Jersey Medical Care

Jersey Medical Care Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Jersey Medical Care, Mental Health Service, Matawan, NJ.

Jersey Medical Care offers compassionate mental health services that include therapy and psychiatry regardless of race, ethnicity, s*xuality, or gender identity.

A reminder that progress over perfection is key.
01/19/2026

A reminder that progress over perfection is key.

Stay safe, Jersey! Notice: All appointments on 1/19/26 will be via Telehealth. If issues arise, please don't hesitate to...
01/19/2026

Stay safe, Jersey!

Notice: All appointments on 1/19/26 will be via Telehealth. If issues arise, please don't hesitate to call, text, or email.

Tomorrow's appointments will proceed via link sent in a text message. If you haven't received yours, please call during business hours. Appreciate your understanding, and we'll catch up soon.

“I feel guilty every time I take time for myself because I should be with my kids.”This is the parent self-care paradox....
01/14/2026

“I feel guilty every time I take time for myself because I should be with my kids.”

This is the parent self-care paradox. You know you need care to be a better parent, but taking it feels selfish.

Here’s the truth: burned-out, resentful parents aren’t better parents. They’re just exhausted humans trying to survive.

When parents ignore their own needs, it shows up as irritability, low patience, resentment, health issues, and strained relationships. Kids don’t just feel it, they learn it.

Real self-care isn’t spa days. It’s sleep. Boundaries. Support. Interests outside parenting. Asking for help without guilt.

When you take care of yourself, you teach your kids that:
• adults have needs too
• boundaries are healthy
• asking for help is strength
• burnout isn’t a badge of honor

You caring for yourself isn’t taking away from your kids, it’s modeling how to be a healthy human. How are you making yourself a priority?

mentalhealthmatters

Adolescence naturally involves mood swings, boundary-testing, and seeking independence, but some behaviors signal deeper...
01/08/2026

Adolescence naturally involves mood swings, boundary-testing, and seeking independence, but some behaviors signal deeper issues that warrant professional support.

⚠️ Warning signs that suggest professional evaluation:
Sudden, dramatic personality changes over weeks:

❗️Outgoing to completely withdrawn, motivated student to failing, involved in activities to completely apathetic.

❗️Social withdrawal beyond normal teen privacy: Complete isolation from friends and family, spending every moment alone, no longer mentioning friends, declining all social invitations.

❗️Significant academic decline: Not just senioritis or one bad semester, but sudden grade drops across subjects, skipping school, disciplinary issues, talk of dropping out.

❗️Regular substance use: Experimentation is common; regular use is concerning. Signs include coming home intoxicated, smell of substances, paraphernalia, stealing money, personality changes.

❗️Self-harm or talk of su***de: Any self-injury (cuts, burns, hitting), expressing wish to die or disappear, giving away possessions, suddenly “making peace” with people, increased reckless behavior.

❗️Extreme mood dysregulation: Beyond typical moodiness. Intense rage followed by deep depression, violent outbursts, destroying property, inability to calm down.

These behaviors often co-occur. A teen might experience depression, anxiety, and substance use simultaneously. This is called co-occurring disorders and requires specialized treatment.

We have clinicians who work with At-risk adolescents, teens struggling with addiction and co-occurring disorders, families dealing with behavioral issues, and parents needing guidance.

Early intervention makes a significant difference. Don’t wait until your teen is in crisis. If you’re concerned, trust your instincts and reach out for professional evaluation.

“Every conversation with my teenager ends in conflict. I don’t know how to talk to them anymore.”The parent-teen communi...
01/07/2026

“Every conversation with my teenager ends in conflict. I don’t know how to talk to them anymore.”

The parent-teen communication gap is one of the most common, and most fixable, sources of family stress.
Here’s what’s happening:

🩵 You’re trying to connect through questions (How was school? What did you do?), but teens experience this as interrogation. Their developing need for privacy makes detailed questions feel invasive.

🩵 You want to problem-solve, but teens are developmentally driven to figure things out themselves. When you jump in with solutions, they hear “you’re not capable” even though you mean “I want to help.”

🩵 You share advice from experience, but teens often hear criticism, even when you’re trying to save them from pain.

What actually works better: 👇🏽

👍 Share from your own day first. “My meeting was frustrating because…” often prompts teens to share their own frustrations.

👍 Ask if they want advice or just listening. “That sounds hard. Do you want help brainstorming, or do you just need me to listen?” Respects their autonomy.

👍 Let them come to you. Teens open up in the car (side-by-side feels safer), late at night, during shared activities—not during forced family dinners.

Decode what they’re really saying:

• “Leave me alone” = I need space to process
• “You don’t understand” = Just listen, don’t fix
• “Whatever” = I’m overwhelmed and shutting down
• “I’m fine” = Sometimes I’m not fine but don’t have words

When communication has completely broken down, family therapy helps. Our clinicians create neutral space where teens feel safe expressing themselves and parents learn what’s underneath the defensive behavior.

