9 Signs That Your Child is Struggling While Away at College and 9 Steps You Can Take to Help.

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Recently we have noticed a marked increase in calls from distressed and anguished parents seeking help for their distressed, depressed, withdrawn and anxious college students. A number of these students are either struggling while away at school, have returned home mid-semester taking a leave of absence or planning not to return to school at all after winter break.  It’s a challenging time for all replete with worry, shame and feelings of failure for all involved.

Attending a 4-year college away from home as long been regarded as our cultural equivalence … Read More

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Reclaiming Psychological and Emotional Freedom

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by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

Reclaiming psychological and emotional freedomEven though we live in a “free” country I question how truly free many of us experience ourselves to be. Being a therapist, I spend many hours of my days sitting and listening to different people who don’t exactly feel so free in life.

I hear people express how they feel trapped by debt, financial worries, social pressure and social stigma. They feel hindered by anxiety, fear, anger and depression, and imprisoned in dysfunctional or abusive relationships or personal disillusionment. Everyone it seems is dealing with … Read More

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Why its Crucial to do NOTHING!

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by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

woman sitting outdoorsIn our culture, especially the NYC Metro area culture where it tends to be all about ambition and success and striving to become or make something, the notion of sitting and vegging out and doing nothing can seem improbable, impossible and at worst lazy! I’d like to counter that thought and galvanize a movement of “Nothing-doers” to encourage people everywhere who are over-scheduled, over-stressed and overwhelmed or even people who seem to have it all “in-check” to pencil in some time to sit, chill, veg-out … Read More

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The Need to Normalize and Prioritize Discussion of Mental Health

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by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

Recently Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote an editorial in which he outlined the necessity for placing Mental Health at #1 on the agenda of news pundits and journalists to address in their work. To those of us who work in the field of mental health, what Mr. Kristof writes resonates deeply on a visceral level; for our purpose in entering this field of work is exactly that – tending to those who struggle with and hopefully thereby easing the burden of the various … Read More

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Why Do I Feel SO Guilty and How Do I Get Over It???

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by Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R

The topic of grappling with guilt is an all too familiar one for a lot of people and it is a recurring theme  in sessions with many of my clients and quite frankly, one I’ve wrestled with myself.   Guilt is a powerful and simultaneously wretched emotional state, one we are at once all too eager to rid ourselves of yet can’t seem to climb out from underneath its weight. Like most uncomfortable and unwanted feeling states, if we tend to it with care and curiosity, the … Read More

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