcohol.
You frequently use drugs or alcohol to a state of intoxication.
You experience a blackout (a temporary loss of memory), due to the use of alcohol.
You resist hearing or learning anything about the negative effects of drugs/alcohol.
You come into conflict with the law, or sustain bodily injury as a consequence of intoxication.
You were raised in a family where problem drinking or alcoholism was present.
You have friends or loved ones whose use of mood-altering substances is a concern to you.
If any of these or other negative consequences of substance abuse are present, it makes good sense to seek evaluation and help

We have a NJ Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor affiliate who is available to help you or your loved ones with possible or ongoing drug/alcohol concerns.