1. Embrace Natural Light

The reduced daylight hours in winter can disrupt your circadian rhythm and lead to feelings of sadness or fatigue. Make an effort to get outside during daylight hours, even if it’s just for a short walk. Opening curtains and blinds to let in as much natural light as possible at home or work can also help improve your mood.

2. Stay Physically Active

Exercise has been shown to boost mood and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Engage in indoor activities like yoga, home workouts, or dancing to stay active during the winter months. If you enjoy outdoor activities like skiing or ice skating, take advantage of the winter sports available in your area.

3. Maintain a Healthy Diet

Eating well can have a significant impact on your mental health. Consume a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, flaxseeds, and walnuts may help alleviate symptoms of depression. Limit your intake of sugary and processed foods, as they can negatively affect your mood.

4. Practice Mindfulness and Relaxation

Winter can be a hectic time with holiday preparations and other responsibilities. Dedicate time each day to practice mindfulness, meditation, or deep breathing exercises to reduce stress and improve your mental well-being. These practices can help you stay grounded and centered during the winter hustle and bustle.

5. Stay Connected

Social isolation can exacerbate feelings of loneliness and sadness. Make an effort to stay connected with friends and loved ones, even if it’s through virtual meetings or phone calls. Consider hosting small gatherings or cozy movie nights with friends to combat the winter blues.

6. Pursue Hobbies and Interests

Engaging in activities you enjoy can boost your mood and provide a sense of accomplishment. Whether it’s reading, crafting, painting, or playing a musical instrument, dedicating time to your hobbies can be therapeutic and fulfilling.

7. Plan Winter Excursions

Plan winter outings or trips to break the monotony and give yourself something to look forward to. Whether it’s a weekend getaway to a snowy cabin or a visit to a winter festival, creating positive experiences can counteract the winter blues.

8. Get Adequate Sleep

Maintain a regular sleep schedule and ensure you get enough restful sleep each night. Proper sleep is crucial for mood regulation and overall mental health.

9. Seek Professional Help if Needed

If you find that your winter blues persist or worsen to the point where they significantly impact your daily life, don’t hesitate to seek help from a mental health professional. Therapy, counseling, or medication may be necessary to manage more severe symptoms.

Conclusion:
Winter doesn’t have to be a season of low spirits and mental health challenges. By prioritizing self-care, staying active, connecting with others, and seeking professional help when needed, you can keep your mental health on track and even find joy in the unique pleasures that winter offers. Remember that it’s okay to reach out for support, and with the right strategies, you can navigate the colder months with a positive mindset and good mental health.

The Value of Continuing Education in the Mental Health Field

In the dynamic and ever-evolving landscape of mental health, the quest for knowledge and expertise is endless. Continuing education (CE) plays an indispensable role in ensuring that professionals remain at the forefront of advancements and best practices. Here’s a closer look at the undeniable value of CE in the mental health field.

1. Staying Updated with Evolving Practices:
The field of mental health is in a constant state of flux. New research, techniques, and best practices emerge regularly. Through CE, professionals can stay current, ensuring that they provide the most effective and evidence-based care to their clients.

2. Meeting Ethical Obligations:
Mental health professionals hold significant responsibilities. By engaging in continuous learning, they can uphold the highest ethical standards, ensuring that they offer safe, effective, and informed care.

3. Enhancing Skills and Knowledge:
CE courses provide an opportunity not just to refresh existing knowledge but also to delve into new areas of expertise. This can enhance the depth and breadth of the care professionals provide and even open doors to new specializations.

4. Promoting Personal and Professional Growth:
Beyond the tangible skills, continuing education can foster a deeper sense of purpose, reignite passion, and encourage a lifelong love of learning. It can also provide networking opportunities, connecting professionals with peers, mentors, and thought leaders in the field.

5. Fulfilling Licensing Requirements:
Many states and professional boards mandate a certain number of CEUs or hours for license renewals. While this is a practical reason, it underscores the collective recognition of the importance of ongoing education.

6. Boosting Client Confidence:
Clients often feel more comfortable knowing that their mental health professional is actively engaged in furthering their education and staying updated. It reassures them that they are receiving care based on the latest insights and research.

