What We Do

Specialties

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude" - Maya Angelou

Our team specializes in a number of different key areas such as Anger Management, Relationship Issues, Low Self-Esteem, Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Depression, Parental Issues and Domestic Violence. Our combined experience also allows us to be able to provide help in other areas, which are listed below.

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Anger Management

Do you find yourself experiencing excessive anger across many different situations? Individuals experiencing anger control problems may feel their anger, at times, is explosive, which can lead to verbal attacks, assault, or destruction of property. Individuals may display over-reactive verbal hostility toward unimportant annoyances as well as show passive-aggressive behavior; passively withholding and then exploding in rage, and using aggression as a means of obtaining power and control.

Our team can teach you to learn and implement anger management skills to help you reduce your level of anger and irritability, and help you develop an awareness of angry thoughts, feelings, and actions. Our team can also help you decrease the frequency, intensity, and duration of angry thoughts, feelings, and actions, while increasing the ability to recognize and respectfully express frustration and resolve conflict.

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Relationship Issues

Do you have frequent or continual arguments with your partner? Do you show a lack of communication with your partner, or a pattern of angry projection of responsibility for the conflicts onto your partner? Intimate relationship conflict can also consist of marital separation, pending divorce, involvement in multiple intimate relationships at the same time, as well as physical or verbal abuse in a relationship. If you notice a pattern if superficial or no communication, infrequent or no sexual contact, excessive involvement in activities, such as work or recreation, that allows for avoidance of closeness to your partner, our team can help.

Our team can help you develop the necessary skills for effective, open communication, mutually satisfying sexual intimacy, and enjoyable time for companionship within your relationship. We can also help you obtain an increased awareness of your own role in the relationship conflicts, as well as learn to identify escalating behaviors that lead to abuse. Our team can help you make a commitment to one intimate relationship at a time. We can also help you accept the termination of a relationship, and rebuild a positive self-image after acceptance of the rejection associated with the broken relationship.

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Low Self Esteem

Many people find it difficult to accept compliments, or say no to others. Individuals may make self-disparaging remarks; see themselves as unattractive, worthless, a loser, a burden, unimportant, or accept blame easily. Others may exhibit a lack of pride in grooming, lack of goals for their life, and set inappropriately low goals for themselves. Some individuals may have a fear of rejection by others, especially within their peer groups, or have an inability to identify positive characteristics of themselves, which can make them anxious and uncomfortable in social situations.

Our team can help you elevate self-esteem and develop a consistent, positive self-image. We can also help you demonstrate improved self-esteem through more pride in appearance, more assertiveness, greater eye contact, and identification of positive characteristics in self-talk messages. Our team can also help you interact socially without distress or disability.

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Anxiety

Many individuals experience anxiety. At times, you may feel the anxiety is controlling your life, causing you to have excessive and unrealistic fears that can be difficult to control. Anxiety may cause you to feel restless, tired, shaky, or have tension in your muscles. Anxiety can also cause you to have palpitations, shortness of breath, dry mouth, trouble swallowing, nausea, or diarrhea. You may also feel on edge and have difficulty concentrating, as well as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, or displaying a general state of irritability.

Our team can help reduce your overall frequency, intensity, and duration of anxiety so that your daily functioning is not impaired. Our team can also help you stabilize your anxiety levels, while increasing your ability to function on a daily basis, as well as enhance your ability to effectively cope with the full variety of life’s worries and anxieties through learning and implementing effective coping skills.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Do you have intrusive, recurrent, and unwanted thoughts, images, or impulses that distress or interfere with your daily routine, job performance, or social relationships? H Have you had failed attempts at ignoring or controlling these thoughts, images, or impulses, or are you trying to neutralize them with other thoughts and actions? With OCD, individuals recognize that obsessive thoughts are a product of their own mind. Individuals may have repetitive or excessive mental or behavioral actions that are done to counteract or prevent discomfort or some feared outcome. Individuals suffering from OCD realize their repetitive thoughts or behaviors are excessive and unreasonable, and not realistic worries about life’s problems.

Our team can help reduce the frequency, intensity, and duration of obsessions and compulsions, as well as reduce time involved with or interfere from obsessions and compulsions. We can help you resolve key life conflicts and the emotional stress that fuels obsessive-compulsive behavior patterns. Our team can help you let go of key thoughts, beliefs, and past life events in order to maximize time free from obsessions and compulsions. We can also help you accept the presence of obsessive thoughts without acting on them and commit to a value-driven life.

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Depression

Do you have a diminished interest in or enjoyment in activities? Are you irritable, short-tempered, have crying spells or are tearful without provocation? If you are experiencing sleeplessness, lack of energy, poor concentration and indecisiveness, social withdrawal, suicidal thoughts, low self-esteem, feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, or inappropriate guilt, as well as unresolved grief, or mood-related hallucinations or delusions, our team at Winter Solstice Psychotherapy Group can help.

Our team can help you alleviate your depressed mood and return to a previous level of effective functioning, as well as develop healthy cognitive patterns and beliefs about yourself and others, which can lead to alleviation of your symptoms and help prevent the relapse of depression symptoms. Our team can also help you develop healthy interpersonal relationships that can lead to effective resolution of current conflicts and problems, and appropriately grieve loss in order to normalize your mood and return to your previous adaptive level of functioning.

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Parental Issues

Parenting can be an extremely difficult task. At times, you may find it difficult to manage the challenging problem behavior of your child, or you may struggle to control your emotional reactions to your child’s misbehavior. You may also experience increasing conflict with your significant other regarding different parenting styles. Parents may feel they have exhausted their ideas and resources in attempting to deal with their child’s behavior, or lack knowledge regarding reasonable expectations for a child’s behavior at a given developmental level. Parents may also regularly overindulge their child’s wishes and demands, or they may display a pattern of harsh, rigid, and demeaning behavior toward their child.

Our team can help you achieve a level of competent, effective parenting, as well as help you effectively manage challenging problem behavior in your child. We can help you reach a realistic view and approach to parenting, given your child’s developmental level. Our team can help you strengthen the parental team by resolving marital conflicts and achieve a greater level of family connectedness.

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Domestic Violence

Have you been injured, threatened, or verbally abused and experience feelings of fear, insecurity, or social withdrawal/avoidance? Physical abuse can consist of hitting, slapping, shoving, choking, restraining, etc., and can show up as bruises, injuries, or any other physical complaints that give evidence of physical assault. Verbal abuse occurs when you are threatened, intimidated, being blamed for anything that goes wrong, or when someone uses extensive profanity that is directed toward you. Emotional and psychological abuse takes several forms; power/control, stalking, prohibiting contact with family or friends, or denying access to money or resources, etc. Sexual abuse consists of nonconsensual sexual intercourse, sodomy, harming if intercourse is refused, etc. Domestic violence may leave you feeling depressed, irritable, and anxious. Domestic violence can also cause you to have difficulty sleeping and poor concentration. Victims of domestic violence may have a subjective sense of numbing, detaching, or absence of emotional responsiveness, or cause you to avoid people and activities that remind you of the abuse.

Our team can help you eliminate all physical, emotional, sexual, or verbal abuse. We can help you develop the skills necessary to maintain physical and emotional safety and return to the level of functioning present before the abuse occurred. Our team can also help you assimilate the assault event into daily life experiences as a strong survivor rather than a hopeless victim.