Lemon Coconut Doughnuts Gluten free and potentially vegan, depending on the ingredients you choose, this recipe is as close to healthy as you can get for a sweet treat. Whether you spell it doughnut or donut, the Lemon-coconut flavor of this recipe is sure to please even the most picky doughnut lover. And speaking of flavor, did you know that doTERRA Lemon oil comes all the way from Sicily, Italy? The Mediterranean climate is perfect for creating the best lemons in the world. Our growers there have worked in their orchards for generations, and doTERRA has made it possible for them to continue their family traditions in spite of hard times. Somehow, that fact makes Lemon oil all the sweeter. Buon appetito!
Ingredients Batter 1 ½ cups almond flour, or any gluten free flour ½ cup coconut sugar, or brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 egg, or 1 tablespoon flaxseed with ½ tablespoon water ¼ cup coconut milk ¼ cup coconut oil ¼ cup coconut yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 lemon, zested 2–3 drops Lemon oil Glaze 1 package white chocolate ¼ teaspoon coconut oil Instructions
How to Choose Pure Essential Oils When it comes to buying essential oils, there is a lot to consider—price, ease of use, your personal preferences and needs, etc. However, when it comes to deciding what type of essential oils to buy, one of the most important things to consider is purity. Pure essential oils will generally be safer and more effective, which means that your money will be well spent. Take a look at some common questions about essential oil purity, and learn how to ensure that you are using pure essential oils at home with your family. Aren’t all essential oils the same? If you’ve never used essential oils, you might be wondering, “Aren’t all essential oils created equal if they're from the same plants?” The honest answer, unfortunately, is no. The quality and efficacy of an essential oil will depend heavily on the production process and dozens of little details throughout an oil’s delicate journey from plant to bottle. Even seemingly tiny factors (like the type of soil used to grow the plants or the time of day that the plants are harvested) can drastically impact the quality of an essential oil because all of these elements impact the oil’s chemistry. Most essential oil producers will have their own methods and processes for producing essential oils, but the important thing to remember is that cutting corners during any phase of the oil production will always result in a lower quality oil. Not all essential oil producers take the same time and care necessary to produce high-quality essential oils, but the difference is clear from both the resulting aroma and the efficacy of the oil when you use it. Why is it important to use pure essential oils? Some might wonder, “Does it really matter if I use pure essential oils or not?” It turns out, when it comes to using essential oils, purity is possibly the most important attribute. When an essential oil isn’t pure, it has the potential to expose the body to germs, adulterants, or other undesirable things like heavy metals. If an essential oil contains contaminants, it can lead to unwanted effects like irritation and even sickness. Along with shielding the body from adverse effects, using pure essential oils also allows you to yield the maximum benefit that the oil has to offer. If an essential oil is pure and free from contaminants, it will be safe to use (when the appropriate application methods are observed), and will provide the user with the desired benefits. Not only do pure essential oils give you peace of mind that your body will be protected from unwanted additives, but you will also find the oils to be more effective and useful. How do I know if an essential oil is pure? Once you’ve decided that you only want to use pure essential oils, how do you know if the oils you intend to use are in fact pure? Unfortunately, there is not an accepted standard or regulatory body that ensures essential oil quality, so essential oil companies must regulate themselves when it comes to producing pure, safe oils. As mentioned, each essential oil company will have their own processes for producing essential oils and ensuring safety, so it is up to the company to make sure that the proper measures are taken to create pure essential oils. While skipping important quality control steps during the production process might save money or time, it will result in impure and lower quality oils in the end. In order to decide whether or not the essential oils you are using are pure, you will need to do a little research about the essential oil company you are buying from. Responsible essential oil companies will provide information about their testing measures and any processes that they use to protect the potency and purity of an essential oil before it is approved for final consumer use. For example, doTERRA uses something called the CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® testing process to ensure that each doTERRA essential oil is free from contaminants and safe for use. The CPTG® testing process includes several rounds of testing to make sure that no undesirable elements can be found in the essential oils, and that they are safe to be packaged and sold for customer use. The main goal of the CPTG testing process is to verify the potency and ensure the purity of each essential oil that doTERRA produces. We also know that transparency is important, especially when it comes to testing for purity. To see the specific GC/MS test results of any doTERRA single oil bottled after 2016, please visit our Source to You website. There you will be able to input your Quality ID found on the bottom of the bottle to get a PDF of the test results. Before you purchase and use an essential oil, do some of your own research to see what kind of testing methods the company uses to ensure purity. By educating yourself, you’ll be able to protect your family by only using potent, effective, and pure essential oils. To learn more about the doTERRA Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade testing process, check out some of these articles: Pure doTERRA Essential Oils through CPTG Quality Testing CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade Testing Methods Q&A The CPTG Difference Leave with a gender-neutral lava rock bracelet that you create while learning about essential oils!