Continuing education is not just a formality or a box to check off. It’s a commitment to excellence, to clients, and to the profound journey of helping others navigate their mental health challenges. By embracing lifelong learning, mental health professionals can ensure they remain equipped, inspired, and ready to make a meaningful impact.

We partner with the Wellness Collaborative to offer free CEUs to our community of practitioners.

You may be eligible for forgiveness of your student loans if:

• Your loan is through the Direct Student Loan Program.
• You’re employed with a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization (or the government, Americorp, or a school).
• You’re making regular payments toward the goal of 120 payments.

Most people think they need to work in community mental health, or in a hospital in order to qualify for student loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. In many communities, this is true. But not here in Vermont.

The Vermont Wellness Collaborative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit mental health organization that specializes in outpatient private practice services. Through the collaborative you can be in private practice and qualify for student loan forgiveness.

Get in touch with us to learn more.

Additional resources:

National Council of Nonprofits Page on the PSLF (nonprofit website)

Complexities of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (NY Times Article)

Perfection of the life or of the work

And if it take the second must refuse

A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.

(The Choice, W.B. Yeats)

Thomas Hardy’s novel “Jude the Obscure” is the story of a young workingman who aspires to improve his lot by learning, but in the end fails to rise beyond his working-class origins and established familial patterns.  He dies young, broken in body and spirit, lonely, unrecognized, and utterly miserable. Youthful aspirations, put on hold, though never forgotten, were abandoned as the rigors of earning a living and raising a family took precedence over all else. The course Jude followed was ancestral, a life that fell into a pattern established by countless generations before him, and ever since, to this very day.

Jude’s history is more the rule than the exception. The 20^th century psychologist C.G. Jung wrote of the overwhelming power of ancestral influences in the establishment of powerful behavioral patterns. These can be altered and overcome, but only when there is serious commitment to change and a willingness to undergo a systematic process leading to transformation. 

Jung wrote: 

Freud has pointed out that the emotional relationship of the child to the parents, and particularly to the father, is of a decisive significance in regard to the content of any later neurosis.  This relationship is indeed the infantile channel along which the libido flows back when it encounters any obstacles in later years, thus reactivating the long-forgotten psychic contents of childhood.  It is ever so in life when we draw back before too great an obstacle, say the threat of some severe disappointment or the risk of some too far- reaching decision.  The energy stored up for the solution of the task flows back and the old riverbeds, the obsolete systems of the past, are filled up again.  (Jung 1961 p. 303).

     To overcome the powerful indoctrination that results from early parental and societal influences requires investigation of dominant elements in the unconscious psyche. Conditioning produces an overlay, powerful in its manifest effects, but primarily a surface phenomenon. The totality of the self is greater than what we know consciously; hidden forces in the unconscious are the essence of much of the psyche’s true nature. Unrevealed, their existence is readily ignored, or even denied, but their repressed forces cannot be restrained by merely looking away; sooner or later, these energies work their will, often with very negative consequences. 

     The example of Hardy’s “Jude,” who cannot find his place in his19^th century world where traditional values clash with those of the industrial revolution, is about the desire to achieve completeness . . . and the despair, which comes when it is not attained.  Aspiring to join the realm of academia, the existence of which he would not have known of a generation earlier, Jude is held back by the culture and upbringing he received in a remote English hamlet. His tale tells of a life wasted because he can neither stay in the role to which he was born, nor evolve past his conditioning and early influences.

     For one who aspires to learning, Jude is peculiarly non-introspective.  His role models are professors and clergymen, but he seems to have acquired his limited knowledge of those vocations through his reading alone.  He does not seek the company of others who are like-minded but chooses for company other working men. Abruptly and without love he marries the daughter of a pork butcher.  Later in the story, his ideal lover and mistress, a country schoolteacher, likewise has little sympathy for his goals and dreams and is herself a self-destructive misfit, unable to commit to marriage.  Ultimately, she martyrs herself by returning to her first husband, a man she doesn’t love.

     The namesake for Hardy’s Jude is the author of the “Epistle of Jude,” one of the shortest books in the New Testament.  It is entitled “The Danger of False Belief.” We may consider “false belief” as another term for “unconsciousness.” (One tradition has it that Jude was the brother of Christ; another makes him the patron saint of lost causes.)

