Mental Health at Your Fingertips
Dr. Pat Blumenthal is a clinical psychologist with more than 20 years of experience. Her clinical interests include individual psychotherapy, relationship and women's issues, spirituality, and high-stress occupations.

Dr. Blumenthal completed her undergraduate work at Clark University and received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England. She completed post-doctoral training at Family Service, Inc. in Lawrence, Massachusetts where she served high risk, multi-problem youth and families in the greater Boston area. She also spent 11 years working at the New England Organ Bank, providing emergency response to families in crisis, as well as debriefing and grief counseling to hospital staff. In addition to her therapy practice, she has taught psychology courses at the college level and has provided trainings to businesses and service industries. She is licensed in Oregon, as well as a member of the American Psychological Association.

In her spare time Pat enjoys traveling and following Boston sports teams. She is an avid Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics fan, but cheers for the Trailblazers too!

Mental Health at Your Fingertips

Making Prayer a Part of Your Holiday Season

 by Pat Blumenthal on 12/01/11

Making Prayer a Part of Your Holiday Season

By Pat Blumenthal, PsyD

People often ask me how they can manage the stress of the holiday season.  You may be surprised by my answer: Managing your holiday stress can be done through prayer. And the beauty of it is that anyone can do it.

It can be done in just moments.

It costs nothing.

It doesn't require a college degree.

Pray for gratitude when your life is good and even when it is not so good. Pray to understand the deeper purpose of your struggles. Pray that you trust that life makes sense. Pray, especially, for those around you in the world who are suffering.

I was raised in a Catholic family that went to mass twice a year: Christmas and Easter. So, while I had some exposure to prayer in childhood, it was only a handful of prayers that I could recite, which were essentially meaningless to me. I had no instruction on how to integrate them into my life, nor did I have any interest in doing so. And then, like others of my generation, I was exposed to yoga, meditation, and other Eastern traditions that began to offer ways of becoming mindful.

It wasn't until I became a psychotherapist that I began to understand the value of prayer and meditation. To pray is to let go of your belief that you are in control of your life, and to give it over to something more inclusive than your own point of view. It requires a leap of faith. Even if you have only the slightest sense that a higher power is at work in the world, you can still pray. The only thing we can really ask for when we pray is the ability to trust that something makes sense.

Sometimes I pray using other people's words. Sometimes I use my own, or fragments of meaningful phrases from movies or books. Sometimes I use AA slogans - they are so wonderfully applicable to everyone: Live and Let Live, One Day at a Time, Let Go and Let God, etc.  You can find prayers just about anywhere.

So, this holiday season, if you are looking for a way to express your gratitude, to remain open, to heal, to hope, perhaps you would like to heed the words of The Dalai Lama: "We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder. We always have the choice."

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Don't Believe Everything You Think!

 by Pat Blumenthal on 08/25/11

Imagine if I told you that most of your thoughts are inaccurate. That I told you the brain is not a perfect machine. In fact, it makes lots of mistakes. It mislabels, misinterprets, and misremembers lots of information. Research has borne this out over and over again.

Don't Believe Everything You Think.

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. I love it because it perfectly challenges the workings of our imperfect brains. We seem to have a powerful tendency to hold onto thoughts that are negative and pessimistic, and dismiss those thoughts that affirm us. We assume that we don't measure up favorably to our peers, co-workers, friends, and family. Many of my patients over the years have shared their despair at the nagging thoughts that make them worried, depressed, or worse. As a rule, these thoughts are not grounded in reality. Do any of these remarks ring a bell?

"I know people think I'm fat when they see me."

"I don't like to speak up because I'll sound stupid."

"Everyone else in the room is so much smarter than me."

"I hate getting into conversations with people at parties. I'm so awkward."

"People look at me funny when I where certain clothes. I can tell they think I look ugly."

It's like those words stupid, ugly, fat, dumb, foolish, weird and so on, got branded in our brains and we look everywhere in our daily lives for confirmation. If this sounds like you, then start challenging these notions. Ask yourself: Why am I looking for ways to think I'm _____ (fill in the blank)?  Are you just perpetuating some myth about yourself that began in adolescence?

Look around you. I encourage my patients to sit in a park or a mall or anywhere that good people-watching can happen. Take an honest appraisal of the people you see. How many are super models? How many have the perfect bodies? Perfect teeth? Perfect hair? Not many, right? What does that tell you? Maybe you aren't the fat, ugly, poorly dressed person you thought you were. You probably compare pretty favorably to most people you see, in fact.

