The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Christine Hammond LMHC Marcia’s small business was finally turning a profit. After years of investing long hours from her family and resources she didn’t always have, she began to see the benefit of her hard work. Even though her husband and kids were supportive of the business, the normal demands of an active family life exhausted her. Marcia would easily work 10 hours a day at her job, run errands for her kids during lunch, dash to a soccer game at night, pick-up some dinner on the way home, and find sink full of dishes left undone from the previous few days. Her house routinely looked like a bomb went off and was only cleaned just before company came to visit. Marcia and her husband talked more about who would help with what homework than just about anything else. On good days she barely kept her head above water and on bad days she felt like she was drowning. She knew things needed to change. But short of selling the business she loved, divorcing her...

By: Christine Hammond Has sex become something you just do rather than enjoy? Do you feel pressured into having sex? Is it possible to be sexually abused in a marital relationship? Sexual abuse can happen to both men and women in and out of a marital relationship. In a relationship with a narcissist, however, that abuse becomes magnified. For the narcissist, sexual abuse is used to control your behavior, elevate their feelings of superiority, reenact their fantasies (not yours), and paralyze you. Not all narcissists use sexual abuse as a means of domination. But if you are in a relationship with one, knowing even the subtle forms of sexual abuse can be freeing. 1.        The Early Stage. A narcissist begins the abuse by grooming you. They do a mildly abusive act to see if you acquiesce. For instance, they might fondle you in front of your mother or demand sexting while you are at work. These unwanted or embarrassing sexual acts are designed t...

  The Connection between Emotional Stress & Exhaustion     By: Dwight Bain   Sleep deprivation is common in North America and one of the top reasons is from internalized Anxiety. Everyone feels pressure, even small children and when they pressure turns into stress, worry or anxiety it can have devastating effects on our health.   Some people believe they can get away with less sleep yet lack of it can actually make us less productive, even when you feel as though you are getting more done by sleeping less. Sleep deprivation can actually do much more than hurt your productivity. According to a recent report by MSNBC*, When we deprive ourselves of sleep, this can affect both our mental health and our physical health. These are a few possible effects of poor sleep hygiene:   Fatigue, irritability, careless mistake, difficulty concentrating, and slower reaction times which add up to increased stress levels. ...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH It’s that time of the year again when the list of things to be done grows by the minute, plans are changed again and again until the last minute, and stress over finances, family, and friends is at an all time high. There is too much to do, too much to see, too many places to be, and far too many expectations to be met. The demands of work, family, friends, and even church push us to a panic frenzy to meet and exceed those demands but at what expense? When did this season, the season of joy, the season of celebration, the season of giving and the season of bonding become the season of anxiety over unmet expectations and financial pressure, the season of depression over the loss of loved ones, and the season of trampling over others to make a purchase? “Merry Christmas” is not so merry anymore. Rather than trying to put the “Merry” back into Christmas, I would propose a different type of “Mary”. Jesus refers to Mary in Luke 10:38-42 when he informs Mar...

Managing stressful moods attached to money By Dwight Bain When you are one paycheck away from financial disaster it doesn’t take much to trip and fall over into the abyss of despair. News of foreclosures, downsizing and soaring bankruptcy levels only make it worse for terrified and stressed out families who often feel stuck in what I call “ Survival Mode ”. When a family feels stuck in the survival mode they worry about everything . Stress comes from every side; getting enough groceries or gasoline can be a struggle, trying to figure out how to get through the challenges of making rent, trying to find enough money to turn around and pay down their growing debts. A roof over their head is one of the biggest factors because often they are forced to move from the home they have lived in for years over to more affordable temporary housing. They have to go through major adjustments because of reduced financial resources which ripple over into areas you might not think of like family members...