     The Jude Epistle carries a warning against those who are slaves to the unconscious and who live by instinct rather than through conscious enlightenment.   “. . . the things they do understand, by instinct like brute beasts, prove their undoing.” (10-11). (New English Bible.)

    Jung likened the archetypes of the collective unconscious to these instincts:

I have called this congenital and pre-existent instinctual mode, or pattern of behavior, the archetype.  This is the imago that is charged with the dynamism we cannot attribute to an individual human being. (Jung 1961, P. 315).

Jung compares this dynamic to the nest-building instincts of birds and refers to it as “the ground plan of humanity’s nature.  It is fundamental, which is why it is called archetypal, but it is unconscious.

     The Epistle says that those who survive by instinct alone are “clouds carried away by the wind without giving rain, trees that in season bear no fruit, dead twice over and pulled up by the roots. They are fierce waves of the sea, forming shameful deeds; they are starts that have wandered from their course, and the place forever reserved for them is blackest darkness.” (12-13).   For modern human beings the meaning of these words can be interpreted as the “blackest darkness” of unconscious despair and depression. 

     The “Jude” story is a tragedy that is played out every day by men and women in the 21^st century.  Because of cultural pressures, the high cost of psychoanalysis, and the time and effort required to achieve transformation through its gradual methodology, most people who are willing to admit they need help choose to avail themselves of superficial or ineffectual therapies. The explosive growth of the quick fix of psychopharmacology is a symptom of the magnitude of the problem.  Popular psychologies, in the form of books, tapes, infomercials, and seminars are others.  None of these methods gets at the heart of the problem, the archetypal forms that precede consciousness.  The rhythms, resonances and harmonies dictated by the archetypes are the key to the work/life dilemma.  How can this knowledge best be applied?

     The darkness of unconscious carries within it the seeds of hope, because when the bleakness is acknowledged, only then can one begin the process of finding a way into the light.  The job of enlightened counselors, charged with the task of tapping the latent productivity of their patients, is to facilitate the process of emergence from the despair that so many feel.  Depression and anxiety may be viewed as positive calls for the enlightenment of greater consciousness.

It is common for the person who is at odds with the unconscious to attribute the resulting phobias, anxieties and neurotic tensions to various external problems, usually insoluble ones.  As we have seen, these disruptions really come from the pressure of unrecognized but essential personality aspects—in our time, most frequently repressed feeling and religious or spiritual values.  A great many people who think they live in fear of the threat of the atom bomb are in reality afraid of a psychic atom bomb—the compressed power of unknown inner needs which are vaguely sensed as a threat that might shatter the seeming peace which the conscious adaptation has established.  (Whitmont, 1969/1991, p. 292)

References

Jung, C.G. (1961/1985). Freud and Psychoanalysis. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press.

Whitmont, E. (1969/1991). The Symbolic Quest. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press.

Where to start

The first step in getting better is deciding you’re going to get help. The next step is to find the right therapist. This can be a big task.

Here are some tips for choosing a therapist:

• Start by figuring out what you’re looking for. This feels like a simple step, but it’s an important one.
• Consider things like whether you’d be most comfortable working with a female or male-identified therapist.
• It’s important to think about the things you want to work on and how who you work with may affect your progress.
• Don’t be afraid to shop around. It can be difficult to find a therapist with availability, so it can be tempting to work with the first person you find. Try to be patient for the right match.

Finding a therapist in Vermont

There are lots of therapists in Vermont. Many of them are full. That might be because of Vermont’s excellent insurance coverage for mental health. More on that below.

To start the search for a therapist try checking PsychologyToday.com. You might also try your local professional organizations, like the state chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

You might also consider asking friends and family for recommendations. This can get you a more personal recommendation but might also take longer to find someone with availability.

Paying for Therapy

Vermont has excellent behavioral healthcare coverage. This is because of the Vermont Mental Health Parity law signed in 2016. This law requires all Vermont insurance plans to cover mental health care on par with physical health care. This means if you have health insurance in Vermont, it includes mental health coverage.