You can rebuild connection with your teen. It just requires speaking their language instead of expecting them to speak yours. Comment ‘support’ and we will DM you the link

01/05/2026

Teens push parents away as a developmental necessity, they need to individuate and develop their own identity separate from you. But the pushing away is also a test:

“Will you still love me when I’m difficult? Will you stay even when I push you away?” Your answer and actions needs to be yes.

What teens actually need from parents during adolescence: 👇🏽

🩵 Calm presence when they’re dysregulated. When they’re having a meltdown, they need you to be the regulated adult in the room, not match their intensity.

🩵 Consistent boundaries. They fight rules because testing limits is developmentally appropriate, but they need you to hold firm. Boundaries create safety.

🩵 To be seen past the behavior. The eye-rolling, door-slamming teen is often a scared, overwhelmed kid who doesn’t have words for what they’re feeling.

🩵 To know you won’t give up. They say they hate you, they want you to leave them alone, but they’re watching to see if you’ll stay even when they’re hard to love.

🩵 Your presence, not perfection. You don’t have to do or say the perfect thing. You just have to keep showing up.

When family dynamics feel stuck, when communication has completely broken down, when behavioral issues are escalating, our therapist David Cooper, LCSW helps families rebuild connection. He works with at-risk adolescents and their families to improve communication, address underlying issues, and strengthen relationships during this challenging stage.

Your teen needs you. They just need you to understand them differently now. Book an appointment in our bio or comment ‘support’.

“My teenager won’t talk to me, slams doors, and seems to hate our family. What did I do wrong?” 😭 You probably didn’t do...
01/05/2026

“My teenager won’t talk to me, slams doors, and seems to hate our family. What did I do wrong?” 😭

You probably didn’t do anything wrong. Adolescence is neurobiologically designed to create distance, it’s how teens develop independence. But understanding the science doesn’t make it less painful when your once-loving child suddenly treats you like the enemy.

To help, let’s discuss what’s happening in the adolescent brain: 👇🏽

🩵 The prefrontal cortex (decision-making, impulse control) isn’t fully developed until the mid-20s. Meanwhile, the amygdala (emotions, reactions) is in overdrive. This is why teens have intense reactions to things that seem minor to adults.

Common teen behaviors that aren’t defiance:

🩵 Family withdrawal: Teens need to figure out who they are separately, but they still need you—just differently now.
Door-slamming and mood swings: They’re feeling emotions intensely without the brain development to regulate them effectively.

🩵Pushing back on rules: Testing boundaries is how they develop autonomy, but they need you to hold firm—it creates safety even when they act like they hate it.
Risk-taking: Their reward-seeking system is overactive while impulse control is underdeveloped. Their brain is literally wired to seek novelty right now.

🩵When to get professional support for teens:
Sudden personality changes, complete social withdrawal, significant grade drops, substance use, self-harm, extreme mood swings lasting weeks, or violent behavior signal something more than typical adolescent development.

David Cooper, LCSW has 25 years of experience with at-risk adolescents and families. He specializes in teen-parent communication, addressing behavioral issues while understanding underlying needs, and strengthening family bonds during adolescence. Book your appt today in our bio link. ⤴️

Family therapy creates space for teens to express themselves with a neutral third party present. Often teens can communicate things to therapists that they can’t say directly to parents.

You’re not failing as a parent. Adolescence is just really hard—for everyone involved.

12/22/2025

Just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s healthy or inevitable.

Relationship patterns you might have normalized:

✨”We never resolve conflicts, we just wait until we’re not mad anymore.” Unresolved conflicts accumulate resentment. Healthy couples reach resolution, even if imperfect.

✨ “We’re fine as long as we avoid certain topics.” Chronic avoidance of important topics (money, s*x, future plans, feelings) creates distance and resentment.

✨ “Fighting is just how we communicate.” Frequent intense conflict isn’t “passion” it’s a sign communication skills need development.

✨ “My partner needs space after arguments; I don’t hear from them for days.” Needing brief cool-down time is healthy. Days of silent treatment is stonewalling, a destructive pattern.

✨ “We’re both just stubborn, so someone has to win.” Relationships aren’t competitions. If someone has to “win” arguments, you’re both losing.

These patterns are common, but they’re not inevitable. With awareness and skill-building, couples can develop healthier communication, genuine conflict resolution, and deeper emotional intimacy.

Stephanie Quiroga, LCSW helps couples recognize patterns they’ve normalized and replace them with healthier ways of relating. You don’t have to accept dysfunction as “just how relationships are.”

Book your appointment today.

