Need community access to mental healthcare? We can help.

While every person is different, we all experience the same things: happiness, sadness, trauma, stress, anxiety and other emotions. But not everyone has access to mental healthcare. The WellMinded Counseling team is committed to making a difference - and not just through outstanding therapy for patients. 

WellMinded Counseling offers low-cost therapy sessions to further community access to mental healthcare. Get to know our two interns who provide low-cost therapy sessions at WellMinded Counseling. We look forward to seeing you!

Paige Leedy

Outstanding therapy begins with relationship-building. Paige believes every person has a unique set of strengths and can and will be used to aid the healing process. 

Paige received her masters degree in social work from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2018. Having worked and interned in hospital, residential and community mental health settings, Paige uses these experiences to help people overcome a variety of barriers to living a person's best life such as trauma, anxiety, depression, loss, suicidal thoughts, and conflicts within families. Using a variety of therapeutic modalities, along with specialized training in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Paige works to help reduce the effects of trauma for children and teens.  A majority of her experience is with children, adolescents and families, and she loves to help this population bond and build better relationships within the family system, as well as explore feelings and personal values that can aid in feeling more energized and overall more fulfilled. 

Andorra Turner

Learning from the experiences of others is critical to growing a career in counseling. 

Andorra secured a degree in psychology from UNC-Asheville in 2018. After graduation, Andorra began teaching English to children in Indonesia for two years. The experience taught her many things: how to relate to others who are different from you and how to learn from their experiences. 

After moving to Colorado, Andorra began working as a caregiver in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. From her experience in Indonesia and the group home, Andorra knew she wanted to work one-on-one with others. Using a variety of logic-based therapeutic modalities, Andorra works to help others recognize their strengths, explore their feelings and create a more fulfilling life.

Keep Your Mental Health in Check: A Book List

It’s been four months since many of us were advised to quarantine and stay hunkered down due to COVID-19. Yet with the ongoing negative news about the pandemic, it’s no surprise that everyone’s mental health is at risk.

Let’s be honest: we can’t help but embrace the grumpy news that fills the internet and our news feeds about the virus. But rather than absorbing negativity, it’s important to dive into meaningful, positive activities that serve as an outlet from the ongoing negative environment. One solution? Dive into a satisfying list of books that can help start your day differently.

Must-Read Books for Better Mental Health

Rather than exposing yourself to gruesome headlines each day, begin the day by embracing our list of must-read books that help subside the craving for social media, reduce the need to check news on a constant basis and instead, fall in love with the character in life who matters most: you.

1. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown - Cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection to embrace your imperfections and to recognize that you are enough.

2. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - While we can’t avoid suffering, we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.

3. If You Feel Too Much by Jamie Tworkowski - Celebrate hope, wonder and what it means to be human.

4. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown - Explore how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity.

5. Body Positive Power- by Megan Jayne Crabe - We believe that our bodies are the problem, but this is not true. It’s how we’ve been taught to see our bodies that’s the problem. It's time for us all to stop believing the lies we've been fed up with, and start focusing on what it means to be beautiful, and take our power back.

6. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson - How to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

7. Life Without Ed by Jenni Schaefer - Ed (Eating disorder) controlled Jenni’s life, distorted her self-image, and tried to physically harm her throughout their long affair. Then, in therapy, she learned to treat her eating disorder as a relationship, not a condition. By thinking of her eating disorder as a unique personality separate from her own, Jenni was able to break up with Ed once and for all - and you can also break up with the Ed in your life. 

8. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb - A deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal­ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them. 

9. Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole MS RD and Elyse Resch MS RD - Create a health relationship with food, mind and body.

10. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown- The ultimate playbook for developing brave leaders and courageous cultures. 