Now, that doesn’t mean the coverage is good. Some insurance will cover all of the cost of your therapy. Some will cover most of it. Some will cover it only after you’ve met a deductible.

What is a deductible? A deductible is a set amount of your healthcare (including behavioral health) expenses that you are required to pay out of pocket before insurance will start covering your care. This can be anything from $0 to many thousands of dollars. Usually if you have a high deductible plan, you will have a Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account that lets you put aside money in a tax-advantaged account to cover these expenses. In Vermont, HDHP’s are required to come with an HSA or FSA.

What is a co-pay? A co-pay is a flat amount that you may be expected to pay for each healthcare service. For behavioral health like therapy, this is usually $5, $10, or $20 dollars. Sometimes it’s more. And some plans don’t have any co-pays.

What’s the difference between a co-pay and co-insurance? They’re very similar actually. A co-payment is a set amount while co-insurance is a percentage of the cost of the service. Co-payments tend to be consistent, round numbers. Because co-insurance is a percentage, it tends to change.

What about Vermont insurances specifically? Vermont has a few insurance providers that are offered to all Vermonters. They are Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Cigna, MVP and Medicaid. These options are typically available through an employer or Vermont Health Connect, Vermont’s health insurance exchange. The first three private health insurance providers usually have a co-pay and/or deductible that applies to mental health services. Vermont Medicaid has no co-payment or deductible for these services – so they’re 100% covered.

Therapy during Covid-19

Most therapists are providing tele-health sessions while social distancing rules remain in place. Some providers are meeting in person with certain safety rules in place. Luckily, if you have access to high speed internet, you can use a secure, simple platform to meet with your therapist. We’ve all had to get used to a different way of providing therapy – and you’ll get used to it as a client too!

What about insurance and tele-health? Vermont is also progressive in this way. All insurance plans in Vermont have to cover tele-health sessions as if they were in-person.

Was this guide helpful? Please consider sharing it with your networks.

If you or someone you know is looking for a therapist, we can help.

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

     The current Coronavirus pandemic gives us a unique opportunity to reflect upon our existences. It is surely safe to say that no one is unaffected by the germ that has stricken multitudes and proven deadly to others.  Those who have contracted the illness may be facing a long period of convalescence, and for all of us, healthy or ill, facing mortality passes into our consciousnesses, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. 

The fact that death will eventually come to each of us is now palpable and immediate. Many of us, perhaps all of us, are afraid.

     The words of President Roosevelt quoted above are most apt for these times that we face.  Fear paralyzes.  The only remedy is to move forward, boldly, in the face of fearsome obstacles.

     More than ever, the issue of consciousness is never far from my mind as I continue to do my daily work, both inner and outer, in this year of “The Plague.”. For decades I have dedicated myself to increasing my awareness of what lies beneath the thoughts and feelings of everyday existence.  Today is no different from any other day as I endeavor to incorporate the reality of ‘The Plague Year” into my life.

     Consciousness was most extensively brought to the attention of the world with the publication of Sigmund Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” at the beginning of the last century. His work has continued to influence the professional life of those of us in the helping professions ever since. It was Freud who noted in that early publication that much of human experience lies hidden in the farthest reaches of the human mind; that aspect of Psyche that he dubbed “the unconscious.” (Freud. 1900 pp. 614-615.)

     The term “Psyche” derives from ancient Greek.  In Grecian mythology, Psyche was a goddess, most often visually depicted with wings; her image mirrors that of a butterfly.  As such, her essence is that of transformation. The butterfly starts as a lowly, rather unattractive crawling object, and eventually transforms through the chrysalis stage into a beautiful winged creature that we regard with awe and pleasure.

     As such, Psyche symbolizes human existence.  Like her, we all possess the latent ability to grow, change and flourish.  It is the task of analytic psychotherapy, the arts and sciences practiced by therapists in the tradition of Freud and his successors, to facilitate the transformation of human existence away from anxiety, depression, frustration and misery into truly flourishing lives. It is what I have learned is my life’s work, within myself and in assisting others who also seek transformation.

