Services - Songbird Counseling

Sex Addiction Treatment

Do you often find yourself preoccupied with sexual thoughts? (Preoccupied)

Do you hide some of your sexual behavior from others? (Ashamed)

Have you ever sought help for sexual behavior you did not like? (Treatment)

Has anyone been hurt emotionally because of your sexual behavior? (Hurt others)

Do you feel controlled by your sexual desire? (Out of control)

When you have sex, do you feel depressed afterwards? (Sad)

PATHOS was designed by Dr. Patrick Carnes for use as a screening tool to quickly identify if a person does or doesn’t have problematic sexual behavior. Aaron Shaffer is one of the only Certified Sexual Addiction Therapists (CSAT) in the North Alabama region.

Depression

According to the CDC 1 out of every 5 Americans suffer from Mental Illness in a given year, with depression being the most prevalent. It is important to know the symptoms in order to know if you need help.

Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day.

Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day.

Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.

Insomnia or hypersomnia

A slowing down of thought and a reduction of physical movement (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down).

Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day.

Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day.

Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day.

Recurrent thoughts of death, reoccurant suicidal thoughts without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide.

If you identified at least 5 symptoms and it is causing a significant impact on your functioning, we’d love to talk with you about it.

Trauma

Trauma is far more prevalent than most realize. Gabor Maté defines trauma as “Trauma is a psychic wound that hardens you psychologically that then interferes with your ability to grow and develop. It pains you, and now you’re acting out of pain. It induces fear, and now you’re acting out of fear. Trauma is not what happens to you. It’s what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.” Often our external behaviors can provide a window into our internal world. By being curious and showing ourselves compassion, we can explore and seek healing for those deep wounds.

Grief

Grief is a universal part of the human experience. We have all suffered losses in some form whether through death or life changes. We don’t like the gray areas and prefer life to be nice and tidy so we have tried to arrange grief into nice simple boxes or stages. However the truth is that grief is not linear. It is much more like the ocean waves that come and go. The intensity and frequency may change but the grief lives along with us. Allow us to walk alongside you and face the grief.

Anxiety

Stress, fear, and worry are all inevitable parts of life, but anxiety is when our thoughts and actions become controlled by those fears. Sometimes our bodies react with increased heart rate or trouble sleeping. Other times our minds are overcome with a sense of impending panic, or we have trouble concentrating on anything other than the present fear. If this sounds like something that is burdening you, please come talk with us.

Marriage Therapy

Every marriage/relationship is a dance. In each marriage we bring our entire selves: our family of origin experiences; our attachment styles; our styles of communication, and more. We all want to be truly seen and deeply loved, especially by our intimate partners. However, there are often roadblocks that lead to disconnection rather than connection. Parenting struggles, betrayal trauma, communication challenges and grief are all examples of challenges that bring couples to marriage therapy. These challenges, while very real, are by no means insurmountable. We want to help guide you in this dance. (or we would love to help you get back in step with your partner?)

If you are experiencing abuse in your marriage, please call the National Domestic Abuse Hotline: 800-799-7233. It is not recommended to participate in marriage therapy if there is ongoing abuse.