Pittsburgh Psychotherapists* are professionals with a passion for working with others.  Its reflected in our training and our respective 20 to 40 years of listening, supporting and helping people to cope with life problems. As psychologists, counselors or social workers, there's a good chance one or more of us is known to people whom you know.

As each of us moves through any stage of our life, there are difficulties we encounter. Many times, we have no warning about how troubling these challenges can be, affecting our feelings, behaviors and thinking.

Isn’t it time to do something if you or someone close to you is experiencing hurt in any of these ways, i.e.

If you feel:

           Anxious: Do you feel uneasy or panicky about being in certain situations, worry about what might happen, or often carry around a sense of guilt over something that has happened?  Does shyness keep you from having the kind of friendships and social life you’d like to have?

           Depressed: Do you carry around a sense that life is futile or overwhelming, like it’s hard to go on, to get out of bed in the morning or to go to sleep at night?  Do people around you seem to be enjoying life when you’re mostly sad? Are you not feeling like eating and have lost weight? Or, are you feeling like eating all the time as if it is your only pleasure and now you’re gaining weight.

           Anger:  Can irritability easily erupt into anger over minor incidents or simple things people do or say?  Do your outbursts almost seem uncontrollable at times, but leave hurt feelings or damage to others about which you then feel terrible.  Are your relationships with significant others, spouse, children, extended family, and co-workers, suffering. Is this short temperedness even causing you legal problems.

           Post-traumatic-stress: Are you still suffering through some awful event, the loss of someone close to you, a permanent injury, a life threatening event(s) as in war, burglary, accidents, or other threats or assaults on you and your sense of who you are?

If you behave:

           Unproductively/harmfully: Are you doing things you wish you weren’t doing, but can’t seem to keep yourself from doing, such as: Drinking? Using drugs? Smoking? Over or under eating? Swearing? Taunting or bullying? Or other destructive activities? Do you wish you had more friends, or were more successful but somehow can’t make it happen?

If your thinking leads to:

           Problem thoughts: Do you have recurring thoughts or suspicions or ways of thinking about people or things which disturb you or other people? Do you think about harming yourself or others?  Do doubts or worries interfere in the way you go about your life?  Do you keep focusing on something that has happened in your life that complicates some of the above feelings and action issues?  Do images related to break ups, being abused or poorly treated, when young or now, at home or in a work place, crowd your mind?

If any of these problems are preventing you from having a happier, easier life, isn’t it time to do something about it? Take advantage of your strengths and find help to build on your resources and to find new ways to enrich your life? 

What is counseling or psychotherapy about?

Meeting with an experienced psychotherapists to deal with problems is to have an exceptional relationship which is both professional and intensely supportive. It is meeting with someone in whom you can confide, who will listen to your ideas, struggles and missteps and who can help you to gain a fresh view of your situation and bolster your own, personal strengths.  It is especially important that this person is well experienced, trained and has strong ethical and professional standards and training.  As therapists, we think of ourselves as being there over the course of a person’s life for when help is needed.  It can be short term to deal with life’s unpredictabilities events, unanticipated risks and hurtful events or longer term to strengthen a person’s awareness of inner resources.