Spiritual Wellness

First, spiritual wellness does not mean religious. Many people are religious and find a lot of fulfillment and community by belonging to and identifying with a particular religious tradition. Spiritual wellness is more about the feeling of fulfillment and understanding that a person has due to activities which help give meaning to life.

Spiritual wellness is simple. Whatever gives you a sense of meaning is what you can do to increase your spiritual wellness. Many people find meaning in nature through hiking, gardening, or just spending time basking in the sun. Spending time in service to others through volunteering can also provide spiritual fulfillment and a sense of belonging.

We’ve all wondered why we are here and what our purpose is, finding that purpose and meaning can help bolster resilience and help us manage stress. For those who struggle with spiritual wellness, therapy can help find the activities that provide meaning through providing a safe space to explore your identity and to try new things. Therapists can also provide accountability and support to help you push yourself to make changes and increase your wellness.

Physical Wellness

What is physical wellness? Exercise? Eating well? Yes.

Physical wellness is also getting to the doctor regularly, taking your medications as prescribed, getting enough sleep, and taking care of your body so that it can continue to work well as you age. For those who struggle with chronic pain or chronic illness, physical wellness can be as simple as having the energy to do things around the house or maintain a job. Physical wellness can also include making decisions about aging in place and end of life as well as ensuring that your family and friends understand and will follow those decisions.

For those who struggle with physical health, therapy can be an additional support to your doctors and other medical staff. Therapy can help with support and coping skills for dealing with chronic pain or other chronic illness as well as help with the emotional toll of chronic illness, pain, and the loss of independence.

For many, having a healthy relationship with your body is difficult. We are bombarded by images and messages about the ‘perfect’ body and although more attention is being paid to accepting the body you have, acceptance is not always easy. However, learning to accept and appreciate your body and take care of it is a step towards having physical wellness. Therapy can help you learn better eating habits through copings skills to help with overeating and more intensive treatments for anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders.

Whatever keeps you from having physical wellness, help is available.

Emotional Wellness

Emotional wellness is probably what most people think of when they think of why someone would go to a therapist. While people enjoy positive emotions like happiness, excitement, love, and mirth, many of us try to avoid negative emotions. Negative emotions like anxiety, depression, grief, anger, and fear are normal and necessary but can be overwhelming. When these emotions begin to get in the way of achieving goals and overall wellness, it can be helpful to ask for support.

Emotional wellness is having the ability to experience and manage emotions in a healthy and productive way. Many mental illnesses like anxiety disorders and mood disorders cause a person to feel like their negative emotions are magnified and absolutely out of their control. However, you can learn coping skills and stress management skills to effectively manage emotions.

Stress management is another part of emotional wellness. Stress is normal and necessary but it does need to be managed. The human brain can only handle so much stress and can become overwhelmed. Learning how to manage stress is necessary to be able to handle other negative emotions.

<p value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">Therapy can help with all of these parts of emotional wellness and help build resilience and emotional strength.Therapy can help with all of these parts of emotional wellness and help build resilience and emotional strength.

Why Eight Domains?

Mental health is about a lot more than just having the ability to manage emotions and utilize coping skills. Mental health requires overall wellness. So what is wellness? SAMHSA defined wellness in terms of quality of life and the ability to pursue goals. They broke wellness into eight dimensions: physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, financial, occupational, and social.

Mental health seems as though it would only fit within the emotional dimension of wellness, however, humans don’t exist in a vacuum. For example, people with chronic illnesses and chronic pain report higher levels of depression and anxiety. Exercise has been shown to help with depression and anxiety symptoms. Socially, friends and supportive family have a positive effect on mental health. Self-fulfillment can help give people hope as well as meaning in their life.

Since mental illness does not exist just in the realm of emotional wellness, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to focus on only one type of wellness. That would be the wellness equivalent of skipping leg day and, let’s face it, that doesn’t look good on anyone. However, I don’t want anyone to have to ignore any of the dimensions or domains of wellness and that is why my practice is called Eight Domains.

Who am I?

I received my Bachelor’s in Human Services from Columbia College in 2014 and began to work as a Community Support Specialist. After finishing my Master of Social Work degree in 2019. I worked as both Fulton State Hospital and Centerpointe Hospital as a social worker. I have a passion for mental health and overall wellness.

I love working with people to help them learn new skills and ways of looking at the world in order to achieve goals that they may have not felt were even possible. Mental illness and other life stressors can feel completely debilitating at times. However, that’s why I’m here. I can help you get through difficulty and come out the other side.

I am comfortable working with people who come from diverse backgrounds. I strive to be open, accepting, accessible, and do not discriminate based on color, sex, age, sexuality, gender identity, political beliefs, religion, or any other identity or social group. If you are human, I would love to work with you.

I absolutely believe in confidentiality and HIPPA. The relationship that a person has with a therapist requires trust and confidence. Since I only provide virtual services unless you live in Columbia, I have made using HIPPA compliant technology a priority for my practice. This means that meeting online is as close to meeting in an office as possible with regard to confidentiality.