Listen to a conversation around you. Is it clever? Philosophical? Witty? Probably not. Most conversations are pretty mundane. People do word things awkwardly at times. People misspeak. People lose their train of thought. People forget punch lines. People even get food caught between their teeth. It has happened to everyone. Maybe you aren't so dumb after all. You probably converse like everyone else.

So, don't believe everything you think.

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When You're Feeling Stuck...

 by Pat Blumenthal on 05/09/11

Autobiography in Five Chapters
By Portia Nelson

Chapter I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place, but it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in...it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter V
I walk down another street.

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How to Make the Most of Your Therapy Sessions

 by Pat Blumenthal on 03/04/11

      As a patient, weekly therapy sessions can feel awkward at times. You have this intense hour with your therapist and then you leave until the following week. Lots can happen during that one week span - disappointments, arguments, vacations, phone calls, etc. And when you find yourself sitting in your therapist's office, it can be difficult to decide just what to talk about. Should you recap everything that's happened over the course of the week? Or should you continue talking about what you started last week? Or what about if you didn't have an eventful or particularly distressing week at all? Should you just cancel your appointment?

      This is the dilemma faced by patients. Sometimes life events between therapy appointments can be upsetting and this makes it easier for the patient to "sink their teeth into" a topic. Certainly, this will be appropriate following a distressful event or something related to the reasons that brought you to therapy in the first place. For example, if you sought a therapist because of difficulties in parenting your teenager, any arguments with your child would be important to discuss.

      But, how do you decide if something is important? From the therapist's perspective, we often rely on patients to begin the session with what has been on their minds. Sometimes this is productive, and sometimes not.  There are times when half a session can be used up in relating a "what I did" list for the week. The patient may launch into this as a nervous response to that awkward moment after they have a seat.

      But more often than not, staying focused on the reason you came to therapy is the best approach. To recount your weekly events will likely leave you with the feeling that therapy was superficial in some way. Both you and your therapist will know this on an intuitive level - that unsatisfied feeling in your gut that you lost an opportunity to do some deeper work. Sometimes that results in blaming yourself for not bringing up the important matters - after all, how could your therapist be a mind reader, right? But in reality, it is a shared responsibility.

      It is much more productive and pertinent to begin a session with an acknowledgement of various issues that may have cropped up during the week, but with the intention that you will return to the issues that you had been working on. By taking this approach, both you and your therapist have not taken your eyes off the ball. Continuity of treatment from session to session is essential. You may want to reflect on these questions at the beginning of your sessions:

  • How did last week's session feel? 
  • Were there any lingering effects? Thoughts, memories, or ideas generated by the session?
  • Were there any questions or comments that you felt did not get addressed because you got distracted or ran out of time?
  •  Was there anything your therapist said that you disagreed with? Anything said that felt like it did not represent your true feelings or views?

These are just a sampling of questions that can begin a new session. It often reveals significant pieces of information and rich material to allow you to go deeper into the issues that brought you to therapy in the first place.

      If you are considering cancelling an appointment with your therapist because you don't feel like you have anything to talk about that week, don't! You are not expected to entertain your therapist or have "interesting" things to discuss.  That's not why you sought therapy, and your therapist will help you in accessing the deeper issues that need exploring. Be open and honest though, so that your therapist knows that cancelling had crossed your mind.  It will likely lead to richer dialogue and more meaningful work together.

 

  

 

 

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Your Mental Health Matters

At Portland Family Practice, we believe that treating an individual is more than just treating physical symptoms. Your overall health consists of many areas that require ongoing attention and nurturing – including your body, your mind, and your spirit. 

While we have always offered medical services to our patients, we are now also offering mental health services. 
By doing so, we are telling our patients that feeling better not only includes medical exams, labs, or prescriptive care. It involves paying attention to your emotional health, which can make symptoms worsen, or slow down recovery, or even make you vulnerable to illness and accidents. If you have good emotional health, it can speed
up recovery and boost your immune system.
Depression and anxiety, two of the most common emotional forms of distress are highly treatable and should be included in your treatment plan. If you feel you are suffering from either of these symptoms, you should talk to your doctor about them.  Sometimes, your depression can have a slow onset and be present without you fully realizing the extent that it is influencing your quality of life. For this reason, Portland Family Practice has instituted a Depression Screening questionnaire that is given to all patients periodically. It allows your doctor to assess whether depression is a contributing factor to your health concerns.

If there is concern, your doctor may refer you for counseling. For your convenience, we offer this service at Portland Family Practice with a licensed psychologist. You may also choose to access these services on your own and we would be happy to provide you with a referral.

Research demonstrates that improving your emotional health improves your physical health … so, be sure to take care of your BODY, your MIND, and your SPIRIT!