The mind plays a powerful role in health and well being. Positive emotions such as love, joy and satisfaction can boost our immune system and counteract the effects of stress on the body. Negative emotions, on the other hand, can hinder our body’s ability to heal. They can create obstacles in our efforts to make positive lifestyle changes. They can also lower our immune system and contribute to the development of illness and disease.
At Ways to Wellness MD, our counseling services help patients address the emotional connection to their physical health and wellness. In medical psychotherapy a licensed professional counselor works with you to better understand the impact of negative thoughts and emotions on your health. You will then learn ways to change negative emotional patterns and triggers which can alter your body’s chemistry and immune system.
You and your counselor will collaboratively identify goals for treatment. Then, depending on your needs, different strategies will be used in conjunction with talk therapy such as guided imagery, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and breathing and relaxation instruction.
EFT ( Emotional Freedom Technique) is an acupressure technique that can be taught to you to use on your own to reduce disturbing emotions.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), done in the therapist’s office, is a unique research-based therapy that uses auditory, visual or tactile bilateral stimulation to process traumatic or unresolved thoughts, emotions or memories. Experts believe this therapy works similar to how the brain uses the back and forth eye movements during REM sleep to discharge emotional material from the day. EMDR can help patients cope with past trauma. A high incidence of traumatic events has been shown to be correlated with the development of autoimmune disorders such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis as well as chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia .
Benefits of Mental Health Counseling/Medical Psychotherapy
Learning how to better deal with negative thoughts and emotions can give you greater control over your behaviors as well as how you feel both mentally and physically. Specifically, counseling can help you:
- Speed healing and recovery
- Adapt to a medical condition
- Boost your immune system and reduce the risk of illness
- Resolving past trauma, anxiety and depression
- Overcome obstacles and attain personal health goals such as losing weight, attempting to conceive, or taking control of health