11. Wild by Cheryl Strayed - Explore the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her. 

12. Rising Strong by Brene Brown - Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. 

13. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - Explore the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

14. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - A step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity--principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

Why Self-Love is Critical to Managing Perfectionism

While many of us have felt the need to juggle our professional life with our personal life for several months now, few of us feel we accomplish this balance successfully. In a world filled with digital influencers on social media and through email marketing, it’s tough to not compare yourself to others who seemingly “have it all together.” The reality? Many of us strive for perfectionism without realizing that it isn’t realistic. No one actually “has it all figured out.”

Let’s be honest: Feeling insecure and striving for perfectionism is painful, and even more painful during an uncomfortable, unusual time such as the current pandemic. While many, if not all people, are faced with negative feelings at one time or another, lacking a strong sense of self-love or self-esteem can wreak havoc on our happiness. 

Even more apparent in today’s world, individuals are constantly expected to not only fulfill multiple roles, but fulfill each of them exceptionally well. Today’s working executives are also parents, daughters or sons, caretakers, or community volunteers. The growing list of responsibilities while still maintaining balance is increasingly becoming more unrealistic, leading us to feel the woes of poor self-esteem.

Often, we may experience: 

• Doubtfulness

• Feeling like you're "not enough"

• Difficulty making decisions for yourself

• Feelings of failure, emptiness, intense disappointment

• Hypersensitivity to peoples comments

• Inability to discern who to trust and who not to trust

• Holding rigid views of self

Low self-esteem and lack of self-love can appear in three forms:

1. The Impostor: acts happy and successful, but is really terrified of failure. Lives with the constant fear that she or he will be "found out." Needs continuous successes to maintain the mask of positive self-esteem, which may lead to problems with perfectionism, procrastination, competition, and burn-out. Often looks like a high-achieving individual.

2. The Rebel: acts like the opinions or good will of others - especially people who are important or powerful - don't matter. Lives with constant anger about not feeling "good enough." Continuously needs to prove that others' judgments and criticisms don't hurt, which may lead to problems like blaming others excessively, breaking rules or laws, or fighting authority. Often looks like Oppositional Defiance in teenagers.

3. The Loser: acts helpless and unable to cope with the world and waits for someone to come to the rescue. Uses self-pity or indifference as a shield against fear of taking responsibility for changing his or her life. Looks constantly to others for guidance, which can lead to such problems as lacking assertiveness skills, under-achievement, and excessive reliance on others in relationships. Often looks like someone that plays a victim.

Regardless if we’re living in an unprecedented pandemic, the growing list of responsibilities for all Americans is unprecedented. The responsibilities one has now are greater than the responsibilities held by our counterparts from 10, 20 or 30 years ago. 

Rather than thinking in terms of “I should do this” or “I need to do this,” dig deep - and cut yourself some slack. Today’s world is filled with more exponential changes than we ever thought could exist. 

All hope isn’t lost when it comes to establishing self-love to manage perfectionism. Therapy can help you to regain or gain a sense of self-confidence and thus, self-love. After all, therapy is an investment in yourself because you will:

• Unmask persona that they are putting on to hide their self-esteem issues

• Explore feelings of feeling less competent than most others. 

• Raise awareness of self disapproval statements.

• Raise insight into the origins and current sources of low self esteem. 

• Identify and list activities that would improve self image and define a plan to achieve those goals.

• Reduce fear of rejection while increasing statements of self acceptance.

• Reduce the frequency of negative self descriptive feelings and increase frequency of positive self descriptive feelings.

• Learn to acknowledge and accept verbal compliments from others.

• Raise frequency of assertive behaviors. 

• Develop realistic attainable goals in different areas of life.

• Take full responsibility for accomplishments without discounting his or her effort. 

• Identify and list any negative self talk messages used to reinforce low self esteem. 

• Use positive self talk messages to build self esteem. 

• Raise the frequency and ability to speak up with confidence in social situations.

Ready to explore how therapy can help you ignite your self-love and manage perfectionism? Contact us today!

3 Reasons Why You Should Disconnect from Remote Work

The American culture has conditioned us to be hooked on our work, whether we are in or out of the office. Now the Coronavirus pandemic has many of us working remotely more than ever. While employers expect employees to maintain productivity, working remotely doesn’t mean working 24/7. With more video conference meetings and minimal commuting to begin and end the workday, it’s no surprise that studies show people are working more hours per week compared to pre-pandemic times. 

