The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Dwight Bain USA Today Newspaper asked readers  “What do you want the most?”  and the most common answer was to be happy. While this sounds reasonable, it’s actually quite a puzzle because happiness is very individualized and hard to broadly define. What makes one person happy may not have much effect on another, or might even annoy them. While the formula of what creates happiness is elusive,  (think of Thomas Jefferson’s writing about the “Pursuit of Happiness”),  the physical and psychological benefits of happiness are easy to track. Here’s a short list of the benefits of being happier. Happy people are better liked Happy people have more satisfying relationships with others Happy people have 13% fewer fights and arguments Happy students are 20% more likely to get “A” grades Happy teens are 10 times less likely to start smoking Happy people have an income that is roughly 7% higher Happy people have 10% fewer stress related illnesses Happ...

By Christine Hammond, LMHC Beneath all of that bravado and charm lies a hidden secret the narcissist doesn’t want you to find. They will do anything to protect their secret from you. They might lie about it.   Or they might divert your attention with an innovative story. Or they might project their secret onto you. Come close to figuring it out and the result is warfare for control. Narcissists will use all types of abuse to dominate you. They use verbal (i.e. threats, intimidation), physical (i.e. restraining, choking), emotional (i.e. fear or guilt tactics), mental (i.e. gaslighting, silent treatment), financial (i.e. withholding, exploitation), sexual (i.e. forced, coerced) or spiritual (i.e. isolation from family, legalism) forms of abuse. Their fear is this… information equals power. If you know their secret, you will then embarrass or humiliate them. This is the worst thing they can imagine... others thinking less of them. So what is this precious sec...

By Matt W. Sandford, LMHC We’ve all seen enough movies to have a glamorous view of the heights of romantic love. And many of us have had that experience of falling into the heady swoon of being caught up in love. But then, you get married. I’m kidding, although there is sort of a ring of truth in that as well, isn’t there? There are all kinds of reasons for this change, some good and some not so good. Some of the reasons are just due to stages of life, like having children for instance, and some are surely due to outside factors and stress level. Let’s take a look at some of the common causes and then review how you can combat then. 1.       Life is really busy, and stressed filled and romance falls by the wayside, or I just don’t have the energy to pursue it. 2.       We have small kids. Duh! We can barely make it through it each day. 3.       There are resentments or disappointments be...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH Have you ever wondered why some people cannot seem to trust anyone?   Maybe you are married to someone who despite all of your positive efforts of encouragement still struggles with being able to trust you.   Maybe you have a friend who automatically distrusts everyone they come in contact with including supposed safe categories of people such as the police or a pastor.   Or maybe you have a child who mistrusts everything you say.   Regardless of any positive outcomes, they remain steadfast in mistrust. There are some concepts that psychology does really well and some that it tragically falls short but one that has stood the test of time is Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development.   The first stage from birth to eighteen months is Trust vs. Mistrust and it is the foundational stage upon which all future issues lie.   If a person learns to trust others for feeding, nurturing, comfort, and safety during ...