Fig Tree Counseling

An Emotional Hangover is a common experience for people in therapy, especially when we’re just getting started. Emotional hangovers typically occur in therapy after processing a big emotion or heavy experience. It can often lead people to abruptly discontinue therapy. This often happens after “breakthroughs” or otherwise “good sessions”; the work done in session takes time to pass through the body, and that time can be painful.

[image text description:
7 slides of black, cursive text on a beige painted background. Each slide starts with the words “What is An Emotional Hangover?”
2- An Emotional Hangover is a common phenomenon that occurs after a person experiences an intense emotional experience, relives an intense emotional experience, or disclosesand describes an intense emotional experience.
3- An Emotional Hangover can feel like exhaustion, annoyance, fear, insecurity, second guessing, numbness, desire for isolation, difficulty remembering events or conversations, and generally increased stress levels, among many other more specific symptoms.
4- An Emotional Hangover does not only occur from hardship, stress, or trauma. Emotional hangovers can occur after celebrations, weddings, reunions, significant life events, achieving longed for accomplishments or successes, and other positive experience that produce a lot of good-feeling emotions.
5- An Emotional Hangover is a common experience for people new to therapy. An emotional hangover can typically follow a breakthrough in therapy. A person may realize something about themself, and perhaps even feel better or freer for a time, but after a few hours to a few days they begin to feel overwhelmed, like what they experienced in therapy was past their capacity to process.
6- An Emotional Hangover is a normal albeit unpleasant experience in therapy. It is important to be aware of your capacity to process things and learn from experiences of emotional hangovers. … cont’d in comments]

Please welcome our new therapist in training, Humza Malik (he/him). Humza is completing his MSW training at University of Chicago and is committed to providing a compassionate and authentic therapeutic environment where you can bring your whole self. He believes that in order to have mutually supportive relationships, we must engage in the work of self-knowing and understanding so that we can show up as our realest selves. Humza understands that tensions may arise in your journey of self-healing and is here to support you in your process, whatever that may look like for you. Humza is currently accepting BCBS PPO and $50 starting sliding fee. You can book a session with Humza at the link in our bio.

Crutches help us get to where we’re going safely. One thing we hear in therapy, or about therapy, often is, “i don’t want to use ‘it’ as a crutch.” A friendly reminder that crutches are good things, they help us get places safely and keep us stable and balanced. When someone uses “crutch” in a negative sense, they are not referring to a mobility aid, but it’s literally the opposite: a barrier. The metaphors we choose to articulate the challenges we face are important in mentally and emotionally framing what is helping us and what is limiting us, so we must be mindful when those metaphors rely on or incorporate the language of disability.

[Image text description:
1- crutches help us get to where we’re going safely
2-Having a “crutch” is not a barrier to growth, it is often necessary for healing and daily living
3-It’s important to be mindful of the metaphors we use, especially when they reference disability or disability aids
4- What are the “crutches” (or useful aids for balancing, healing, and moving through the day) that you use in your life?

Sometimes stress and anxiety make it hard to eat. For many of us this can be a chronic symptom and lead to stress feeling even worse because our bodies are not being properly nourished or cared for. Even when we’re too stressed to have an appetite, it’s important to be kind to ourselves and our bodies and try to find ways to help us eat! Here are a few hopefully helpful ideas to try to nourish one’s body even through anxiety. And remember, it’s important to speak with therapist, friends, and medical provider if this is a symptom you experience 💞✨

[IMAGE TEXT DESCRIPTION: 5 slides with green background and white cursive font, and little leaves surrounding the text.
Slide 1- sometimes stress and sads make eating hard
Slide 2-things to do when we lose our appetite but still need to eat:
- - make or order your favorite smelling foods -- roast garlic, toast cumin, sautee onions, deep fry something. the fragrances can help awake appetite
Slide 3--change the location of where you eat: go outside, to a friends house, to a new restaurant and try to eat in a different environment
Slide 4--try to stay hydrated
-go for a walk or do a very light exercise
-nap
-cbd or thc to stimulate hunger and relieve anxiety if that works for you
Slide 5- -let trusted friends or family members know what you’re going through so they can help support you
-make an appointment with a body positive and fat positive nutritionist who can help you find a good nutrition routine.
-talk to your therapist about symptoms of not being hungry when stressed

Fig tree reads! Here’s a glimpse into what the therapists at fig tree are reading and what influences our work and philosophies as therapists and people in the world 🌍

[image text description: seven slides with text Fig Tree Reads atop each slide, an an image of a person sitting on a pile of books reading.
1- fig tree reads
2- Micah: The Song of Achilles -- Madeline Miller
Tokyo Ueno station -- miri yu
3-Amanda: Crying in H mart -- michelle zauner
happy go lucky -- david sedaris
i'm glad my mom died -- jeanette mccurdy
detransition baby -- torrey peters
her body and other parties -- carmen mia machdo
breast and eggs - mieko kawakami
4- Gisel: The body keeps tHe score — bessel van der kolk
Set boundaries find peace: a guide to reclaiming yourself — nedra glover tawwab
by the book — jasmine guillroy
5- Lola: radical candor: be a kickass boss without losing your humanity -- kim scott
Marie kondo
6- Thalia: native son -- Richard wright
capital vol 1 -- karl marx
in the realm of hungry ghosts -- gabor mate
black girl magic -- the break beats poets vol 2
the zapatista's dignified rage: final public speeches of subcommander marcos -- Subcomandante insurgente marcos
7-Iu-Luen: if disney ran your hospital: 9 1/2 things you'd do differently -- fred lee

Fig Tree Therapy journal prompt and practice #1: Writing a user’s guide to listening 👂
In Julie Tilsen’s lovely little book Narrative Approaches to Youth Work, the idea of writing a users’s guide to listening is presented, though not super fleshed out. This post is meant to offer prompts for better understanding what it means to listen and be heard.


[text description of images: 8 slides -- first slide explanation, 7 sldies in lsit format.
slide 1-
Creating a user's guide to listening
Therapist Julie Tilsen suggests this exercise in their book "Narrative Approaches for Youth Work" for getting a better idea of what listening means for people and how we can communicate our listening styles, preferences, needs, and points of growth with others.
The following slides offer thematic prompts to encourage deeper thinking about what listening is and means for people.

slide 2-
Writing a user's guide to listening
Basic definitions of listening
What types of listening exist for you?
How do you know you are being listened to?
What does it mean to be a "good listener" to you?
How do you differentiate active listening in dialogue and active (or maybe passive) listening in receiving a monolog?

slide 3-
Writing a user's guide to listening
Context and listening

What contexts are easiest for you to listen in?
What moods are easiest for you to listen in?
What time of day is it east for you to listen in?
What kind of conversations are easiest for you to listen in?

slide 4-
Writing a user's guide to listening
Non Verbal Listening

How does body language impact listening?
How does listening happen through artistic expression?
How does eye contact impact listening?
What hand gestures do you use to communicate comprehension?
… text description cont’d in comments…]