We offer the following services:

Balance Psychological Therapy and Wellness offers a holistic approach to mental well-being for individuals (children, adolescents and adults), families and couples.

Our therapists can support individuals that aspire to achieve balance in their lives. This balance and well-being can be achieved by:

• Identifying, planning, and reaching personal goals
• Alleviating feelings of depression and hopelessness
• Alleviating overwhelming feelings of anxiety, fear, and panic
• Improving self esteem and coping abilities
• Managing life’s transitions, such as education, employment, and family obligations
• Improving relationship satisfaction through communication and intimacy
• Managing stress and anger
• Implementing mindfulness and relaxation techniques
• Improving motivation, energy, and personal intentions
• Embracing life’s challenges, such as grief and divorce, with positive growth
• Integrating lifestyle and nutritional changes for overall personal well-being
• Managing and embracing life without reliance on drugs and alcohol

Whether you are looking for help with personal problems, experiencing life difficulties, or just need someone to talk to, contact us today to schedule an appointment for us to meet and begin your journey to a healthy, happy, life.

Anger Management

Anger is a very powerful emotion that can stem from feelings of frustration, hurt, annoyance, or disappointment. It is a normal human emotion that can range from slight irritation to strong rage. Mismanaged anger and rage is the major cause of conflict in our personal and professional relationships. Feeling anger is not the problem, it’s what we do with that volatile emotion that can lead to problems. Some indicators that you may need to consider an anger counseling course or group anger management therapy sessions include:

• Feeling like you constantly have to “hold in” or repress your anger
• Frequent arguing with your spouse, children or co-workers
• Trouble with the law, or reckless disregard for rules
• Physical violence, such as hitting, loud shouting, door slamming, etc.
• Threats of violence against people or property
• Out-of-control behavior, such as breaking things or reckless driving

Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy. Anxiety is defined as nervousness and an inability to relax. Some level of anxiety is normal in human beings; however, excessive anxiety can interfere with relationships, sleeping patterns, eating habits, work, school, and all areas of life. Anxiety can take several forms, including phobias, obsessive-compulsions, and panic attacks, and it is often associated with depression. Excessive anxiety can also be a symptom of post-traumatic stress.

Couples Therapy

Couples therapy is an effort to recognize and to better manage or reconcile troublesome differences and repeating patterns of distress.

Couples Therapy tends to deal more with the ‘here and now’ and help develop new coping strategies. Couples therapy is more about seemingly intractable problems with a relationship history, where emotions are the target and the agent of change.

Just as all behaviors are learned, it is possible to unlearn hurtful/unwanted behaviors.

Most couples come to therapy when they feel they have tried everything else, negativity fills their homes.  It is our hope that through the process of therapy, couples will be able to unlearn hurtful/unwanted behaviors and to relearn how to act and speak with love.

Family Therapy

Family therapy is often short term. It may include all family members or just those most able to participate. Your specific treatment plan will depend on your family’s situation. Family therapy sessions can enhance your family’s communication and coping skills.

Children & Teens

Learning positive and healthy habits at an early age in areas of self-esteem, self-care, interpersonal relationships, communication and nutrition can have life-long effects.

We have specialized education, training, and experience in working with children and adolescents and offer individually tailored treatments in accordance with your child’s needs with the goal of restoring good health and happiness to their everyday life.

Therapists will work with your child/teen to help them understand the world around them and develop the tools they need to manage the seemingly overwhelming emotions they are experiencing. Adolescence is a time of great transition both mentally and physically. In a world where teens are bombarded with contradictory messages on how they should think, feel, and act, therapy can provide a safe place for them to voice their concerns and feel heard and understood. Therapists often incorporate parents or other family members in therapy sessions to enhance familial relationships and increase positive and productive communication in the home.

If your child has experienced a stressful life event such as moving school or home, divorce or separation, this may have an adverse impact on their functioning. Some children also have negative reactions to stressful events such as significant trauma, illness or bullying. Often a person may be going through developmental changes such as transitioning from infancy into early childhood or middle childhood.

Your child may also be experiencing pubertal changes or peer group influences that cause difficulty in expressing feelings. This may result in internalizing their feelings and displaying withdrawing behaviors, eating issues, secretive behaviors, or more externalizing behaviors such as cutting, aggressive or acting out behaviors. With today’s pressures of daily living, some children and young people worry excessively or develop perfectionist tendencies through competitive school pressures. Often such difficulties may even be expressed with physical symptoms such as unexplained stomach pains or headaches.

Depression

When you’re depressed, you can feel like you’ll never get out from under a dark shadow. However, depression is a treatable problem. So, if your depression is keeping you from living the life you want to, don’t hesitate to seek help. Learning about your depression treatment options will help you decide what approach is right for you. From therapy to medication to healthy lifestyle changes, there are many effective treatments that can help you overcome depression and reclaim your life.

Depression knows no age. If you are an older adult or know someone struggling with life’s challenges, click here to learn more about depression in seniors.

Eating Disorders

The road to eating disorder recovery starts with admitting you have a problem. This admission can be tough, especially if you’re still clinging to the belief–even in the back of your mind–that weight loss is the key to happiness, confidence, and success. Even when you finally understand this isn’t true, old habits are still hard to break.

The good news is that the eating disorder behaviors you’ve learned can be unlearned if you’re motivated to change and willing to ask for help. However, overcoming an eating disorder is about more than giving up unhealthy eating behaviors. It is also about rediscovering who you are beyond your eating habits, weight, and body image.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders refer to a category of mental health problems that includes both depression and bipolar disorders, which are also sometimes referred to as affective disorders. From therapy to medication to healthy lifestyle changes, there are many effective treatments that can help you overcome mood disorders and reclaim your life.

School & Behavioral Problems

At the initial intake, the therapist will determine which target behavior will be addressed in the treatment plan. This is done through parent and child report as well as clinical impression/testing. The therapist will determine which problems are important now? What does the behavior look like? In addition, the therapist will determine frequency, intensity, and duration.

To understand a behavior it is important to track patterns. The therapist will ask similar questions as listed below:

• When does it occur?
• Is there a significant trigger?
• Is there a reinforcer? If so, what is it?
• How often does it occur?
• Is there a specific place or time?

To eliminate aberrant behavior (or to replace with approved behavior) the therapist must find the controlling stimuli or reinforcer of the behavior.

As the behaviors decrease and the child becomes much more confident in his or her self/behaviors, therapy will become less frequent. Therapy begins with once a week sessions and moves to every other week as quickly as possible to encourage the child to utilize the tools learned in session outside of session.

Supervision

MSW Supervision:

Lynelle Kirsanoff, LMSW provides MSW supervision for the required 4000-6000 hours of supervised work. She can supervise for both Clinical and Macro licenses.