The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Christine Hammond, LMHC For Floridians, hurricane threats send people scurrying around town collecting water, batteries, and can goods. The stores are flocked with people as the shelves begin to go bare. Preparations are made to homes and offices to protect landscapes, windows, and possessions. Anyone who lived through the four hurricane year of 2004, remembers the unpredictability of the path, the weeks without power, the displaced people, the intense traffic, and massive devastation that took years to recover. Nearly every part of Florida was affected by one of the storms. But right before the storm would approach, there was an eerie stillness. Even the birds were silent as the streets of major cities became deserted, businesses and schools were shut down, homes were boarded up, and the people braced for impact. There was a peaceful deceiving look outside as even the trees were tranquil. The silence, in combination with a realization that nothing more could be done a...

By Matt W. Sandford, LMHC Sometimes folks come to me and we are working on something and inevitably their past comes up. It could be about some kind of mistreatment or abuse or of some dysfunction in their past environment. And there is of course the “stuff” inside us that relates to our experience of our parents and family. And pretty often we end up landing on a person’s young adult life choices, including sexual promiscuousness. Most feel a sense of shame and guilt about those choices and don’t want to talk about it. So, I thought maybe it would help if I were to write about it and provide some insight into how to approach these past issues. I was reading recently about the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament of the Bible. There is a section in which he observes a potter working on making a pot. He forms a pot, but it collapses due to some weakness in the structure. But instead of the potter throwing it away and starting with new clay, he picks up the pieces and mashes them...

By: Nate Webster, IMH Nothing has taught me more about life than when I traveled abroad. Something amazing happens when you get out of the familiarity of your life to somewhere new. New foods, new people and new sights just have a way of changing the way you see the world. Going to new places and seeing news things does wonders for our mental and emotional wellbeing. In my own travels, a few things have stuck with me and I hope they can convince you to take some time abroad as well. 1.       We always have a lot to learn: A professor once told me, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” A simple adage with a big point. You can feel like you know a lot but chances are there’s a whole lot you don’t know. Most of us see education as a season of our life that we’ve thankfully graduated from, but being a life long learner is the biggest key to success. During his career Thomas Edison was quoted saying that he didn’t fail a 1000 times, he just found a 100...

By: Nate Webster, IMH Our emotions are more like their own living creature than many of us would like to admit. We have to feed them and let them out and we also need to listen to them and give them time to vent. But many of us have a love-hate relationship with our emotions. Sometimes our emotions awkwardly make messes all over life, and other times they feel so locked up in a chest we’re not sure how we’ll ever pry them out! Well, many things contribute to what I like to call a “Complex Emotional Life” or CEL for short. Below are four behaviors that may be keeping you in your CEL. Your emotions aren’t a hurdle, they’re a compass: If you want to get out of your CEL, start paying more attention to what your feelings may be saying instead of trying so hard to make them go away. If you’re always anxious, think about what may be scaring you? Maybe you find yourself sad, reflect on how your needs are not being met. If you treat your negative feelings more like a compass that may b...

The Lie of Facebook By: Christine Hammond, LMHC I don’t know about you, but if I see one more “cute” cat video on Facebook, I’m going to scream. How is it that my friends have time to find and then post silly videos? Are their lives so ‘purrfect’ (pun intended) that they have the luxury to do this? Or… is it a façade? Facebook allows a person to literally paint and alter their image without any consequences for false identity or misrepresentation. Think of it as a giant modern art canvas where realistic images are absent and abstract images are present. There is plenty of room for interpretation. My frustration over the videos is more about my interpretation of their time in comparison to mine, rather than an accurate reflection of my friend’s life. Don’t waste energy on interpretative art. Instead, let it be what it is.   Facebook: America’s Addiction By: Cara Griffin-Locker If you are like most people you probably have a Facebook accoun...

By: Cara Griffin-Locker She sat with her breath held as the bills lay on the kitchen table.   She did not know how they were all going to get paid or how they would have anything left for food or daily essentials. She started to second guess her decision to leave the job that she had had for eight and a half years. She questioned the wisdom in losing the paid vacation and the health care benefits. Everything started to become overwhelming and the worrying was taking over. It was starting to consume her; what seemed possible now seemed so impossible and the thoughts of having to keep working was very unsettling.   The worrying started to take its toll physically, she found herself not being able to sleep and her appetite had decreased. She realized that she was losing control. Most of us can probably relate to this scenario - worrying about bills, wanting to be a stay-at-home parent, etc.. If we take a minute we will realize that life is full of things to worry about: w...

By Chris Hammond, IMH, MS Spend some time in a nursing home and you will come across two very general types of elderly people: ones who are still happy and others who are still miserable.   If you listen to their stories, both sets have had their fair share of life tragedies, health problems, loss of loved ones, wars, disappointments, and successes.   Yet one group walks away with a sense of having lived life well despite all of the tragedies and the other with regret despite any successes.   How can this be? Erik Erikson defines the last of his eight psychosocial development stage as Integrity vs. Despair which begins around age sixty-five till death.   The outcome of the previous seven stages sets the standard for this last stage in life as a person who has progressed well in previous stages will most likely end well.   When a person ages, their ability to moderate thoughts, feelings and emotions diminishes so good habits that were formed earlier te...

By Dwight Bain The key to a better relationship is a lot simpler than you think. In fact the key to a better life is also simple – it’s not being afraid to ask. The Bible teaches you have not because you ask not. (James 4:2). Consider the following situations that could have been easily solved… if someone had the courage to ASK. Think of how many times a student was struggling to finish a class, but was afraid to ask for extra time or extra credit. Or the shy guy in High School who thinks the cute girl in his English class likes him, but he is afraid to ask her out on a date. How about a woman who knows she is right for the promotion at work, but stays quiet, never asking for more responsibility or a raise to go with it. Or a husband who wonders if his wife still loves him, but never speaks up and then is trapped into a tempting addiction to cope with his loneliness that he didn’t have to experience… if he only had stepped up to ask. Y...