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Does Your Therapist Need to Be Frum?

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Aug 7, 2017
4 min

Does Your Therapist Need to Be Frum?

How important is it for you as an observant Jewish person to seek counseling from an observant Jewish therapist? The truth is that while any competent therapist ought to be able to help you with the issues you are facing – whether it is depression or marriage counseling or anything else – there are certainly benefits to working with someone who is on the inside of your cultural circle. Research in fact bears out that people tend to see the most success in their therapy when

Growing as a Couple

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

May 18, 2015
1 min

Growing as a Couple

Ariel Schochet, LPC, NCC, is the managing partner of The River Wellness Group, located in Passaic, NJ and Teaneck, NJ. They are a full-service counseling practice, whose range of services include child, adult, couples, families and addiction psychotherapy services. To learn more about The River Wellness Group, visit www.riverwellnessgroup.com. #marriage #relationships #therapy

Do You Need Couples Counseling?

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Dec 1, 2014
2 min

Do You Need Couples Counseling?

Are you in need of couples counseling? How would you even know whether you are or not? Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine whether you are a candidate for marriage counseling: Is your marriage/relationship more often negative than positive? Do you feel indifferent towards your spouse/significant other, or sense that s/he feels indifferent to you? Are you looking for something different from your relationship but can’t even define what? Do you find yo

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Oct 26, 2014
1 min

A Dog Named Depression

This short video offers a fantastic perspective on what it’s like to be depressed. If you think you might have depression, check this out, and recognize that you are not alone. You can reach out for help, and things can get better. If you are not suffering from depression, this video will give you a better idea of what it’s like to go through it. This can be especially helpful for friends and family of people with depression https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/XiCrniLQGYc&sou

New website!

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Apr 24, 2014
1 min

Back to the Grind

Okay, we are back from our extended break over Pesach and Chol HaMoed. I hope your holidays went reasonably well and that you are refreshed to get back to your regularly scheduled broadcast instead of drained. The truth is that the holidays tend to be stressful times for many. Jewish social service agencies often report an uptick in calls from people seeking help around this time. If you need to get some stuff off your chest, or want to do some couples or family work (in-law

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Oct 13, 2013
2 min

Mental Illness – Rules of the Game

I just read a brief review of The Book of Woe, a critique of the DSM-V (the latest edition of the Big Book of Mental Illnesses that mental health professionals use to categorize disorders and people). It contains the following apt description: The basic message is this: everyone in the mental health profession knows full well that the DSM is a work of fiction—that the hundreds of “disorders” described therein are just labels for fuzzy, overlapping clusters of symptoms and th

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Counseling and In-person Counseling

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Aug 28, 2013
1 min

Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Counseling and In-person Counseling

Here’s an article posted by a great organization called Thriveworks about the relative advantages and disadvantages of online counseling. http://thriveworks.com/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-counseling-and-in-person-counseling/ Did you know that only a limited number of people who are referred by a physician to seek mental health services ever receive those services? Why is this? Is it because they do not want to get well, or are there other factors? As you m

A Different Kind of Online Counseling

Online Counseling – So Far, So Good

To This Day

Pesach: Free to Change

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Mar 20, 2013
2 min

Pesach: Free to Change

A little inspirational note before Passover: My semi-corny tagline on this website is “Things can be different.” I chose it because I think it’s a nearly universal feeling among human beings that we wish something or other in our lives weren’t quite the way it is. Part of the avodah of life is getting to a healthier place where we recognize that we really don’t need it to be any other way. “Who is happy? He who is happy with his lot.” But another part of our job here is to se

Miscommunication en Masse

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Dec 20, 2012
1 min

Miscommunication en Masse

The gun control debate that is coming back out of hibernation as a result of last week’s tragedy is an interesting case in point from the perspective of a couples therapist. So much of the trouble I encounter in the therapy room is due to partners addressing the issue on their own mind instead of the issue on the other’s mind. John is angry about Marsha’s spending habits; Marsha feels unloved; and neither one is speaking to the problem that the other sees. Of course, there ar

Online Counseling with Humans

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Nov 25, 2012
1 min

Online Counseling with Humans

“With online counseling, your clients do not have the ability to learn about you from the frames on your walls, your office décor, your car in the parking lot, the pictures of your family on your desk, etc. Therefore, it is all the more important to humanize yourself by telling the client some information about who you are and what you are about.” This is from an article from Thriveworks on building rapport (connection with a client) in online counseling venues. On the whole

Therapy Needs Some Therapy

Phone vs. Skype

Rabbi Raffi Bilek

Aug 21, 2012
2 min

Phone vs. Skype

Often when someone contacts me for a free consultation, they’ll ask if we can “just do it by phone.” I usually discourage speaking by phone, though ultimately I acquiesce if they insist. Here’s why. Distance counseling has a lot of benefits to it, benefits which in many circumstances outweigh the acknowledged drawback of not physically being in the same room together. (There is a power to two people being a room that is not as palpable when they are communicating but are not

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