Adam C Schwartz Counseling and Consulting

So happy to announce that we are now accepting a number of Insurance plans in NY! We now take Signa, UnitedHealth, Oxford, and Oscar. We will continue to expand the scope of insurances that we accept in the upcoming year. Stay tuned for more updates. If you are interested in learning more about how therapy might optimize your life then call today and we'll help you begin.

What is the, "Negativity Bias," in Cognitive/Evolutionary Psychology? From my perspective as a therapist, it is a very important concept in understanding why your mind works the way that it does. Many people describe a high level of catastrophic thinking in response to small annoyances and inconveniences. Whenever anything unexpected happens they find their emotional reaction to be disproportionately large and predominately negative. People are usually very surprised to learn... just how universal this way of thinking actually is. From the point of view of Evolutionary Psychology, if a significant portion of the population engages in a particular mode of thought or behavior over a significant stretch of time (like multiple generations) then there must be a reason for this. So what function does negative thinking serve? First, keep in mind that Evolutionary pressures (like natural selection) favor and optimize for survival, not wellness, and then consider the following classic thought experiment from Evolutionary Psychology; Imagine you are prehistoric human out foraging for food and you suddenly hear a rustle coming from a nearby bush. From a survival perspective would it be best to assume the best ("It's probably just the wind.") or to assume the worse ("It must be a predator.")? If you assume it's just the wind then you would probably be right, let's say, 99 out of 100 times but the one time that you are wrong, YOU ARE REALLY WRONG and the consequences are dire. But if you do assume the worst every time and this assumption causes you to flee then you have just optimized your chances of survival and increased the probability of passing on your genes. Thus, we are all the descendants of the somewhat more anxious early humans who optimized their survival rates by being a bit more negative in their thought patterns. Even though always thinking the worst is inaccurate and causes a tremendous amount of unnecessary stress the first step to fixing this is to recognize that it is entirely natural to do this and that it probably evens helps you on occasion. Can you think of a time when your overly amplified, negative thoughts were actually correct and helped you manage something difficult? Most people can, if they dig a bit. So what do we do with this information? Hopefully we use it to be more accepting (and maybe even appreciative) of our Evolutionary heritage and how it helps us. Additionally, maybe this information helps us to be a little more patient with ourselves in a stressful moment. Patience and understanding are the prerequisites for learning how to calmly, "talk back," to these thought patterns when they do occur. If you would like to learn the CBT skills to begin doing this call today and we'll help you begin.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Stoicism is a Philosophical tradition dating back to the ancient Athenians. It contains many valuable insights regarding the nature of human suffering and tenets for living, "the good life." This tradition provided many of the insights that laid the foundation for modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. One of the most important is the concept of, "fr...aming." I typically explain framing using the example of the first snowfall of winter. If your association with snow is a negative one that brings to mind images of shoveling, bitter cold, and difficult driving conditions that will likely nudge your mood in a negative direction. But is there another way to intentionally view the same event? What if you practiced instead associating the first snowfall with the coming holidays, exciting winter sports, and drinking hot chocolate around a fireplace? What might this do for your emotional reaction? A consistently negative take on the difficulties that arise in life is a very human tendency. It is described in Cognitive Psychology by the term, "negativity bias." That being said, it is a habit that through training can be shifted in a more optimistic direction. The argument for making this shift is twofold; 1. It will likely improve the quality of your inner emotional life and, by extension improve the quality of your relationships with the people who matter most. 2. A positive orientation is usually a more effective stance from which to approach and solve a difficult problem. If you'd like to learn more about Stoicism and how it might help you to navigate the difficulties of life then you might consider CBT. Call today and we'll help you begin.

Do you ever wonder what accounts for the differences between people's personalities? Why are some people more anxious than others, while others are more solitary, and still others are more exacting in their work habits? The temperamental differences between people is a rich subfield of Psychological study called Personality Psychology. The most popular model of personality is called the Five Factor model. Learning about it might give you important insights into who you ar...e and how you might intentionally compensate for some of your innate tendencies. The five fundamental factors of Personality (or temperamental traits) have been shown through statistical analysis to be; 1. Openness to Experience-The extent to which you are intellectually curious, creative, and imaginative. 2. Conscientiousness-The importance you place on doing your duty/work thoroughly and correctly. 3. Extroversion-Your level of sociability and the importance you place on being around others during your down time. 4. Agreeableness-Your warmth and friendliness and a general measure of the extent to which you care about the feelings of others. 5. Neuroticism-Your level of susceptibility to anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. These traits are usually measured as a percentile and there are lots of great online tests if you'd be interested in seeing where you fall in a random sampling of 100 people. Each of these traits are, "normally distributed," which is to say that most people fall at the fiftieth percentile and fewer and fewer people fall at the more extreme highs and lows. From a therapeutic perspective people tend to have issues with their more extreme scores. For example, someone who is very high in agreeableness might need help with assertiveness while someone who is very low in conscientious might need help with organization. Understanding your personality will likely help you gain insight and also inform your therapeutic journey. Understanding your personality can also be important when choosing and relating to intimate partners. If you are interested in learning more call today and we'll help you begin.

Were you furloughed, laid off, or otherwise out of work during the COVID-19 shutdowns? Did you notice that during this time of fewer responsibilities that you were actually more anxious and depressed? While this seems to be some sort of strange paradox it actually makes sense from an Existential perspective. Existentialism is the philosophical and therapeutic perspective that studies the relationship between responsibility, personal meaning, and mental wellness. This p...erspective claims that our sense of personal satisfaction is intrinsically tied to a feeling of usefulness and the successful navigation of appropriately difficult problems. Without such problems to solve we may find ourselves sinking into wistfulness and increasingly obsessive anxieties. Think of it this way; The human mind was forged in a crucible of Evolutionary pressure centered around survival and the solving of problems. When you approach and successfully navigate a difficult problem your brain rewards you with a boost of neurotransmitters in the hopes that you will continue to solve problems and increase your chances of survival. Without meaningful problems to solve your mind will settle for increasingly trivial issues to obsess over like cleaning every inch of your home or arguments on social media. These issues might even magnify until they seem overwhelming. The secret is to find activities that are both rewarding and challenging and pursue them everyday for at least awhile. Find a hobby that involves building mastery; volunteer; help a friend with a problem; start a small business; the possibilities are endless. If you'd like to learn more about how the Existential lens might help you to become less anxious and depressed, call today and we'll help you begin.