 What is sex therapy? A variety of ideas can come to mind when someone first hears the words, “sex therapy.” Most people tend to either tighten up and feel uncomfortable or blossom with curiosity about the “freaky/kinky/weird” clients that I might see. And while I fully understand both responses and they are completely normal, it seems that once people truly understand what sex therapy is, they tend to soften and gain a different perspective on the overall experience. The first thing I tell most of my clients to not only lighten the mood, but also to debunk one of the bigger myths about sex therapy is that everyone is going to keep their clothes on and we’ll be staying on our respective sides of the room. Sex therapy is not sex surrogacy (which is legal only in certain states in the U.S.). Instead, sex therapy is the opportunity to verbally process with a specialist the sexual difficulties you (and potentially your partner) are experiencing. It’s the opportunity to take a more in-depth approach to exploring the beliefs that culture, family, friends, church, schools, etc. have told you about sex, relationships, and intimacy, and determine how those beliefs have influenced your life to lead you where you are today (which is my therapy office). It’s an opportunity to grieve the way you may feel that your body has betrayed you (whether it’s because you feel like a freak for desiring a certain person/act, etc., because your body isn’t responding the way you’d like for it to (or because it’s responding in ways you don’t want it to), because hormones and medicine have changed your desire or response, and more. It’s a space to ask all the questions you were afraid to ask because it’s been taboo all of your life to talk about sex. It’s a space to be open and vulnerable about a topic that causes a lot of doubt, fear, discomfort, blissful joy, curiosity, tantalizing excitement, and more. So, while some people might believe that sex therapy is only for those who are into kinky sex or have terrible sex life, it can actually be for a wide variety of topics. I see couples and individuals for concerns such as painful sex, low libido, sexual trauma, erectile dysfunction, vaginismus, compulsive sexual behaviors, infidelity, questioning identity, education about sex in general, feeling something is wrong with them because they want sex too much or too little or feel they have strange desires/fantasies, and more. If you come in for any of these issues (or something not listed), what can you expect from a typical session? You can expect that for the initial session, I will take some time to get to know who you are and what you’re coming into therapy for. We’ll just get to know one another and determine if we are a good fit (can I help you with what you’re bringing in). You can then expect that for the second session, we’ll review an assessment that you complete, outlining your sexual history, so we can get a full picture of how your past experiences and the beliefs you’ve been given about sex have influenced your life such that you’re now seeking help. For our third session, we will carve out goals so that we’re on the same page regarding the work you want to do and what you’d like to accomplish in our time together. After that, you can expect that I will check in on your goals from the past week. We’ll process whatever new developments have taken place (whether we’re celebrating a win or collaborating on how to adjust our work when something didn’t quite pan out the way we expected it to) and begin to implement different interventions that, based on my education and the research provided in the field, seem to be the best fit for you. Once we feel that you have met your goals and you have no further concerns, you are on your merry way and may just come in every once and a while for maintenance. As you can see, sex therapy isn’t cringe worthy or altogether full of wild stories. It’s more about tapping into a part of you or your relationship that our society has difficulty processing together. It’s an opportunity to have a safe space to be fully who you are without judgement, so that you can have the most fulfilling sex and intimacy in your life that you desire. If you would like a space to be open and vulnerable and would like to schedule an appointment with Julie, please call our office at 513-939-0300
 I am very excited to announce we are starting groups that will be using mindfulness to reduce stress and improve overall physical and mental health. Mindfulness is a bit of buzzword at the moment. It may have popped up on your social media or at your job. What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is the art of being fully present, fully aware, and fully engaged in this moment without judgment. Mindfulness allows you to reduce the stress hormone cortisol which allows your body to function in a healthier way. So why would you want to learn how to do that? Mindfulness has been around for thousands of years but it is only in the last 60 years that scientists have really studied it in depth. What they discovered was astonishing and will be taught in the class. In short mindfulness has been researched and found to be helpful with improving:
