Therapy and Counseling Services Blog | Lancaster, PA

It’s Summer, Time to Focus on Your Child’s Mental Health

Published on: June 15, 2017

Summer is here and that means more time to focus on things other than school, such as mental health. If you noticed changes in your child/teens demeanor during the school year, or they appear to be struggling then it might be time to bring them into counseling especially while they have the time to focus on mental health. By giving them the tools to work through emotions, and helping them to get to the core of their distress they will be better prepared come September. How can you tell if your child is in need of therapy services?… Continue Reading This Article

Struggles with Infertility: How to Talk about It

Published on: May 25, 2017

You have been trying for years to get pregnant, and nothing is working. You feel defeated. You feel incomplete. You feel broken. Hurt. Embarrassed. Sad. Alone. Infertility is a real problem — one that over 7 million couples face — yet it is often kept a secret. Hard to Talk About It is hard to talk about, understandably so — it is extremely personal. It feels like you did something wrong, something unspeakable. But why does it feel so shameful when it is really out of your control? You couldn’t have predicted this. You don’t know what is going on… Continue Reading This Article

Postpartum Depression: One Woman’s Story

Published on: May 9, 2017

Many times we expect a smooth transition after having a baby. After all, we do expect it to be the happiest time of our lives, right? Well, what happens when it doesn’t turn out to be the happiest time of our life? Let’s take a look at Grace’s story (fictionalized client). Grace is a new mom who had her first baby four months ago. She called Move Forward Counseling when she found herself crying uncontrollably, unable to get to work, and excessive and frequent thoughts of something happening to her baby or her spouse. “I don’t feel like myself” During… Continue Reading This Article

Debunking the Many Myths of Motherhood

Published on: March 30, 2017

Being a mom is a big role all on its own– you are responsible for shaping this little person into a successful human, add to that the great expectations that society places on moms, and, well things can be just plain overwhelming. We all have that vision of the sitcom mom. You know – the one that always has a perfectly clean house, a beautifully cooked dinner on the table every night at 5:30 sharp, and children who never have peanut butter smeared across their face and always ALWAYS have both shoes on when they leave the house. Let’s Debunk… Continue Reading This Article

Move Forward Counseling Practice Updates

Published on: February 16, 2017

New Staff We are excited to announce we have added another excellent clinician to our team! Jennifer Collins, PsyD, started working at our practice in January 2017. She has many years of experience working in the mental health field. She enjoys working with clients who are struggling with emotional/binge eating, adult ADHD, infertility and any physical health issues that affect mental health. Jennifer works with adult clients and accepts Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Highmark Blue Shield insurances. You can read more about Jennifer on her page. Counseling for Pregnant and Postpartum Moms Melissa Sickles, LPC, has recently earned her maternal… Continue Reading This Article

Muse: The Next Generation of Meditation

Published on: February 7, 2017

Move Forward Counseling prides itself on the ability to provide tangible tools to use when times get tough. Some of these tools include reframing thoughts into healthy patterns, identifying coping skills, and mindfulness exercises. We are excited to announce that we now have a tool to help increase success rates with mindfulness exercises! Introducing, Muse, a headband that utilizes EEG technology to provide real-time feedback during mindfulness practice. We will talk about how it works in a minute, but first let’s talk about how mindfulness works. What is Mindfulness? All too often we tend to focus on “I should have”… Continue Reading This Article

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Therapy

Published on: January 12, 2017

I met a friend for coffee yesterday who told me the story about how counseling literally changed her life. Many years ago, she was going through a divorce and had two little kids at home. She was struggling in all aspects of her life so she went to counseling. She told me at first she thought the counselor was going to “give her all the answers,” but she quickly realized therapy is a journey where you have to find your own answers. She reflects back on that time and is so grateful that she was willing to go through the… Continue Reading This Article

This Year, Make a New Year’s Mantra Instead of a Resolution

Published on: January 2, 2017

It is a New Year and time to make some positive life changes, or as we call them – New Year’s resolutions. This year we urge you to take a different approach to the resolution. Rather than strive for a physical goal put your brain to work by coming up with a New Year’s mantra. A mantra, if you are unfamiliar with the term, comes from “man” meaning mind and “tra” meaning “instrument” – a mantra is an “instrument of the mind.” (Source: Huffington Post) It is a personal slogan or motto that is said repeatedly. By changing the way… Continue Reading This Article

How To Manage Holiday Stress Through Mindfulness

Published on: December 15, 2016

We all know that the holidays can be a stressful time since there are a seemingly endless amount of tasks and responsibilities. To start–shopping for presents, wrapping presents, cleaning, decorating, shopping for groceries, cooking large meals, attending holiday parties, and arranging schedules to visit with family are just some of the responsibilities required of us. That’s an incredible amount of tasks to complete in less than a month’s time! How Do You Manage Holiday Stress? It’s not hard to see how easily we can become overwhelmed with such a daunting list, but what if we stepped aside and took an… Continue Reading This Article

Don’t Let the Holidays Get You Down

Published on: December 5, 2016

The cookies. The decorating. The shopping. The parties. The cards. And all the wrapping! It sounds so fun at first then the stress kicks in. It doesn’t take long for that to-do list to get overwhelming. Remind Yourself of What the Holidays are Really About But, the truth is you don’t have to do it all. Cut yourself some slack and remember what the holiday season is really about – spending time with family; focusing on the good in life. That meaning can get lost in all the hustle and bustle and lead to one stressed out, miserable person. Nine… Continue Reading This Article