Create a plan with your loved one for communicating on a regular basis and stick with it as best as possible. Consistency in communication will help you maintain sanity and keep anxiety levels at bay.

Therapists rarely tell their clients that services are no longer needed. Most mental health professionals believe that should be determined by the individual.

Have you been seeing a psychotherapist for six months or more? If so, ask your most trusted, candid and in-your-corner friends, partners, family or coworkers what changes they have noticed regarding your attitude, communication and ability to handle stress.

"In many ways," said Robert, "the ultimate psychotherapy is simply to relax about things." While it was just a passing comment, the reason it has been humming along inside my mind ever since is that it so directly mirrors the experience I have with my own clients.

Within most adult folks there is an inner wisdom that would offer great assistance in resolving the impasses of our life. Therapy is about accessing our inner, innate wisdom, not replacing it with someone else's.

Reassurance is what a child needs during this time. Reassurance that Mommy and Daddy aren't leaving them. Reassurance that law enforcement is doing everything to prevent similar crimes, and reassurance that there are more good people in the world than evil.

I often have female patients seeing me because they can't achieve an orgasm when they are with their partners. Seeing me is usually their last ditch effort to try to fix things and usually after several visits to various medical professionals.

"Mental health" needs a new narrative -- a fresh, contemporary point of view about our daily lives and challenges.

The problem is that venting is merely a way to get temporary relief. It doesn't teach patients how to get better.

As a therapist, the No. 1 complaint I hear from patients is that therapy takes too long to work. Why do we have to wait for what seems like forever for change to begin?

Most exciting to me, as a therapist, is that my patients not only find that they can solve their problems with the tools, they also discover themselves developing potential they never knew they had.

Falling in love with your psychiatrist can be a normal part of therapy. Known as transference, the patient is transferring feelings she has toward a parent or authority figure, onto the therapist.