Please note that Mindfulness does not replace your current medical and mental health treatment but rather enhances it. It gives you the tools to get the most out of your treatment. We tend to look at the mind and body as separate but Mindfulness is a holistic practice that embraces the interconnected whole. If you struggle with any of the above issues, I expect you have noticed how when you are stressed your health is more difficult to manage and vice versa. If you want to find ways to better manage this cycle this group could be for you. The group will meet weekly for 9 weeks and include a time of teaching and a time of practicing techniques. There is daily homework that is essential to getting the most out of the group.
 According to Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), anxiety is a reaction to stress. Its keymarkers are feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes such as elevated blood pressure. Just like physical pain, in and of itself anxiety is not a bad thing: it signals that something is wrong. Temporary anxiety is normal and can count as healthy, because it draws our attention to causes of stress that might need correcting. But anxiety disorders–the excessive and chronic reactions to stress–are mental illnesses. Anxiety disorders are, in other words, worry that sticks way past its usefulness to us; it does not go away and often gets worse with time. According to National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders–from post-traumatic stress disorder, through obsessive compulsive disorder, to a variety of phobias–are the most common mental disorders experienced by Americans. They affect 40 million adults over 18 in the United States, or 18 percent of the population. Many anxiety disorders negatively affect sleep–and vice versa. Doctors call them comorbid: they go hand-in-hand. In other words, anxiety and sleep are connected via a self-reinforcing feedback loop. Feeling rested has been proved to combat anxiety and feeling less anxious leads to sounder sleep. The converse is also true: insomnia feeds anxiety and anxiety keeps us up at night. According to The Cleveland Clinic, two-thirdsof patients referred to sleep disorders centers have a psychiatric disorder. “Anxiety is an emotion that actually wakes us up,” Dr. Steve Orma, author of Stop Worrying and Go to Sleep: How to Put Insomnia to Bed for Good,told The Huffington Post. “There are all kinds of physical changes happening that ramp you up, which is the exact opposite state of what you need to be in when you’re trying to fall asleep.”  This guide gets at the link between anxiety and sleep and covers several anxiety disorders that interfere with sleep and which can be alleviated with sleep: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD); social anxiety; obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); phobias; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and panic disorder. It offers solutions to the sleep deprived anxiety sufferers, from treatment options, through online forums, tips regarding healthy sleep hygiene and banishing anxious thoughts, to medical associations that can help. Anyone who lost a night to insomnia on account of troubling thoughts has been where many chronic anxiety sufferers find themselves all too frequently. According to UC Berkeley researchers, lack of sleep plays a role in ramping up brain regions that trigger excessive worry. Additionally, those who tend to worry too much are more vulnerable to sleep disorders. “These findings help us realize that those people who are anxious by nature are the same people who will suffer the greatest harm from sleep deprivation,” said Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley and senior author of the study. Worry about lack of sleep becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy at times. Anxiety causes sleep loss, which in turn can provoke further anxiety in sufferers. The mechanism behind this phenomenon has to do with what researchers call anticipatory anxiety. People prone to sleep deprivation worry that they might not be able to sleep, perhaps based on past experience. That worry fires up the brain’s amygdala and insular cortex, mimicking the neural activity seen in anxiety disorders. And now, indeed, because of the anticipatory anxiety, sleep becomes elusive. Researchers at University of California Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratoryfound that when deprived of sleep, the brain reverts back to more primitive patterns of activity. What this means is that subjects kept awake were less likely to put emotionally-charged information in context. The good news is found in the reverse. Doing the opposite–finding ways to get better sleep–presents us with a tried-and-true solution to alleviate anxiety. “By restoring good quality sleep in people suffering from anxiety, we may be able to help ameliorate their excessive worry and disabling fearful expectations,” says Dr. Allison Harvey, one of the authors of the study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. This article on the correlation between sleep and anxiety was shared with us from Tuck.
