Connett Psychotherapy During Stay at Home Confinement

To the West GA community and, really, all GA residents now. To current clients and new clients. I first want to emphasize that I have been offering online therapy sessions for over 3 years now andam keeping my services available to you online. I am well equipped to help you maintain your balance, health and wellbeing during this difficult time. I have openings for online sessions and below, I’ll tell you about how I’m helping to make this a possibility for you, even in these times of uncertainty of finances and resources.

I’m also reaching out to talk about feeling “Stir-Crazy” right about now, and what we can do about it. We’ve been under stay at home orders in GA for about a week, but many have been in social distancing and social isolation for much longer since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak in the US.

At first, the family togetherness has felt good, meaningful and has grounded us in good old fashioned family values – at first. And we should try to hang onto this feeling as long as we can. But for some, it’s now getting crowded being at home, and people are getting restless.

I decided to look up the definition of “Stir-crazy”.

From Definitions.net:

“Stir Crazy is a phrase that dates to 1908 according to the Oxford English Dictionary and the online Etymology Dictionary. Used among inmates in prison, it referred to a prisoner who became mentally unbalanced because of prolonged incarceration. It is based upon the slang stir to mean prison.

It is now used to refer to anyone who becomes restless or anxious from feeling trapped and even somewhat claustrophobic in an environment, usually a confined space, perceived to be more static and unengaging than can any longer continue to hold interest, meaning, and value to and for them.

‘Stir crazy’ could be classified as a more specific form of boredom, but combined with elevated and often increasing levels of anxiety, frustration, agitation, fidgeting, manic depressive type mood swings, and accessory episodes of acting out violently or otherwise antisocially on those feelings, the longer the unengaging non-stimulating environment is persisted in.

‘Stir crazy’ has a similar meaning to cabin fever, except minus the urge to disengage and sleep more, plus the urge to engage and attempt doing anything perceived to be even slightly more constructive and productive, given the extreme limitations of the environment, even if plainly destructive, than doing nothing at all. Prisoners will sometimes initiate otherwise easily avoidable conflict for no other reason than they perceive they have nothing else better or more worthwhile to do.”

INTERESTING! So, we are feeling like prisoners in our own homes! I’m hearing from couples now that they are on the verge of going out of their minds because everyone is on top of each other at home, there’s no peace, no privacy, nowhere to hide except in closets. Check out this youtube video for some uplifting humor.

https://youtu.be/My5mFtF5ynE

I offered some tips on my FaceBook page, Connett & Associates, LLC, for ways to raise your immune system and stay in the best mind-body-spirit health. Here’s the link to the page:

https://www.facebook.com/meconnett/

So, there are definitely ways to manage this “Stir-crazy” experience we find ourselves in. And, in addition to talk therapy for women, men and couples, I am also trained in Energy Psychology, also known as Tapping in the popular media. Energy Psychology uses the body’s energy systems to help change thought patterns, repetitive emotional cycles that we get stuck in through anxiety, depression, worry and trauma. Once identified, the Energy Psychology techniques help clear these troublesome pathways of thought and behavior so new, positive, health-giving thoughts and behaviors can emerge. This method of psychotherapy works very quickly, sometimes in a few sessions.

Energy psychology has scientifically been shown to help boost the immune system and greatly reduce anxiety, depression and the effects of trauma. Here’s a great blog post from the ACEP website – the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.

Energy Psychology in the Age of Covid-19: What does the research say?

I encourage you to consider scheduling a session or two to try Energy Psychology for managing these “Stir-crazy” feelings. It’s incredibly effective, even with online sessions. To make this easier financially, I put together a 2 – 4 session pre-paid package. You pre-pay for the cost of a regular 60 minute session and you can schedule 2 – 50 minute sessions or 4 – 25 minute sessions of either Energy Psychology work or talk therapy, for you, or a relationship. More than 1 person can be in the session. I have found that 25 minutes is a good amount of time to do Energy Psychology work on a particular issue and 50 minutes can take us deeper into the healing. And, I’ve been using several different secure internet platforms for these sessions which work very well.

I am also offering the assistance of a discounted fee at this time for a regular 60 minute session. I can discuss all the details of these opportunities when we speak.

Please contact me through this website or connettandassoc@aol.com or calling 706-565-6062 and leaving a message. I need your phone number and email address in order to begin the process of discussing an appointment. I look forward to hearing from you.

Stay at home! Stay healthy and safe! Take care of yourself and your needs by contacting me and we’ll discuss what services are best for you right now.

Mary Ellen Connett, M.S., LMFT