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.
It was the middle of the 2015 blizzard affectionately referred to by Marylanders as “snowmaggedon.” Naturally, my husband and I felt it was a good idea to schlep our three kids through three-feet-deep snow on a three-mile-round-trip hike. Good sledding … Continue reading →
We all know a Negative Nancy or Danny Downer. Whether the source is a spouse, a parent, or even one’s own self-talk, it is emotionally exhausting and joy-sucking to be around constant criticism, doubt, and pessimism. Imagine a parent sighing … Continue reading →
So. Today is national wine day or something, because my newsfeed is filled, more than usual, with memes like this: Here is a FAR TOO COMMON NOT TO WRITE ABOUT scenario: Woman (yes, usually female, but occasionally male) comes into … Continue reading →
Often goes the scene on the couples therapy couch: He should just suck it up and attend my mother’s birthday dinner since it means so much to me… SHE should stop spending so much money on shoes since it means … Continue reading →
“Slump.” It’s not a clinical term, but who wants to read an article about “anhedonia“? One of the most common topics of therapy is lack of motivation. Sometimes a “slump” is born from the paralyzing anxiety of agoraphobia (think Joan … Continue reading →
“I wanna be a psychopathic murderer when I grow up because I enjoy the power and adrenaline that surges through me when I think about taking a human life.” This is what I heard the seven year old kid on … Continue reading →
I recently read this book on raising boys. Like any book, it had some stuff I agreed with and some stuff I didn’t (It’s as if the author and I were too different people! -a quote stolen from a blog … Continue reading →
Excuse the bitchy title. I am not above appealing to parental curiosity and fear for some clicks. But more importantly, I really think it’s important to broadcast the not-so-well-known signs of pediatric anxiety to as many parents as possible. Most … Continue reading →
Meghan sat upright in the big, cushiony sofa with her hands clasped in her lap. It was our sixth session together, but she still bristled when I turned the conversation to anything besides the weather. To be sure, she had … Continue reading →
A “boundary” is a divide between you and another person. It is you owning your behaviors and feelings and others owning theirs. It is knowing and asserting your own perspectives and needs and allowing others to know and assert theirs. … Continue reading →