Leave with a gender-neutral lava rock bracelet that you create while learning about essential oils!
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. CALL 513-939-0300 TO SIGN UP.
This class is open to CPCS clients, therapists and the public.  You’re here because you are curious about EMDR therapy and you want to know what it’s all about. As a therapist, I’ve learned many types of therapy that have positively changed the way I approach my practice, EMDR incorporates all that and so much more. For many years, I heard from respected clinicians about the incredible changes they have seen in their clients engaged in EMDR therapy. The therapy has gained recent momentum in the mental health world, and for good reason. EMDR is empirically validated as effective for helping people deal with trauma. It has also been shown effective with many other disruptive symptoms such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, and addiction recovery. Think of your painful memories, thoughts, images, like a tangled ball of yarn, often complicated to talk through especially when the strings are intertwined. EMDR therapy can help to untangle the yarn and allow you to process one string at a time, in a safe contained way. EMDR therapy can accelerate the therapeutic process by resolving painful past traumas allowing you to live more fully in the present. And who doesn’t want to live in the present? Why am I telling you about EMDR? I was trained by Dr. Stephen Dansiger, a certified EMDR therapist from the Institute of Creative Mindfulness. I experienced a life changing shift when he himself demonstrated the 8 phases of treatment on me. Keep reading and I will tell you more about these 8 phases later. During my experience I felt a relief, something years of talk therapy had not been able to process for a long time. As a clinician, I feel passionate about giving as many people the opportunity to learn about and benefit from this treatment as possible. But what is EMDR therapy? EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Don’t worry, it is way less complicated than it sounds. It is a non-drug, non-hypnosis, psychotherapy that combines many positive elements of numerous therapies along with left/right brain stimulation (known as bilateral stimulation), developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the 1980’s. EMDR therapy involves a trained therapist waving their fingers from left to right (some therapists use a light bar to achieve this part of the therapy), in a windshield wiper motion, which will trigger the brain to bring up the painful memories in an effort to process them and speed up the healing process. All of this is done in a safe environment with you and your therapist present. You are not alone in the processing of your memories. The therapist will also work to reprocess negative beliefs, images, and feelings and replace them with more positive ones. The outcome is the feeling of resolution and a more peaceful state overall. EMDR therapy has successfully treated millions of people of all ages, has gained notability with veterans of war as a primary treatment modality for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, but also many types of other traumatic stress and negative symptoms that come along with different experiences. You’re probably wondering how simple “finger wipers” do all that? Interestingly enough the “finger waving” is key to the therapy. It engages something called bilateral stimulation (right to left eye movement), which repeatedly activates the opposite sides of the brain. This releases emotional experiences that are "trapped" in the nervous system. When this happens it assists the neurophysiological system, the basis of the mind-body connection, to free itself of blockages and begin to heal. In a basic sense, when a person experiences an adverse event, or trauma, the brain cannot process the event as it does normally. The brain instead takes this event and stores it, sort of like “I’ll get to this later”. Unfortunately, the “I’ll get to this later” never quite happens and essentially these adverse feelings, memories, and thoughts become “stuck” in an isolated memory network. They can easily become re-triggered by sound, smell, feelings, and environments