Mosaic’s Multicultural Mental Health Program offers a culturally-sensitive counseling model that meets the unique needs of foreign born survivors of human rights abuses. The program assists our clients in overcoming trauma and increasing emotional health and well-being.

The first goal of therapy is to establish a safe, accepting, nonjudgmental, and genuine therapeutic relationship. When you feel emotionally safe, you are free to explore, gain access to, process, and integrate unresolved losses, complexes, painful memories, and self-defeating beliefs and behaviors. We also provide culturally sensitive counseling model that meets the needs of immigrants and refugees.

Issues We Help With:

ADHD
Adjustment
Anger Management
Anti-Social Behavioral Disorder
Anxiety
Behavioral Issues
Bipolar Disorder
Borderline Personality
Bullying
Career/Work Challenges

Child Abuse
Conduct Disorder
Coping Skills
Developmental Delays
Depression
Divorce
Domestic Violence
Eating Disorders
Emotional Regulation
Entitlement

Family Conflict
Grief and Loss
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Parenting
Peer Relationships
PTSD/Trauma
Self Esteem
Self-Harm
Sexuality
Social Skills
Sexual Abuse

  • Individual and Group Therapy
  • Couples Counseling
  • Play Therapy
  • Sand Tray Therapy
  • Art Therapy
  • Grief Counseling
  • Parenting Classes
  • Crisis Intervention
  • EMDR Intervention.

What is Play Therapy?

Today play therapy refers to a large number of developmentally appropriate treatment methods, all applying the therapeutic benefits of play. Play therapy differs from regular play in that the therapist strategically utilizes play to help children express and resolve deep feelings and inner conflicts, gain insight, develop problem-solving skills, resolve dysfunctional thinking patterns, and learn a variety of ways to relate to others. In play therapy, toys are like the child’s words and play is the child’s language.

How Will Play Therapy Benefit My Child?

Often, children have used up their own problem solving tools, and they misbehave, or may act out at home, with friends, and at school. Play therapy allows trained mental health practitioners who specialize in play therapy, to assess and understand children’s play. By confronting problems in the clinical play therapy setting, children find healthier solutions. Play therapy allows children to change the way they think about, feel toward, and resolve their concerns. Even the most troubling problems can be confronted in play therapy and lasting resolutions can be discovered, rehearsed, mastered and adapted into lifelong strategies. 

Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms

It’s normal to feel anxious when facing a challenging situation, such as a job interview, a tough exam, or a blind date. But if your worries and fears are preventing you from living your life the way you’d like to, you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder. There are many different types of anxiety disorders, as well as many effective treatments and self-help strategies. Once you understand your anxiety disorder, there are steps you can take to reduce your symptoms and regain control of your life.

When does anxiety become a disorder?

Anxiety is the body’s natural response to danger, an automatic alarm that goes off when you feel threatened, under pressure, or are facing a stressful situation. In moderation, anxiety isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, anxiety can help you stay alert and focused, spur you to action, and motivate you to solve problems. But when anxiety is constant or overwhelming, when it interferes with your relationships and activities, that’s when you’ve crossed the line from normal anxiety into the territory of anxiety disorders.

Because anxiety disorders are a group of related conditions rather than a single disorder, they can look very different from person to person. One individual may suffer from intense anxiety attacks that strike without warning, while another gets panicky at the thought of mingling at a party. Someone else may struggle with a disabling fear of driving, or uncontrollable, intrusive thoughts. Yet another may live in a constant state of tension, worrying about anything and everything.

But despite their different forms, all anxiety disorders share one major symptom, persistent or severe fear or worry in situations where most people wouldn’t feel threatened.  In addition to the primary anxiety symptoms of irrational and excessive fear and worry, other common emotional symptoms include:

  • Feelings of apprehension or dread
  • Watching for signs of danger
  • Anticipating the worst
  • Trouble concentrating
  • Feeling tense and jumpy
  • Irritability
  • Feeling like your mind’s gone blank
  • Pounding heart
  • Sweating
  • Headaches
  • Stomach upset
  • Dizziness
  • Frequent urination or diarrhea
  • Shortness of breath
  • Muscle tension or twitches
  • Shaking or trembling
  • Insomnia

Many people with anxiety disorders also suffer from depression at some point. Anxiety and depression are believed to stem from the same biological vulnerability, which may explain why they so often go hand-in-hand. Since depression makes anxiety worse (and vice versa), it’s important to seek treatment for both conditions.

Anxiety attacks

Anxiety attacks, also known as panic attacks, are episodes of intense panic or fear. Anxiety attacks usually occur suddenly and without warning. Sometimes there’s an obvious trigger, getting stuck in an elevator, for example, or thinking about the big speech you have to give, but in other cases, the attacks come out of the blue.