     Psychoanalyst C.G. Jung referred to this process as “Individuation,” (Jung, 1960. p. 448.) which, in short, refers to each person’s latent ability to grow into the person they were meant to be, their “true selves.”  The concept is breathtaking, both in its simplicity and in its far-reaching implications.

     The unconscious is a vast storage warehouse of material about which we are unaware until we begin a systematic exploration its contents.  The process of analytic therapy takes us into its dark recesses and slowly, bit by bit, brings into the light vital information that we have long suppressed out of fear, and shame: deliberate obfuscations which Freud referred to as “repression.”

     Just because we have repressed so much of our substance doesn’t mean that unconscious psychic contents don’t affects us.  On the contrary, like matter and energy, nothing in the mind is ever destroyed; it just takes on another form, a different character.  So unconscious contents in the Psyche continue to operate, unbeknown to us, but with powerful, often destructive effect.

     It is habitual to be distracted by everyday concerns, many of which have been brought dramatically into focus as a result of the current pandemic.  Many of us are confined to our homes, away from everyday routines, limited to mandated small gatherings with associates, friends, and loved ones, if at all, and even if we are as healthy as ever, the fear of becoming seriously ill pervades the entire planet. We may try to distract ourselves and do our best to live life as normally as possible, but fear remains, beneath the threshold of awareness.

     Even in less hazardous times, we tend to dwell on the surface of our consciousnesses, concerned with the routines of daily existence.  When depression and anxiety rear their ugly heads, we try to distract ourselves with customary activities and thoughts, or we may be tempted to indulge in extreme behaviors, such as: substance abuse, compulsive sex, overeating, and many other diversions.  Doing so frequently brings about temporary relief, but the pathological energies that gave rise to symptoms ceaselessly continue to do their nasty work and will surface at will.

     When one’s symptoms get to the point where they seriously interfere with daily activities, a physician may prescribe medications that are designed to relieve the distress. Many people find them helpful, and particularly in the short term they make it possible to get one with one’s life. However, using palliatives masks those symptoms that are indicators of underlying issues. Depression and anxiety are clarion calls for greater depth; and the exploration leading to revelation of hidden forces, ultimately is the only solution. An analyst who has committed to deep inner work in their own life may serves as a guide to the person who wishes to plummet the depths of their being.

     Psychoanalysis is not for the faint of heart.  In the process of going into the darkness of the unconscious, one is guaranteed to encounter harsh realities that have long been hidden. But as each ugly demon is outed comes relief, a sense of “aha” that discharges pent-up energies and allows us to slowly become emancipated from the harsh forces that have for so long held us captive.

     This time in history appears to be dark.  People are ill, some are dying.  Fear is rampant.  In many ways, outer existence is a metaphor for everything about the consciousness and the unconscious that I’ve written in the foregoing paragraphs.  But like the goddess Psyche herself, this era also represents opportunity.  We have the option to choose between anxiety, depression and fear, or to take the leap into the unconscious contents of our minds and begin the process of becoming ever more conscious, ever more individuated; in short, transformed.

“Modern man has lost his way; but the road which brings salvation to him is a road which leads downwards to a reunion with the unconscious, with the instinctual world of nature and with the ancestors, whose messenger is the shadow. He it is who brings the ‘good news’ of the treasure hidden in the depths, of the herb of healing which grows in the darkness and whose secret power is able to staunch the Amfortas-wound of modern man.” (Erich Neumann, “Depth Psychology and a New Ethic” p. 144)

     Amfortas in the legend of the Holy Grail, was the King whose wound causes him untold agony until at last (as depicted in Wagner’s Opera, “Parsifal,”) he is healed. The myth is a metaphor for the agony we contemporary folk feel when mental and emotional distress strike.  The good news is that our pain can be ameliorated by making the unconscious conscious.  This process has been my life’s work and that of many others who offer the healing modalities of psychotherapy.

Peter Burmeister is Therapist here at The Vermont Wellness Collaborative. Get in touch with Peter: peter@vermontwellness.org / (802) 595-6444.

References

Freud, S. 1900/1959. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York. Basic Books

Jung, C.G. 1960/1974. Psychological Types. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press.

Neumann, E. 1990.Depth Psychology and a New Ethic. Boston. Shambala.