Category Archives: Individual Therapy

What is Wrong with You!?!

November 19, 2018 0 comments Colorado Counseling Center, Compassion, Connection & Vulnerability, Couples Communication & Conflict, Individual Therapy, Parenting Teens, Wholehearted Living Kevin Hales

by Kevin Hales, LPC

“What’s wrong with you?”

Has anyone ever said this to you? Have you ever said this to anyone you know?

We typically make this statement when something happens that goes beyond our current logical understanding and comprehension about what we deem as “normal and acceptable.” Someone said or did something that we deem stupid, irrational, illogical or just plain “wrong.”

As a society and people, we need to understand some things that surround this statement and why it is ultimately unhelpful at best and psychologically harmful at worst. Continue reading →

About Kevin Hales

Kevin Hales, MA, LPC offers marriage counseling as well as individual counseling for adults and teens at Colorado Counseling Center. Kevin’s clients find that he wholeheartedly devotes himself to helping them heal and move forward in life. To learn more about Kevin's counseling specialties, please visit coloradocounselingcenter.com/kevin-hales/

But, are YOU in Recovery?

August 17, 2018 0 comments Addiction & Recovery, Colorado Counseling Center, Couples Communication & Conflict, Families, Individual Therapy Colorado Counseling Center Staff

By Sarah Miller

When one works in the addiction field, it is common to be asked, “are you in recovery?” I remember the first time I was asked this; I felt flustered by the question because it didn’t feel like a simple “yes or no” to me, it was more of a “no, but…” or “yes, and….”

However, I’ve learned that when people ask this question, they are really asking: “Will you judge me?” or “Will you be able to understand me?” — because at the end of it all they’re just hoping to find someone who will listen and genuinely care.

Addiction 101

Continue reading →

About Colorado Counseling Center Staff

Find Your Inner Strength

July 17, 2018 0 comments Colorado Counseling Center, Compassion, Connection & Vulnerability, Individual Therapy, Inspiration, Wholehearted Living Colorado Counseling Center Staff

Waking Up Feeling Down

I woke up feeling down. I burned my breakfast (part of a new, flavorless diet), and I was just crabby. I drove to the gym, seemingly hitting every red light. I walked into the group fitness room, late and water bottle-less.

This day was not off to a good start.

Rediscovering Inner Strength

Then, Melissa, our instructor, made eye contact with me. Her eyes seemed to say, “yes, you can.” That sounds like a small thing, but it stirred something inside of me. My lost confidence started coming back. The class started, and I felt everyone’s energy around me. For the next hour, we were all in this together. Continue reading →

About Colorado Counseling Center Staff

On Scarcity and Being Enough

May 22, 2018 0 comments Colorado Counseling Center, Compassion, Connection & Vulnerability, Individual Therapy, Inspiration, Mindfulness, Wholehearted Living Colorado Counseling Center Staff

By Jessica Downs

Many of us walk through this world, lost in a hustle—we are exhausted, worn out, and often unsure of why we are where we are. With the ever-growing, ever looming presence of social media, and the pressure from our cultural values to perform and perfect, it’s hard to catch a break from all the things we are not, and that can work to create uncertainty and anxiety.

There are not enough jobs for me to find one that will make me happy.
I’ll never have the time to be the parent I want to be.
I’m not making enough money
My house is dated. My wardrobe is dated. My face is looking older—I’m dated!
I’ll never be as good-looking, fit, well-liked, successful, talented or witty as “so-and-so.”

And so we hustle. We pin, and we post, and we self-loathe because we are just not keeping up. Continue reading →

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Rethinking Failure

May 22, 2018 0 comments Colorado Counseling Center, Compassion, Connection & Vulnerability, Individual Therapy, Inspiration, Wholehearted Living Kevin Hales

Photo by Fernando Puente on Unsplash

By Kevin Hales, LPC

The Word that Shall Not Be Named

Failure is word that many of us don’t like to talk about. It typically taps into the inner shame that many of us feel when we have “failed.” Nobody wants to be a failure, no one wants to fail at anything they engage in. It is often our fear of failure that prevents us from engaging in new activities, careers and fields of study. Clearly the idea of failure has a powerful effect on all of us, whether or not we actually “fail” at a given task.

In my work as a therapist, I work with brave individuals who have mustered up the courage to call me up, walk through my door and to ask for help with whatever is currently getting in the way of his/her happiness and well-being. Sometimes it’s an individual struggling with addictive behavior of some sort. Perhaps it is a couple struggling in their relationship with one another. One way or another, these people often feel that they are failing in some way with their marriage or with their individual lives. They are stumbling and falling and coming up short, failing over and over again to “succeed.”

A Work in Progress

I believe it is time to rethink the idea of failure. Continue reading →

About Kevin Hales

Quieting the Inner Critic

September 18, 2017 0 comments Compassion, Connection & Vulnerability, Individual Therapy, Inspiration, Mindfulness, Wholehearted Living Colorado Counseling Center Staff

Photo by Simon Wijers on Unsplash

Your Personal Drill Sergeant

We have all had some exposure, likely through Hollywood movies, to the overbearing drill sergeant yelling at a group of soldiers:

“You’re a maggot!”
“You smell like failure!”
“You’re worthless! . . . Drop and give me twenty!”

The drill sergeant’s objective is not to provide care and compassion, but to yell, push, and criticize in order to prepare the soldiers for threats. It may be hard to identify at first, but if you slow down and notice some of messages you tell yourself, you may find that a voice similar to the overbearing drill sergeant has taken place in your mind. This is called the “inner critic.” Continue reading →