Anxiety attacks usually peak within 10 minutes, and they rarely last more than 30 minutes. But during that short time, the terror can be so severe that you feel as if you’re about to die or totally lose control. The physical symptoms of anxiety attacks are themselves so frightening that many people believe they’re having a heart attack. After an anxiety attack is over, you may be worried about having another one, particularly in a public place where help isn’t available or you can’t easily escape.  Symptoms include:

  • Surge of overwhelming panic
  • Feeling of losing control or going crazy
  • Heart palpitations or chest pain
  • Feeling like you’re going to pass out
  • Trouble breathing or choking sensation
  • Hyperventilation
  • Hot flashes or chills
  • Trembling or shaking
  • Nausea or stomach cramps
  • Feeling detached or unreal

Anxiety self-help tips

Connect with others. Loneliness and isolation set the stage for anxiety. Decrease your vulnerability by connecting face-to-face with people who are supportive, caring, and sympathetic. Make it a point to regularly meet up with friends, join a self-help or support group, or share your worries and concerns with a trusted loved one. If you don’t have anyone you can reach out to, it’s never too late to build new friendships and a support network.

Practice relaxation techniques. When practiced regularly relaxation techniques such as mindfulness meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing can reduce anxiety symptoms and increase feelings of relaxation and emotional well-being.

Exercise regularly. Exercise is a natural stress buster and anxiety reliever. To achieve the maximum benefit, aim for at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on most days. Rhythmic activities that require moving both your arms and legs are especially effective. Try walking, running, swimming, martial arts, or dancing.

Get enough sleep. A lack of sleep can exacerbate anxious thoughts and feelings, so try to get seven to nine hours of quality sleep a night.

Be smart about caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine. If you struggle with anxiety, you may want to consider reducing your caffeine intake, or cutting it out completely. Same with alcohol, which can make anxiety worse. And while it may seem like cigarettes are calming, nicotine is actually a powerful stimulant that leads to higher, not lower, levels of anxiety.

Train your brain to stay calm. Worrying is a mental habit you can learn how to break. Strategies such as creating a worry period, challenging anxious thoughts, and learning to accept uncertainty can significantly reduce anxiety and fear.

When to seek professional help for anxiety

While self-help coping strategies for anxiety can be very effective, if your worries, fears, or anxiety attacks have become so great that they’re causing extreme distress or disrupting your daily routine, it is important to seek professional help.

Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home. Some symptoms may include:

  • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood 
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed 
  • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
  • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
  • Loss of energy or increased fatigue
  • Feeling worthless or guilty
  • Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

There are a number of things people can do to help reduce the symptoms of depression. For many people, regular exercise helps create positive feeling and improves mood. Getting enough quality sleep on a regular basis, eating a healthy diet and avoiding alcohol can also help reduce symptoms of depression.  Be sure to:

  • Call your doctor or mental health professional.
  • Call a suicide hotline number: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255).
  • Reach out to a close friend or loved one.
  • Contact a minister, spiritual leader or someone else in your faith community.
  • Take steps to control stress, to increase your resilience and boost your self-esteem.
  • Reach out to family and friends, especially in times of crisis, to help you weather rough spells.
  • Get treatment at the earliest sign of a problem to help prevent depression from worsening.
  • Consider getting long-term maintenance treatment to help prevent a relapse of symptoms.

ADHD

http://www.chadd.org/

ANXIETY DISORDERS

http://www.adaa.org/

BIPOLAR DISORDER

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder/complete-index.shtml

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

http://bpdcentral.com/index.php

CHILD ABUSE – REPORT

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/contact_us/report_abuse.asp

National Child Abuse Hotline: Child help – 1-800-4-A-CHILD

http://www.childhelp.org/pages/hotline

DEPRESSION

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression/complete-index.shtml

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

National Domestic Violence Helpline – 1-800-799-SAFE

http://www.ndvh.org

EATING DISORDERS

National Eating Disorders Association – 1-800-931-2237

http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help-today

RAPE

Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center – 972-641-RAPE

http://www.dallasrapecrisis.org/

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

http://www.drug-addiction-support.org/drug-addiction-treatment.html

SUICIDE

 1-800-273-TALK

http://www.suicidology.org/home.

Contact Us

To learn more about Mosaic’s Counseling services or to access these services, please contact Amy Watson, Clinical Director of Mosaic’s Mental Health Program.

Amy Watson, M.S.,LPC-S
Clinical Director | Mental Health Counseling Program 
12225 Greenville Avenue | Suite 800 | Dallas, Texas 75243
w: 214.821.5393 x 353 | f: 214-821-0810
amyw@mosaicservices.org