"We were fine until we had a baby/moved/changed jobs. Now we fight all the time. Are we incompatible or is this normal?"...
12/21/2025

"We were fine until we had a baby/moved/changed jobs. Now we fight all the time. Are we incompatible or is this normal?" 👇

It's normal and it's fixable.

Major life transitions stress even the strongest relationships because they require renegotiating everything: roles, responsibilities, expectations, schedules, priorities. When both partners are stressed and adjusting, you have less patience, less emotional bandwidth, and less capacity to support each other.

Common transition triggers:
🙀New parenthood: Sudden role changes, sleep deprivation, loss of couple identity, unequal division of labor, different parenting philosophies surfacing.

👩‍⚕️Career changes: Income shifts affecting power dynamics, schedule disruptions, identity questions, one partner's sacrifice creating resentment.

📍Geographic moves: One wanted it, one didn't. Different adjustment timelines. Loss of support systems. Starting over socially.

🩺Health challenges: Role reversals (caregiver vs. patient), financial stress, fear and uncertainty, changed physical intimacy.

The expectation gap makes it worse. You imagined this transition differently. You thought your partner would respond differently. Neither of you is wrong you just had different mental pictures that you never explicitly discussed.

Under stress, attachment styles intensify. Anxious attachers seek more closeness (which can feel suffocating to stressed partners). Avoidant attachers need more space (which feels like abandonment to anxious partners). This creates the pursue-withdraw cycle that damages relationships.

What actually helps:
• Naming the stress explicitly
• Communicating needs instead of expecting mind-reading
• Regular check-ins before issues explode
• Recognizing you're on the same team, fighting the stress, not each other

If transition stress has lasted more than 6 months, if resentment is hardening, or if you're becoming roommates instead of partners couples therapy can help you navigate the transition together.

Relationship researcher John Gottman has studied thousands of couples and can predict with 90% accuracy whether a relati...
12/18/2025

Relationship researcher John Gottman has studied thousands of couples and can predict with 90% accuracy whether a relationship will last based on specific communication patterns he calls "The Four Horsemen."

The good news? These are learned patterns, not fixed personality traits. With awareness and practice, couples can replace destructive communication with healthier patterns.

The Four Horsemen:
✨Criticism: Attacking your partner's character instead of addressing specific behaviors. "You're so lazy" vs. "I'm frustrated the dishes are still in the sink."

✨Contempt: The most toxic pattern. Eye-rolling, sarcasm, mockery, name-calling. Contempt communicates disgust and superiority—poison for relationships.

✨Defensiveness: Refusing to take any responsibility, deflecting blame, making excuses. It escalates conflict instead of de-escalating it.

✨Stonewalling: Shutting down emotionally, giving silent treatment, refusing to engage. Often happens when someone feels overwhelmed, but it makes partners feel abandoned.

👉The antidotes exist: Gottman's research also shows exactly how to counteract these patterns through specific communication techniques, repair attempts, and building cultures of appreciation.
This is what couples therapy teaches. Not generic "communicate better" advice, but actual tools for breaking destructive patterns and building healthier ones.

Stephanie Quiroga, LCSW is Gottman Trained couples therapy approaches that help partners recognize their patterns, understand why they're happening, and develop new ways of relating that actually work.

Most couples don't even realize they're stuck in these patterns until someone points them out. Recognition is the first step toward change.

12/17/2025

You can love someone deeply and still need professional support to improve how you relate to each other. 🤯

Couples therapy isn't about determining if you should stay together. It's about learning to communicate better, understand each other more deeply, and build a stronger foundation whether you're happily together and want to stay that way or struggling and need tools to reconnect.

Signs couples therapy could help:
✨You have the same argument repeatedly without resolution
✨Communication patterns are stuck (one pursues, one withdraws)
✨ You're intimate but not emotionally connected
✨ Life transitions are creating unexpected tension
✨ Past hurts haven't been fully processed
✨ You want to strengthen your relationship before problems develop

Stephanie Quiroga, LCSW works with couples at all stages of their relationship, from engaged couples building strong foundations to long-term partners rebuilding after challenges.

What sets relationship therapy apart from venting to friends: A trained therapist can identify patterns you don't see, teach communication skills that actually work, create safe space for difficult conversations, and help both partners feel heard without taking sides.

The couples who benefit most from therapy are often those who come before they're desperate. Don't wait until you're considering separation to invest in your relationship.

Boundaries aren’t selfish, they’re essential. Say no to chaos and yes to calm this holiday season.If your anxiety spikes...
12/17/2025

Boundaries aren’t selfish, they’re essential. Say no to chaos and yes to calm this holiday season.

If your anxiety spikes around family, therapy can help you practice setting limits that stick. Book your virtual or in-person appointment to get started and have peace this holiday, finally.

Address

Matawan, NJ

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 2pm

Telephone

+17327074100

Website

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