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Antidepressants and Emotional Blunting

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghMay 8, 2026 Antidepressants, antidepressants list, Antipsychotic Medications, anxiety, avoiding emotions, counseling, medication management, medicine, meditation, mental health awareness, mental health stigma, mindfulness, personal growth, psychotherapy, wellness0 comments

Antidepressants and Emotional Blunting Comfortably Numb? After starting an antidepressant, I often hear: “I’m not sad anymore, but… I’m also not really happy. I just don’t feel much at all.” The goal of antidepressants is to help you feel like yourself on a good day—less anxious, less weighed down by sadness, more motivated, more interested in life, and better...

The Arrival Fallacy: The Trap of the Dopamine Crash

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghApril 27, 2026 always be positive, avoiding emotions, boundaries, burn out, burnout, counseling, mindfulness, personal growth, psychotherapy, wellness0 comments

The Arrival Fallacy: The Trap of the Dopamine Crash! The Arrival Fallacy, according to Malcomson (2025), describes a phenomenon where one anticipates immense happiness once a set objective is completed, only to find a sliver of joy before moving on to the next goal. Yet joy and celebrations are often all too fleeting. After achieving a major milestone, the...

Why Do We Talk Ourselves Out of Our Own Pain: Self-Gaslighting and Healing.

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghApril 13, 2026 counseling, mindfulness, personal growth, psychotherapy, wellness0 comments

Why Do We Talk Ourselves Out of Our Own Pain? Self-gaslighting, as defined by Dandelet (2021) from the University of Chicago, stems from the act of invalidating one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions based on the normative beliefs of others. It serves as a form of maladaptive defense mechanism against current triggers of past experiences. Such action typically...

Beyond the Readiness Score: The Future of Wellness

by Corryn LingMarch 25, 2026 coping skills, disassociate, Dissociation, mental health0 comments

Beyond the Readiness Score: The Future of Wellness Imagine it, you wake up and feel amazing, but then..Boom, your readiness score says you shouldn’t be feeling good, and your mood immediately drops. This is a problem that is all too common in the current age of mobile wellness, and it’s something we all should look at beyond its surface...

When Your Mind Checks Out: Understanding Dissociation

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghFebruary 23, 2026 coping skills, disassociate, Dissociation, mental health0 comments

When Your Mind Checks Out: Understanding Dissociation Have you ever been sitting in a meeting, staring at someone talking, and suddenly realize you haven’t heard a single word they said? Or maybe you’ve been driving home and suddenly think, Wait, how did I even get here? That strange, floaty feeling—like your brain hit “pause” on reality for a bit—is something...

Begin Your Mindfulness Meditation Journey 10 Minutes at a Time

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghJanuary 30, 2026 how to meditate, meditation, mindfulness, mindfulness based stress reduction, wellness1 comment

Begin Your Mindfulness Meditation Journey 10 Minutes at a Time When we think of the term “meditation”, we picture a serene individual sitting for hours on end with a content look on their face. Such looks are ones we yearn to have especially in current times of instability and confusion. However, just like the decline of gym membership subscriptions after January,...

ChatGPT Addiction: How AI Is Leading Us Down a Path of Addiction

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghDecember 17, 2025 addiction, AI, AI therapist, AI therapy, chat GPT, dangers of AI0 comments

ChatGPT Addiction: How AI Is Leading Us Down a Path of Addiction In the world fueled by the advancement of marvelous technologies, the visionaries of bygone days progressively become tangible pieces of innovation that exist outside of Hollywood movies. From laptops and smartphones to VR headsets and smartwatches, and now artificial intelligences that are becoming...

Handling Grief During the Holidays

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghDecember 11, 2025 5 stages of grief, 6 stages of grief, bereavement, complicated grief, coping skills, coping with loss, death, grief, grief counseling, grief therapy, holidays, mental health0 comments

Handling Grief During the Holidays The holiday season can bring up lots of joyful emotions, but also negative emotions. Individuals experiencing grief during the holidays may not know how to handle this difficult time. Holidays used to be filled with happy memories and laughter, now to be replaced with sadness and holiday grief. All the happy memories turn...

Red Flags in a Relationship

Red Flags in a Relationship When it comes to relationships, no two are alike. Some things work for some relationships that may not necessarily work for others. Whatever the dynamic of your relationship may be, it is important to be able to assess when relationship red flags are present. These are some examples of red flags in a relationship to look out...

