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Our January Newsletter focuses on gentle new beginnings, winter wellness, and mental health support. Inside, you’ll find tips for setting realistic resolutions, managing post-holiday stress, supporting mental health at work, and coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder. We also highlight local Connecticut events and practical tools to help you start the year with balance, clarity, and compassion.

The holidays can be beautiful—but they can also be messy, emotional, and overwhelming. If your inner world feels more like a tangled string of Christmas lights than a peaceful winter scene, you’re not alone. Emotions don’t disappear just because the calendar says it’s time to be merry. Joy, grief, stress, excitement, and irritation can all exist at once, and none of them mean you’re doing the season “wrong.”

Consistency in therapy isn’t about perfection—it’s about building momentum. Regular sessions give your brain the repetition it needs to strengthen new coping skills, emotional patterns, and healthier perspectives. Each appointment adds another layer of insight, helping you move steadily toward your goals rather than slipping back into old habits.

This December, CT Counseling Group invites you to slow down, find peace, and stay connected. Our newsletter explores managing holiday stress, coping with seasonal blues, embracing winter wellness, and celebrating meaningful traditions. With gift ideas, local CT events, and mental health tips, we hope to support you in finding joy, presence, and warmth this holiday season.

In a world of constant political noise, it’s easy to feel anxious, angry, or overwhelmed. Political discussions and media can activate our body’s stress response—impacting sleep, mood, and overall well-being. But feeling emotionally charged by politics isn’t weakness; it’s a normal human reaction to deeply held values and uncertainty about the future.

Men’s Mental Health Month encourages us to break the silence around men’s emotional struggles. By supporting honest conversations from childhood through adulthood, we help men build healthier ways to cope, connect, and ask for support. Together, we can create space for men to feel heard, understood, and empowered to care for their mental well-being.

Dissociation isn’t weakness—it’s protection. It happens when the mind shields you from pain or trauma that feels too much to bear. You might lose time, feel detached from your body, or sense the world isn’t real. Grounding, gentle breathing, and therapy can help you reconnect with safety and presence. Healing is possible—you don’t have to do it alone.

The holidays can be joyful — and exhausting. Between family expectations, social plans, and endless to-dos, it’s easy to lose your peace. Setting healthy boundaries helps you protect your energy, say no without guilt, and focus on what really matters. This season, give yourself permission to slow down and protect your peace.

Music has been part of the human experience for over 100,000 years—and for good reason. It has the power to soothe our minds, calm our bodies, and reconnect us to the present moment. Listening to familiar, comforting songs can lower heart rate, ease muscle tension, and even trigger the release of dopamine, helping us feel grounded and safe.

The parent–child relationship is one of life’s deepest and most lasting connections—and it evolves beautifully over time. From playful moments in childhood to meaningful conversations in adulthood, staying connected requires presence, curiosity, and love. Each stage brings new opportunities to build trust, share experiences, and strengthen emotional security.

Meta-awareness is the practice of noticing your own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors as they unfold—like taking a step back and watching your mind in action. It’s a powerful therapeutic tool that helps you recognize patterns, such as minimizing your feelings, avoiding discomfort, or rushing to fix things instead of feeling them.

Grief doesn’t follow rules—it arrives uninvited and moves at its own pace. Whether you’re mourning a loved one, a relationship, or a dream, the emotions that follow can be complex and unpredictable. The stages of grief aren’t steps to complete, but touchpoints that help us understand what we feel—denial softens the shock, anger gives voice to pain, bargaining seeks meaning, depression brings depth, and acceptance helps us live with loss in a new way.

Mental health and libido are closely connected. Stress, anxiety, trauma, and depression can all impact desire, intimacy, and pleasure. Healing starts with understanding this mind-body link—rebuilding trust, communicating about needs and fantasies, and practicing consent to restore confidence, connection, and a healthy libido.

In today's culture, it often feels as though you must always be happy, positive, and thriving . Social media overflows with smiling...

Your brain between ages 12 and 25 is like a house still under construction — the wiring isn’t done yet. Using cannabis too early can alter how memory, attention, and decision-making systems develop. Today’s high-THC products can overload those circuits, increasing risks for anxiety, depression, or dependency. Understanding how cannabis affects the developing brain helps you make informed choices — so when your “house” is finished, all the lights are on.

We’re excited to announce a new group therapy series designed specifically for teens! Growing up can feel overwhelming, especially when it comes to managing stress, emotions, friendships, and family dynamics. This supportive group provides a safe space for teens to connect with peers, share experiences, and build healthy coping skills. Led by licensed therapists, sessions will focus on topics like self-esteem, communication, stress management, and emotional resilience.

October is Mental Health Awareness & Screening Month! This month’s newsletter highlights key events like Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct 6–12), World Mental Health Day (Oct 10), and free depression screenings happening across Connecticut. With the theme “My Mental Health at Work,” we’re focusing on how workplaces, communities, and individuals can come together to support well-being. Explore local events, helpful resources, and simple ways to check in with yourself and othe

Couples Counseling and Sex Couples counseling offers a powerful space to explore how sexual and emotional intimacy interact in your relationship. Many couples come to therapy feeling stuck in a cycle: arguments about sex spill into other parts of life, or tension elsewhere shows up in the bedroom.

Student-athletes push limits every day, whether it's on the field, on the track, in the gym, or in the classroom. Pressure bulbs, expectations mount, and mental health can get squeezed. But when they tap into sports psychology and therapy, they don't just survive, they thrive. At CT Counseling Group, we help student athletes unleash mental strength, sharpen focus, and build resilience that lasts.