that were activated during the traumatic event. EMDR therapy is able to guide the person in a safe, contained environment to “unstick” the memories, reprocess them, and replace them with more positive images. Once this happens,the person can begin to move forward with healing. Who is the best candidate for EMDR? EMDR therapy is for children, adolescents, and adults. If you or a loved one has ever experienced panic attacks, complicated grief, dissociative disorders, pain disorders, anxiety, performance anxiety, depression, addictions, phobias, sexual and/or physical abuse, body dysmorphic disorder, and personality disorders. **It is important to note that a consultation with a EMDR trained therapist is the best way to determine if EMDR is right for you. EMDR therapy has been designated by the American Psychiatric Association, U.S. Department of Defense, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, as a highly effective and empirically supported treatment modality for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). What happens in EMDR Therapy sessions? EMDR therapy has a standardized set of protocols that a therapist will follow. There are 8 phases to the treatment, that are moved through at a varying pace depending on your readiness for the next stage. An EMDR therapist is trained to know appropriate pacing but you can determine whether to continue or stop at anytime. The therapist is there as a guide to help you get the most out of the experience, and at times may gently aide in pushing you through painful moments. Why bring up painful memories? Isn’t it best to forget them and move on? By avoiding the painful memory you might continue to experience the lasting effects of the event, through nightmares, stress, anxiety, and panic attacks. By holding onto these memories you stop yourself from moving on. The problem with avoidance, or ignoring these memories, is that it is a temporary relief. For a brief moment it allows you to feel better and put aside the pain, but it doesn’t remove it, and worse, it allows it to keep its power over you and your joy. Often, this painful memory rears its ugly head at times when we are not prepared and leaves us crippled by its effects. EMDR therapy is not just bringing up painful memories, its moving through them in a safe, contained way. It alleviates suffering, and replaces it with positivity. What happens when I’m done with all 8 phases? After the 8 phases you will likely continue to process the material for days, weeks, or perhaps even months. You might have new insights, vivid dreams, feel angry or numb with no real answer why. This is because your are finally processing the unpleasant memories you were holding onto for so long. Your therapist will guide you through this process and advise best practices for moving forward. Some people feel a slight buzzing all over their body, similar to the feeling of when they stand up too fast. Don’t worry, this will soon fade. Your right and left hemisphere are stimulated by the finger waving motion and it is only natural that you will feel something afterwards. Often times, after a person has processed one of their target issues they will notice that some of the other target issues, are no longer are troubling them. This is because our memory networks are linked in ways we aren't consciously aware of. Its normal to cry, feel tired, need time to be alone, or feel a little “off” because your body is starting the healing process. Allow it to heal. So this all sounds like something I might want to try. What do I do now? I would be more than happy to help you in your journey to healing! You can call our main office at 513.939.0300 and ask the office staff to schedule an appointment with Jennifer Burns for an EMDR session. I am currently taking new clients and would love to meet you. JENNIFER BURNS, MA, LPC
Where can I find more information on EMDR?
EMDR International Association The Institute for Creative Mindfulness U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: National Center for PTSD In the light of the tragedies this week that have struck the families and friends of designer Kate Spade and chef Anthony Bourdain, we want to remind you that we are here. You are not alone. Suicide is not the answer.
