Author Archives: On the Yellow Couch

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About On the Yellow Couch

Welcome to On the Yellow Couch with Dr. Angelica Shiels! Dr. Shiels is a wife and a mother of three young boys as well as a child and adult therapist. In her free-time, when she isn’t ninja-fighting, catching frogs, or wiping pee from around the toilet, she enjoys spending time on her own couch…. Which she wishes was yellow, but is actually brown and falling apart on account of the three milk-spilling ninjas…. Dr. Shiels really enjoys her job outside of the house, where kids, teens, adults, and couples can sit on a nice leather couch where no Gogurt is ever squeezed. Therapy with Dr. Shiels in available in the Annapolis/Baltimore/DC area. Find her articles on Psych Central and Lifehack. Find her blog posts on Scary Mommy, Mamapedia, and others.

Mothers, smothers, & lovers. (A tale of abandonment and engulfment.)

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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. Duane and Mary often fought about the same thing over and over:  Duane was distant and unresponsive to Mary’s emotional and physical advances; Mary relentlessly  smothered Duane with her demands for conversation and intimacy.  This couple, like many … Continue reading →

How to stop intrusive thoughts. By Meg Sanity

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Guest Post By Meg Sanity Thought replacement is one of the most widely-used techniques in cognitive behavioral treatment. It is also one of the most self-explanatory techniques under the cognitive behavioral umbrella. What you do is…replace your thoughts. This is … Continue reading →

So you hate your teen daughter’s boyfriend.

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By Angelica Shiels Psy.D.   His name is “Nick,” but all his friends call him “Bro” …. Errr, I got that wrong; it’s actually “Brah.”. The first time you met him, he wore a flat-billed, fluorescent hat and this shirt: … Continue reading →

This goes out to all the ladies who hate being pregnant. By, Kristen Mae

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This post was so true, so relatable, and so hilarious! Thanks, Kristen! By Kristen Mae of “Abandoning Pretense” “Pregnancy is a gift from God.” “I just love the feeling of knowing a tiny human is doing laps in my uterus!” … Continue reading →

The most important part of the kindergarten curriculum

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  By Angelica Shiels Psy.D. Last year, around this time, my oldest son started kindergarten. (And this week, he will be starting kindergarten again. Summer birthday. Boy. Lots of desk-work and worksheets. Nuff said?) Last year, I remember hoping that … Continue reading →

For adolescents with extreme emotions and behaviors

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I am a BIG fan of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and use it In individual therapy and with my teenage girls group. DBT is a type of therapy which basically teaches awareness, tolerating difficult emotions, and social /communication skills. Although it … Continue reading →

Family Routines and Rituals = Good for Kids.

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Research has found a correlation between participation in family routines/rituals and positive language, social, emotional, and academic development in kids.  While psyhologists can’t say that the “routines” actually cause the positive outcomes (this is correlation, not true experiment), researchers concluded that families with routines tend … Continue reading →