Let’s face it: our minds are constantly plugged into different tasks, technologies and more, leading us to think we’re being productive when in reality - we aren’t. 

When we’re constantly thinking of work outside of normal work hours - whether it is to check email phones or respond to texts - we can’t be entirely present in the moment at home, resulting in minimal work-life balance. 

Aside from work-life balance, there’s more reasons why you should disconnect from remote work:

1. Increased productivity

   Longer hours don’t necessarily equate to more work getting done. Most people do their best work between 2 and 6 of the working hours within a given day and fatigue drastically sets in after 9 hours, resulting in less productivity. Therefore, employees can’t deliver their full potential. 

   Aside from longer hours leading to minimal productivity, the need to continually be available and respond quickly adds up. While it may seem productive, multitasking also decreases quality of work because our minds are not entirely focused on the task at hand.

   Create set work hours and avoid responding to email after hours by shutting down the laptop and turning off the phone notifications. Then, see how your productivity will improve.

2. Better sleep

   Long work hours can negatively affect your sleep. How? Stress from work, hours looking at a computer screen and minimal time to unwind between ending work and going to bed. Minimal sleep in the short-term can affect your memory and consolidation, leading to mistakes or poor quality of work. On the other hand, minimal sleep over time can raise the risk of obesity, heart issues and diabetes

   Few people can function effectively off five to six hours of sleep. Develop your bedtime routine and allocate at least 8 hours of sleep each night.

3. Reduced stress

   Most adults experience regular stress from work. Due to the pandemic, it’s no surprise that more employees are stressed from working remotely combined with other duties, such as educating children while at home. 

   High levels of emotional and psychological stress come with constant connectivity to work. And several studies show that those who are unable to connect from work have higher levels of fatigue and burnout. 

   But what are even worse effects of stress? High blood pressure and migraines, among other complications. To reduce stress from work - physically disconnect. Multiple studies show that regular exercise helps people become more resistant to stress. Aside from turning off phone and email notifications after work hours, get exercise through a walk, run or bike ride outside.

Need other ideas for how to disconnect from remote work? Contact us for a virtual consultation.

Why Couples Counseling is so Valuable

Often times we may not seek help until we really needed it. We may think we don’t need it or things will resolve on their own. Here are some quick tips to help support your relationship that can also be explored more deeply in Couples Counseling.

1. Relationship issues are never just one persons fault: The problem is in the interaction, the dynamic that two people have developed and honed over time. Even though its easy to blame the other party attempt to bring attention to what part each person has in the conflicts.

2. Embrace that each of you is different and will think and feel differently about things: Being different actually helps us grow, because we are more aware of different ways rather than the way we have been doing it, when we see being different as a negative unhealthy patterns begin to develop and we begin opposing them rather than taking time to value them.

3. Stop making assumptions: Without complete communication with your partner, assumptions can start to creep in about what the other person is thinking, feeling, or doing. Some individuals in. couples will then act on their own perception without fully getting the whole truth. Its unlikely to know exactly what your partner is thinking, so be aware of asking and maintaining an open mind to what they say.

4. Its not helpful to talk in absolutes: Often in arguments people jump to “you always do this” or you “never do that”, communicating in this way alienates you from your partner because nothing is always 100%, people vary in the way they behave everyday. If you want to communicate something you don’t like that your partner does try to focus on what they may have just did in that moment, rather than combine what you may think “always or never happens”.

5. Relationships are about the little things not grand gestures: Partners interact typically every day in some way, its helpful to remember that your partner is looking to receive something from you everyday whether thats a hug, an affirmation, doing a chore or whatever, by being attentive to what little things your partner may need they will likely follow through and respond by giving you want you need.

These are just some quick ideas, its important to have safety and stability in your relationship, if this is lacking or you are worried about how your relationship is playing out reach out today for support.