Josh Hillebrand LCSW
I'm a compassionate therapist committed to helping people reconnect with themselves, their lives, and the world-at-large.
Category: Uncategorized
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I’ve worked with a lot of clients who struggle with doubt about whether or not they really need therapy. For some of them, the act of seeking therapeutic support itself elicits guilt and self-criticism. In fact, this is something I experienced when I first sought therapy at my college counseling center when I was an…
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I’ve been working on anger with a lot of clients recently. Some people need support in acting on their anger. For these folks, they tend to be conflict-avoidant, will push down their anger, put a smile on their face to keep the peace. Others need help taking a step back from their anger – right…
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So much of the world says that if you’re feeling anxious, guilty, shame, angry, sad, or any other painful emotion, then something is wrong with you. Instead, you’re expected to be one hundred percent happy all of the time just like all the smiling faces you see on social media. But this is completely bogus…
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Let’s say you’re stuck on a difficult thought like “I’m a terrible person,” “Nobody likes me,” or “I’m going to sound like an idiot during my presentation tomorrow.” Traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) might have you look at the evidence for and against these thoughts, and then identify a more adaptive thought. This can be…
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I’ve worked with a lot of people who were certain and very worried that they have an addictive personality. When people use this label, they’re referring to something like “it’s easy for me to get hooked on something and I have a hard time getting of it.” The so-called addiction can take on a life…
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One of my favorite skills from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is the ACE skill which is also known as dropping anchor. Imagine you’re on a boat that is trying to get into the harbor. And suddenly there is a huge storm that appears out of nowhere. There are huge waves rocking the boat, horizontal rain,…
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When you experience a crisis – something sudden, unexpected, and immediately threatening, your body will do its job and automatically protect you by sending you into fight, flight, or freeze mode. This can be good and useful if you’re in a situation that demands immediate physical action like jumping out of the way of a…
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most well-researched psychotherapy treatments for depression. CBT is based on the idea that our thoughts and beliefs have more of an impact on our mood than the situations we find ourselves in. Consider the following example: someone is thinking about cleaning their apartment. In one scenario, they…
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One of my specialties is treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with a type of therapy called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). This is one of the most researched treatments for OCD. To understand how it works, you also have to know a bit about how OCD works. OCD is characterized by obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions…
Josh Hillebrand LCSW 