Posts Tagged ‘Anxiety’
The Impact of Mindfulness Practice within the Landscape of Treatment
By Jessica Breton, MA, LMFT, Executive Director OPI Mindfulness has become increasingly popular in the past decade, both in popular culture and in therapeutic practice. What, precisely, is mindfulness and how is it beneficial when used with treatment? What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness is the practice of purposefully focusing your energy and attention on the present…
Read MoreOvercoming Anxiety Related Failure to Launch Issues
Anxiety can be extremely difficult to describe and understand because all of us at times are anxious, and this phenomenon manifests itself in a variety of ways. It may show up in our body by us genuinely having headaches, stomach aches, nausea, or muscle tension. The pain and other uncomfortable physical sensations are real, and…
Read MoreCoping Effectively with Anxiety & Depression Over the Holidays (webinar)
When The Holidays Are Triggering Optimum Performance Institute invites you to this important, free webinar on coping effectively with anxiety, depression, and eating disorder issues over the holidays. This event will be co-facilitated by psychiatrist Robert “Dr. Bob” Fischer, M.D. and April E. House, MA, MFT, Therapist and Eating Disorder Specialist, and moderated by Debbie…
Read MoreAnxiety, Transitioning to Adulthood, & Failure to Launch
Anxiety: “A feeling of worry, nervousness or unease, typically about something with an uncertain outcome.” Isn’t everything in life uncertain to a certain degree? Becoming a young adult, becoming independent, and taking on new responsibilities of life all come with a lot of uncertainties and a lot of unknowns. This time of life causes anxiety…
Read MoreLike College, Just without the Late-Night Pizza
Creating an environment for young adults where working through past mistakes or forging positively focused experiences and then turning them into effective life habits is what Optimum Performance Institute is all about. With most of our participants being of the college-going age, OPI’s education department plays a considerable role in this effort to assist these…
Read MoreNational Mental Health Awareness Month: Healing Can Start with a Conversation
Today, millions of Americans live with the burden of a mental health problem. Too often they go through life trying to “just deal with” or “get over” conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and depression & anxiety – illnesses that can impact each and every aspect of their lives. The surprising thing is, fewer…
Read MoreMen Can Have Borderline Personality Disorder Too
Dr. Robert Fischer, executive director of the Optimum Performance Institute and its OPI Intensive, was interviewed by Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC, and C.R. Zwolinski, Authors of the 2009 Bestseller Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On without Wasting Time or Money and the Therapy Soup blog at PsychCentral.com. The original interview appeared on PsychCentral.com.…
Read MoreBPD in Men: We Can Have Borderline Personality Disorder, Too
Dr. Robert Fischer, executive director of the Optimum Performance Institute and its OPI Intensive, was interviewed by Richard Zwolinski, LMHC, CASAC, and C.R. Zwolinski, Authors of the 2009 Bestseller Therapy Revolution: Find Help, Get Better, and Move On without Wasting Time or Money and the Therapy Soup blog at PsychCentral.com. The original interview appeared on PsychCentral.com. Borderline…
Read MoreA Love Story: The Dysfunctional Relationship Between Fear and Avoidance
Working as a therapist at a residential treatment program, I see young adults who constantly struggle with issues of fear and avoidance. They avoid paying bills, dodge most social encounters, and procrastinate on schoolwork. Such evasion makes it very difficult for them to move forward with their lives, achieve success, and gain greater independence. In…
Read MoreQ&A with Marisela Guillén, MS – Director of Student Affairs at OPI
We recently sat down with Marisela Guillén, Director of Student Affairs for the Department of Educational Services for OPI Living Programs, to have her share some reflections about experiences from her first few months of supporting the department and the participants whom she guides in their individual academic programs. Q: Tell us more about the…
Read MoreSkillful Job Search Part 2: Integrating DBT Skills
This is the second of four posts discussing our approach to helping OPI Living and OPI Intensive participants with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) find and keep a job. Read Part 1 – Obtaining a Job with BPD . The first thing we do to help participants tackle the job search process is to create a…
Read MoreDSM-5 and How it Affects the Diagnosis of BPD
Changes to the DSM – Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, often referred to as the “bible” for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals and the subject of much recent controversy, affect several diagnoses, including that of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).” Changes to the BPD diagnosis in the new DSM-5 involve radical changes that fundamentally amend a…
Read More