Baby Steps: How New Parents Can Ask for Help

Available for Interviews: Colleen Cira, Psy.D.

Dr. Colleen Cira is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in Women and Trauma, and has worked with hundreds of people struggling with mental health issues.

What Dr. Cira Can Say in an Interview on
Getting Help for New Parents:

1) Before you can tell anyone what you need, you need to KNOW what you need. A new baby can come with lots of stress for lots of reasons, so every time you notice that you’ve overwhelmed, sad or anxious, stop for a moment and consider the origin of your overwhelm. Do you feel like you could pull out all of your hair when you look at your overflowing laundry basket? Do you become overwhelmed with dread when you think about needing to find something to cook and eat? Do you want to cry every time your baby cries? Is feeding your baby a daunting task?? Only by figuring out what specifically is feeling overwhelming can you start to address it so just start to notice.
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Addressing Work-Related Nightmares

Available for Interviews:  Dr. Colleen Cira

Dr. Colleen Cira, Psy.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in Women and Trauma, and has worked with hundreds of people struggling with mental health issues.

 

Talking Points on What Dr. Cira Can Say in an Interview
About Work-Related Nightmares:

For most of us, work is one of the main domains of our lives; it’s where we spend the majority of our days, and therefore the majority of our energy. Most corporate cultures want us to check our personal stuff at the door the moment we arrive at work, that’s not possible. We’re human beings, not robots, so our “baggage” is with us, always. And it’s going to show up at work. 

some simple explanations

  • Some of us struggle with anxiety—performance anxiety, social anxiety, etc.—and because we spend so much time at work, these anxieties are going to manifest there.

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The Pursuit of Happiness—7 Happiness Hacks

As a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in Trauma, Dr. Cira worked with hundreds of people on how to increase happiness in their lives, even after they experience the unthinkable.  We all have a certain happiness set-point, but there are things we can do to encourage our set-points to move in a better direction.
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Anxiety & Gender: Ways Women and Men Experience Anxiety Differently

Dr. Colleen Cira is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in Women and Trauma, so she has worked with hundreds of people struggling with a family of origin issues.

Here are some few things that she can say on the topic:

There are basic anxiety symptoms that form the core of anxiety that does not change as a whole much based on gender.

These include: Worry that feels excessive and out of the person’s control, irritability, racing thoughts, and fatigue along with more physical symptoms including some combination of muscle tension, headaches, GI upset, etc.

 

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Panic Attacks: Tips to Manage & Mitigate the Effects

Interview Dr.Colleen Cira

How common are panic attacks?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 4.7% of the adult population in the U.S. experience panic disorder at some time in their lives.  Panic Disorder is different than simply having a panic attack.

Panic attacks on their own are not diagnosable according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) but are included as the main symptom of Panic Disorder, which is diagnosable.  Therefore we don’t have prevalence rates on panic attacks as stand-alone experiences; however, if 4.7% of the US population experiences full-blown panic disorder (which is the combination of experiencing panic attacks and then developing a fear about having a panic attack that you begin to change your behavior in order to avoid the perception of triggering them), then I think it’s fair to assume that more than 4.7% of the population has experienced at least one panic attack in their lifetime.

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PTSD Symptoms in Women: Unnoticed and Undiagnosed

Interview Colleen Cira

Dr. Colleen Cira is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in Women and Trauma, so she has worked with hundreds of people struggling with PTSD or Complex PTSD. Here are a few talking points on the subject of PTSD:

Why is it harder for women to admit they have the disorder?

  • If I may, I’d like to rewind back for a second because a lot of women simply don’t know they have PTSD!  Women often internalize—it means instead of searching for answers in their world or circumstance, they assume that something is wrong with THEM.  So they might not attribute their own thoughts, feelings or behaviors to something that happened to them because they just figure this is who they are. Continue reading “PTSD Symptoms in Women: Unnoticed and Undiagnosed”