If you or someone you know are struggling with suicidal thoughts, urges, or behaviors please reach out. In the Cincinnati area you can call us at 513- 939-0300 or nationwide you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
The Middle School/childhood DBT® Program consists of:
To schedule an appointment call the front office at 513-939-0300
 SPRING HAS SPRUNG!! The sun is finally out and for most of us that means lazy days by the pool, beach vacations, or family fun day at the lake. Unfortunately, for many of us, that also means increased anxiety and worry about that “beach body” that we still don’t feel like we have achieved yet. Body dissatisfaction and a negative body image seems to be a fact of life for a growing number of people, both men and women; A fact that can lead people to miss out on some of life’s best moments. Approximately 89% of women and 43% of men say they are dissatisfied with their bodies. When we talk about “body image,” what do we mean? Your body image is how you see yourself when you look in the mirror. But it also involves how you feel about what you see. It is what you believe about your appearance, how you think others perceive you, as well as your physical sense of your body or how you feel in your own skin. We get messages starting from a very young age that shape our body image into a positive or negative one. Someone struggling with a negative body image often connects their feelings of self-esteem and self-worth with how they look on the outside. They may place a great deal of value on the very narrow beauty ideal what we have in this country and develop negative feelings about themselves if they don’t meet this ideal (which is almost impossible…only about 5% of the population actually looks like this idealized image of beauty that we see most often in popular media). So, what can we do to combat this? Here are some tips for reaching body ACCEPTANCE and learning to celebrate your individual beauty: Affirmations: Often we are our own worst critic. Change that inner voice by starting your day with affirmations about things that you like about yourself and the way you look. Every day, take a minute or two to look in the mirror and say something nice to yourself. Changing that inner monologue is the first step to really transforming how you feel about yourself. Consciously set limits on your media: Now more than ever, we are inundated with images of what we are “supposed” to look like. Constantly seeing these impossible and totally unrealistic standards only serves to make us feel worse about ourselves. What most of us don’t realize is that all of the images we see on TV, online, and in magazines are digitally enhanced. No one actually looks like that! So ditch the fashion magazines, unfollow negative social media influences, and start defining beauty for yourself! Cease the comparison trap: I once heard that “comparison is the thief of joy” and that could not be more true when it comes to body image. There are so many ways to define beauty and constantly comparing yourself to only one strict standard will lead to negative feelings. Instead of being frustrated because the media says your “beach body” isn’t good enough, celebrate your own individuality by remembering that EVERY body is a beach body! Enjoy everything in moderation: There is absolutely nothing wrong with making changes to your diet or exercise routine in an effort to look and feel better. But it is important to remember that even healthy habits can turn unhealthy without some balance. Maintain a healthy relationship with food, exercise regularly, but also enjoy a happy hour every now and then. And remember to take some time to rest. Life is short….eat the cupcake!! Pamper yourself: Self care is an often overlooked but crucial part of living a healthy life. We sometimes fall into the trap of feeling like taking time to recharge is a selfish act, when really it is the best thing we can to do ensure we are our best for others. Honoring your body by getting a massage or pedicure, taking a walk, or doing another activity you love, is a perfect way to help you feel good in the skin you’re in. Try meditation: Mindfulness is one great way to shift the focus away from negative thoughts about your body. Take some time to slow down, get in touch not only with your body, but with your inner self. Pay attention to the present moment instead of getting lost in negative thoughts. Try this by taking five minutes to do some deep breathing and reconnect with what is really important to you. Activity: One of the best ways to improve your body image is to focus on all of the things your body can DO instead of just what it looks like. After all, this is the vessel that allows you to pick up your children, dance the night way with your friends on girl’s night, and hit the winning shot in the company basketball game. We forget sometimes that we are more that just what we see on the outside, and we often don’t acknowledge our body’s strength. So get moving and take advantage of all the activities that your body allows you to enjoy! Nix the scale: So many of us are a slave to the scale, letting it affect our mood and our self-esteem. It’s important to remember that the number on scale does not define how healthy you are or your worth as a person. A smaller number does not mean “better.” We often put so much emphasis on our weight, obsessing over every pound. Get rid of the scale and give yourself permission to just enjoy being you, no matter your weight. Celebrate own beauty: Make it a habit to look in the mirror and focus on the things you love about the way you look instead of the things you would like to change. And then finds ways to accentuate those! Do and wear the things that make you feel the best about yourself. Buy clothes that make you feel beautiful and confident, and let your inner beauty shine through! Employ a support system: It is so important to surround yourself with people who are a positive influence on you. Spend time with others who see and celebrate the diversity of beauty that is all around us and who encourage you to see your own beauty as well.
If you are located in Cincinnati, Ohio and would like to be scheduled with Darlene call our front office at 513-939-0300 |
