Fleming Family Therapy Blog
It’s Mental Health Awareness Month!
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, check out what the FFT team had to suggest as one step someone can take today to start improving their mental health. Do you have all of your basics covered? “I would say that the most important thing is...
What To Do If Your Child Gets Lost
Getting separated from your child is every parent’s worst nightmare. Follow these steps in the event that your child gets lost.
Clinician Spotlight: Maggie Testani Couple and Family Therapy Intern
Learn a little more about our summer 2023 intern, Maggie Testani! 1. What inspired you to enter this field? I attended Clemson University for my undergraduate degree(s) in Secondary Education and English. I had always wanted to be a middle school or high school...
Clinician Spotlight: Janelle Patterson, MS, ALMFT
Learn a little more about our clinician Janelle Patterson, MS, ALMFT! 1. What inspired you to enter this field? I knew I wanted to be in some sort of a helping profession as long as I can remember. I felt stuck during and after my undergraduate schooling...
Clinician Spotlight: Rachel Casey-DeRue, MS, LMFT
Learn more about Clinical Director Rachel Casey-DeRue, MS, LMFT! 1. What inspired you to enter this field? I became inspired to enter this field because I have always had a love for helping others! Knowing that I am positively impacting someone's life...
Clinician Spotlight: Anne Ferguson Couple and Family Intern
Learn more about our newest team member Anne Ferguson, BSN, RN, PMHNP - Couple and Family Intern What inspired you to enter this field? I have wanted to be a part of this incredible field since I was about 10 years old. I understood the power and impact of...
Clinician Spotlight: Jessi Erickson, MS, ALMFT
Learn more about Jessi Erickson, MS, ALMFT! What inspired you to enter this field? I was inspired to enter this field initially in high school. During my first psychology course, I became very passionate about learning how the human mind...
Ring In the New Year
The cold air has really set in around the Chicago area. As many of you bundle up and surround yourselves with friends and family you may also be filling your time with some fun activities! Many of you may have holiday traditions that you incorporate year after year,...
Seasonal Depression: What Is It and How Can I Prepare For It
Post written by; Jessi Erickson, MS, MFT Winter is coming. While the cold weather poses physical threats in fictional stories, it tends to pose emotional ones in the real world. Winter presents long, cold and dark days that can bring about depressive symptoms. Have...
Ambiguous Loss
Post written by; Samantha Tankenoff, MS, ALMFT Grief and loss are two of the most painful, yet unfortunately inevitable feelings of life. They both can coincide in small everyday activities such as missing out on a family dinner, or also can occur in larger aspects of...
Back to School Tips for the Whole Family
The summer of 2022 is coming to an end and the school season is either right around the corner, or maybe it has already started for you! Going back to school has an impact on everyone, from children to parents and family members. This back to school season can look...
How to talk to your kids about school shootings.
Together, we are mourning the innocent lives murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. As we mourn, and hold the community in our thoughts and prayers, let us also take action. As Mother Teresa said, "Prayer without action is no prayer at all." These are...
The Four Horsemen: How to Identify Ineffective Communication Patterns
Post written by Rachel Casey, LMFT We are all guilty of communicating ineffectively at times, but are we aware of the types of ineffective communication we are using? Most of the time, no. We are here to help you identify and make changes to communicate more...
Happy New Year!
We wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy, and happy new year!
Pregnant During a Pandemic
Pregnant During a Pandemic. Definitely not a phrase any of us would have envisioned! Fortunately, while this is an incredibly stressful time, there are ways you can cope.
Anxiety Management During COVID-19
COVID-19 has caused many of us to experience heightened feelings of anxiety. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to improve your mental health during this scary and chaotic time.
How to Manage Anxiety Throughout the Holidays
While the holiday season can be a wonderful and joyous time for some, it can also cause feelings of anxiety and/or distress for others. So, what are some symptoms of anxiety, and how do you manage it throughout the holidays?
What happens if you go to bed angry?
Question: What happens if you go to bed angry? Answer: You might get some sleep. Does that feel a bit anticlimactic to you? I'm sure many of you were expecting something a bit more intense, dramatic, or at the very least, interesting. However, that is the true and...
Resolutions
Happy New Year everyone! Do you feel you are surrounded with stories, suggestions, questions, and reminders about resolutions? If your answer is "no", I'll admit, I am a bit jealous. In the interest of full disclosure, I do not often set specific New Years...
Podcast Interview with Katie Fleming
Before entering private practice, our founder, Katie Fleming, worked at a community mental health agency as a Crisis Therapist. There, she provided emergency mental health assessment and intervention to Chicago youth experiencing a psychiatric emergency. ...
Beyond the Blues… Baby Blues and Postpartum Depression
Beyond the Blues… Baby Blues and Postpartum Depression Giving birth to a newborn baby is one of life’s biggest changes and greatest joys. Welcoming a new addition to the family sparks great change in the lives of the family members. Most especially the mother, as...
Forgiveness: How to do it Even When it Feels Impossible
Forgiveness: How to do it Even When it Feels Impossible Have you ever gotten in a fight and felt you couldn’t forgive the other person? Does it often take you a full day to get over things? A week? A month? Or, even a year or longer? Ever notice the sharp pain...
Infidelity Recovery – How to start earning back your partner’s trust
5 Steps to earning back your partner’s trust
3 Tips for your First Counseling Session
One of the the most difficult parts of counseling is finding the right counselor to begin with. In this post, I offered tips on when and how to find the right counselor. Once you have your first appointment scheduled, there are several steps you can take to prepare...
Gratitude, Today and Everyday
"Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." - Oprah Winfrey How often do you focus on gratitude? This week, families and friends all across the country will be gathering...
How to Handle Unsolicited Advice
Happy November! This is by far my favorite time of the year. In fact, my husband and I love this time of year so much he actually proposed around this time! The following months were filled with holiday parties and engagement celebrations. At the time, I was...
Learning to Respond to Your Partner
One of the most important lessons in couples therapy is learning how to respond rather than react to one another. This communication tool is simple to learn and understand, yet tremendously important. When you react to someone, you are saying or doing the first thing...
Emotional Support Animal Vs. Service Animal
Emotional Support Animals (ESA's) and Service Animals have many similarities, but also several very important distinctions. I have outlined the specifics for each below, and gathered most of the information from the ADA website. For more information, please click...
When Your Partner Won’t Agree to Couples Counseling
Every now and then, I hear from someone who is super motivated to start couples counseling, but feels stuck because his or her partner is resistant to the idea. Talk about feeling stuck between a rock and a hard place! No matter what your reasons are, if you want to...
Going from Online Dating to Offline Dating
Happy 4th of July weekend! However you're celebrating, I hope you are having a fantastic time. Last night, my husband and I went out with an old friend of mine, and one of our conversations actually inspired this blog post. This friend has been in the military...
Recovering from Infidelity
Recovering from infidelity is possible! I have seen couples enter the therapy room overwhelmed with feelings of shock, embarrassment, guilt, anger, grief, rage, and fear...and then after a little while, they learn how to turn towards one another, rebuild their trust,...
Infidelity: 3 Basic Truths
3 basic truths of Infidelity
Providing Validation
Validation: The art of expressing recognition and acceptance of a person's emotional experience. So...what does that actually mean? Most of us have heard the term before, and we tend to be pretty good at recognizing when we are lacking validation from our partners,...
When and How to Start Counseling
Often, one of the most difficult phases in counseling is the very beginning. Knowing when the time is right for you to schedule your first session, and then how to do that. Let's start with when. If you were to call me and ask "When should someone start counseling?"...