Learn How To Trust Yourself

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghOctober 21, 2025 analysis paralysis, autonomy, decision paralysis, doubt, gut instinct, intuition, invalidating, invalidation, reassurance, second guesssing, self trust, trust your gut, trust yourself, trusting yourself, validation0 comments

Learn How To Trust Yourself Do you often struggle with decisions, completely paralyzed and unable to move forward? Or do you text everyone you know asking what they would do? Or maybe you’ve finally decided, but then immediately doubt yourself, convinced you got it wrong? If so, over time you’ve lost touch with your intuition and the ability to trust...

Your AI Therapist Will Not See You Soon

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghSeptember 25, 2025 AI, AI therapist, AI therapy, chat GPT, dangers of AI0 comments

Your AI Therapist Will Not See You Soon If you had asked me a year ago whether an AI therapist could ever replace my job as a human therapist, I would have said it was highly unlikely, at least within my lifetime. After all, therapy is grounded in human connection, empathy, and nuanced understanding. Yet over the past few months, a plethora of news stories brought...

How Suicide Grief is Different Than Other Types of Grief

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghSeptember 17, 2025 5 stages of grief, 6 stages of grief, death, grief, grief counseling, grief therapy, grieving process, suicide, suicide awareness, suicide awareness month, suicide prevention, suicide prevention month, suicide warning signs, support groups0 comments

How Suicide Grief is Different Than Other Types of Grief September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time when we focus on both prevention and supporting those affected by suicide loss. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) more than 720,000 people die due to suicide every year. This means it’s likely that you or someone you know has experienced...

Why Problem-Solving Can Cause Relationship Problems

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghAugust 29, 2025 communication, communication skills, compassionate listening, conflict resolution, emotional invalidation, feeling misunderstood, feeling unheard, good listening skills, how to listen, inside out, listening, listening skills, problem solving, relationship advice, relationship conflict, relationship problems, relationship tips0 comments

Why Problem-Solving Can Cause Relationship Problems You’ve had one of those days. Work was a disaster, your family is driving you crazy, or maybe everything just feels overwhelming. You walk through the door and all you want is to tell your partner about it. You need someone to understand what you’re going through. This is a moment where relationship...

Do I Need Therapy or Do I Need Marriage Counseling?

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghAugust 14, 2025 couples counseling, couples therapy, individual therapy, marriage counseling0 comments

Do I Need Therapy or Marriage Counseling? You’re lying awake at 2 AM again, replaying the same argument you and your partner had last week. Or maybe this week. Honestly, they’re all starting to blur together. You know something needs to change, but you’re stuck on a crucial question: “Do I need therapy and to work on myself first or do I need...

Intellectualization: Thinking About Your Feelings Instead of Feeling Them

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghJuly 29, 2025 adult children of emotionally immature parents, avoiding emotions, childhood trauma, complex post traumatic stress disorder, complex trauma, Intellectualization, intellectualization defense mechanism, intellectualize, intellectualizing emotions0 comments

Intellectualization: Thinking About Your Feelings Instead of Feeling Them I used to think I was really emotionally aware. When something upset me, I could explain exactly why it upset me, how it fit into a pattern, why my nervous system was responding the way it was. It all made perfect sense. And I thought this made me in touch with my emotions. Turns out I was...

The Slow Work of Feeling Suppressed Emotions

The Slow Work of Feeling Suppressed Emotions Working with emotions—especially when they’ve been buried, shut down, or hard to name—reminds me a lot of orthodontics. It’s not fast. It’s not flashy. But it’s real. You can’t force a tooth into place without risking damage. And you can’t force suppressed emotions into awareness without overwhelming the system....

Celebrating Black Owned Businesses in Pittsburgh: Juneteenth

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghJune 18, 2025 anti racism, black ally, black history month, black owned businesses, black owned businesses pittsburgh, black therapist pittsburgh, juneteenth0 comments

Photo credit: “20220814_103323” by 7beachbum, CC BY 2.0 Changes made: Photo cropped and sky made blue. Celebrating Black Owned Businesses in Pittsburgh This Juneteenth & Beyond For Black History Month, we shared an Instagram Reel highlighting 11 Black owned businesses in Pittsburgh to celebrate some of the amazing Black entrepreneurs in our...

An Unlikely Source of Military PTSD

by Counseling and Wellness Center of PittsburghJune 16, 2025 combat veterans, military PTSD, ptsd, PTSD Awareness Month, PTSD in veterans, PTSD Treatment, veterans and PTSD0 comments

An Unlikely Source of Military PTSD As a Marine combat veteran who has personally navigated the challenges of PTSD, I want to share an important perspective during PTSD Awareness Month that often goes unrecognized, one that could change how we understand and address military PTSD and trauma. What is PTSD? Post Traumatic Stress...

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