Healing Psych

Dr. Katrina Wood's psychotherapy blog

In small towns across the United States

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This article introduces a specific and potentially harmful type of trauma-stress syndrome, typically experienced within family systems. To date, this syndrome -- domestic emotional distress disorder (DEDD) -- has not been submitted for consideration as a formal diagnosis by the psychiatric community. Post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD delayed (symptoms of PTSD displayed beyond six months) … [Read more...]

Guilty or not guilty — how do we know?

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Guilt is a tricky little devil. We all feel guilt from time to time -- at times much more than we would like. We're also pretty good at times at "guilting" friends, loved ones and even strangers into the proverbial "guilt trip" when we want things to go our way: "How could you be so selfish when I want things to go this way?" Have a familiar ring? As with most conundrums in life, there's … [Read more...]

Anxiety isn’t always a bad thing

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In the final decades of the 19th century, a young Sigmund Freud was hammering out his theories and exploring the dense and complex world of the human psyche. Over time Freud fine-tuned his work and pondered what was then known as "hysteria." He offered in a paper a new way of looking at anxiety. Freud felt there were aspects of anxiety that might be useful, and in turn he coined the term … [Read more...]

Keeping your cool in the dog days of summer

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Hot enough for you? Heat and irritability both spike in the summer months. Tempers rise right along with those thermometer readings. The FBI reports that July and August are the worst months for crime, especially incidents of domestic violence. Why are we more likely to be cross in the summer? Any number of things could be in the mix. Difficulty sleeping. Heat-related disruptions of the … [Read more...]

The capacity to both celebrate and grieve

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Ding dong, Bin Laden's dead! Yes, and we in the United States celebrate, of course. In the midst of all that cheering, though, many of us also feel grief. For while our formidable enemy now sleeps with the fishes, the memory of the thousands of innocents he killed still carries an impact of epic proportion. We mourn the dead, reach out to their loved ones and never forget the shock and the … [Read more...]