Joey Mowery, LPC

05/06/2021

I am currently accepting new clients in Texas and Colorado for virtual counseling! There has never been a better time to work on your mental health!

05/12/2020

I am proud to work with Cyndi, and I hope that everyone knows that your voices can be heard, and that we counselors are here for you!

Mental health counselors are seeing more demand for their help during the pandemic, and they're feeling the weight of it, too.

04/28/2020

With the state of Texas beginning to move toward re-opening, it's important to take time to reflect on how this pandemic has affected us. Thinking in purely economic terms does a disservice to the collective trauma of this pandemic.

We need to get to "okay" when we are faced with any trauma experience; to know that we are safe and that we will heal and recover. Collective traumas are no different. When we are faced with these sorts of experiences, we have two choices: take the time to heal, or try and move on quickly.

Taking the time to heal requires patience. It is a slow process that can take months or even years to fully move through. The scar may still remain, but the injury heals.

Trying to move forward too quickly often results in further injury. If you try to run on a broken ankle, it won't heal properly. If you don't go to the doctor when you get a puncture wound, you get an infection which can become life-threatening.

The trap that many of us fall into is thinking that emotional trauma and physical trauma are different. They aren't. The brain is an organ, and emotional injuries affect us just as much as physical ones. Sometimes far more.

So what is the advice here? Don't move too quickly.

If you don't believe that it is time to re-open your doors, don't re-open your doors.

If you don't believe that it is time to start going back to stores or nail salons, don't go.

Above all, take the time to make sure that you are healing through this trauma. Lean into your community. Build connection. And when you feel like you are going through this alone, remember that the global response to COVID-19 has been just that: global. You have feelings in common with billions of others who can understand how you feel in a deeply emotional way.

If you need someone to help you process your emotions, call a counselor! Many of us are working through telehealth services to provide counseling in a safe and social-distance friendly way!

04/24/2020

As COVID-19 continues to wear on us all, I wanted to share a couple of tips to keep yourself sane as we continue facing these uncertain times!

First, don't watch too much news. It's important to stay informed, but there is such a thing as too much information.
The average person doesn't need to know everything that everyone is saying about everything.

As a side-note, be very careful about misinformation. Social media as a whole is a great way to stay connected, but if you are going to share a post about a way to "kill" the coronavirus in your system, make sure to run it through a fact-checker first. Mis- and disinformation is designed to appeal to your fear centers and compel you to share it. There are a lot of great independent fact-checkers out there, here are a few:

https://www.politifact.com/
Factcheck.org
Snopes.com

These sites are generally considered reputable by the journalism world. If you see a claim that you want to share online, check with one of them first. This will slow the spread of misinformation! Think of it like social distancing, but the virus is viral misinformation!

Next, make sure that you are taking the time to connect with the people you care about. Particularly if you or they are in a vulnerable population. Connection is a vital part of the human experience, and living in the days of social distancing can feel overwhelmingly lonely. I would recommend talking to at least one to two people on the phone, or over a video chat system (Zoom, Facetime, or Google Hangouts to name a few) every day if you are able.

Keep a routine. While the system is shut down, it is easy to lose track of time. Do your best to know the date, and try to keep to a schedule. Wake up at the same time; go to bed at the same time. Exercise, do some work (whether it's on a job, or on a project), and do something for leisure. Keeping to at least a loose schedule can help you to feel some sense of normalcy.

And finally, if you find yourself needing to work through the stress of isolation, quarantine, and the specter of COVID-19, don't hesitate to contact a therapist! I, along with thousands of others, are utilizing tele-health to provide counseling to anyone who might need it!

If you are in the state of Texas, and would like to discuss or set up online counseling, please email me at joey@pecanbranchcounseling.com!

04/21/2020

Don't let COVID-19 get in the way of you connecting with your partner! I am currently accepting new clients for virtual counseling sessions!