Melissa Plantz, Author at Allen Christian Counseling

About Melissa Plantz

Melissa Plantz is a Christian author and freelance writer. She spent twenty years in the pharmacy industry and has specialized in faith, fitness, nutrition, geriatrics, and mental health since 2015. She writes from the beautiful Lake Marion area in South Carolina.

Managing Anxiety During the Holidays

Managing Anxiety During the Holidays

Melissa Plantz2026-10-08T06:23:19+00:00October 8th, 2026|Anxiety, Featured, Individual Counseling|

The holidays are typically a fond time for many. But the hustle and bustle of the season can backfire on someone struggling with stress and anxiety. Managing anxiety during the holidays is possible with a little bit of planning and downtime. Tips for Managing Anxiety This Holiday Do you feel overwhelmed and stressed instead of joyful? Does this year feel more like a Christmas Vacation movie than Miracle on 34th Street? Your anxiety could be running out of control this season. It’s time to make managing anxiety a priority so you can enjoy a simpler and more peaceful holiday season. Take a brisk walk Although schedules can get jam-packed during the holidays, spend 15-20 minutes on a brisk walk to lower your stress and anxiety and boost your mood. Walking at a moderate pace releases endorphins, making you a little more emotionally resilient. It also boosts the immune system and works as a natural painkiller so that you don’t wake up with stiff and painful joints. Aim to walk several days a week, either outside or follow along to a video on a treadmill indoors. Go somewhere quiet Between movie marathons and parades, it’s easy to overstimulate during holidays. Overstimulation can increase cortisol levels. Try to find someplace quiet to close your eyes and block out the noise. Maybe this means ducking into a bathroom or bedroom closet for five minutes. Use noise-canceling headphones if necessary to help you quiet your mind. Choose events wisely It may not seem like it sometimes, but you are in charge of your life. You decide what events to attend and what parties to host. Choose these events wisely and stay realistic. If you are already stressed about working overtime in December, then offering to host a Christmas dinner may not be a [...]

Comments Off

The Symptoms of Psychological Trauma and How to Find Help

The Symptoms of Psychological Trauma and How to Find Help

Melissa Plantz2026-09-19T09:03:10+00:00September 21st, 2026|Anxiety, Depression, Featured, Individual Counseling, Trauma|

Psychological trauma can interfere with daily activities and lead to mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Knowing the symptoms of psychological trauma can make you aware of when to seek help from a mental health care practitioner. What is Psychological Trauma? Psychological trauma is the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors associated with a life-changing, stressful event. This event could be a one-time incident, such as a natural disaster, house fire, or car accident. Psychological trauma can also occur after a long period of stress, such as caring for a terminal loved one or suffering abuse. The Symptoms of Psychological Trauma The symptoms of psychological trauma include: Anger – Unresolved trauma can lead to anger, bitterness, and resentment. Mood swings and irritability are common after trauma. Learning to manage anger is the first step as you work through the effects of trauma. Fear – Fear and the startle response are common after trauma. You may experience nightmares or sleep disturbances as your mind tries to process events. Depression – Depression can feel like a darkening cloud hovering over you. It can feel permanent, but it’s important to remember that this persistent sadness is temporary. You may need therapy to help you past the rough obstacles of depression. Intrusive memories – Intrusive memories and thoughts come out of nowhere and can leave you shaken. In some cases, these flashbacks can feel real with sounds and scents associated with the memory. Trouble concentrating – After trauma, the brain can undergo changes in structure and functions that make it difficult to concentrate on tasks. You may find you are forgetting more and are unable to focus. Trouble making decisions – You might second-guess your choices and be unable to commit to decisions. Try not to make any rash [...]

Comments Off

6 Common Marital Problems and What to Do

6 Common Marital Problems and What to Do

Melissa Plantz2026-05-08T14:01:37+00:00May 8th, 2026|Couples Counseling, Featured, Marriage Counseling, Relationship Issues|

Although we all strive for perfection, there is no perfect marriage. Perfection is an illusion. There will be issues, but how you manage those problems will predict how long and how strong your marriage will last. Knowing common marital problems can give you and your spouse a jumping-off point to discuss these problems before they occur. 6 Common Marital Problems Although common, marital problems can feel like the end of the world when it is happening to you. Communicating about issues before they worsen, seeking counseling when problems arise, and committing to one another can help your marriage navigate the rocky parts. The following are several common marital problems to keep in mind. Lack of Emotional Intimacy Emotional intimacy is the tie that binds you to someone. It is the “he or she gets me” vibe. It’s the little touches as you pass, the unspoken words, and the eye contact that say so much. Emotional intimacy can strengthen your marriage during the golden years when your bodies are frailer and you only have each other to lean on. A lack of emotional intimacy can lead a spouse to seek that connection from someone else. Lack of Physical Intimacy A lack of physical intimacy can create marital problems. Sex within marriage is good, and the Bible points out not to deprive each other of sexual relations unless agreed (1 Corinthians 7:5). There is a connection between husband and wife that is strengthened when they come together physically. When we avoid sex or one spouse withholds from another, temptation can arise. Lack of physical intimacy can lead to infidelity and affairs. Financial Stress Financial stress strains a marriage. When money is tight, couples might blame each other or work tirelessly to make ends meet, ultimately neglecting one another. Feelings of inadequacy [...]

Comments Off

Healthy Tips for Aging in America

Healthy Tips for Aging in America

Melissa Plantz2025-10-02T07:22:32+00:00October 2nd, 2025|Aging and Geriatric Issues, Featured, Individual Counseling|

We all age. If you are blessed to live to see a long life, the aging process comes with it. The Bible states, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.” (Proverbs 16:31, NIV) Growing older is a blessing. But we also must remember that our bodies are not our own. They belong to the Holy Spirit and should be treated as a temple. Normal wear and tear is inevitable. Neglect and self-harm are not. You must make some lifestyle changes to be healthy while aging in America. Tips for Aging in America Breaking bad habits can be challenging if you have stuck with them for 40, 50, or 60+ years. If you want to live a long life in America, then you must learn to replace bad habits with good ones. You can do this by habit stacking. Habit stacking is adding a healthy habit to an established habit. For example, if you want to start taking a multivitamin to ensure your nutritional bases are covered, try taking the vitamin after you brush your teeth in the morning. The established habit of brushing your teeth will cue your mind that it is time to take your multivitamin. The following is a list of healthy tips for aging in America that you can habit stack into your current routine. Keep moving Dick Van Dyke wrote a book titled, Keep Moving. The actor believes that as we age, our muscles stiffen. He prescribes staying active and making movement a regular part of your day. Light cardio, flexibility, and balancing activities are all essential to protect from falls, muscle and bone loss, and a “stiffening” of the arteries and joints. Be strong Older people, particularly women, shy away from weights and body-weight exercises. However, [...]

Comments Off

Feeling Depressed? Learn How Setting Goals Can Help

Feeling Depressed? Learn How Setting Goals Can Help

Melissa Plantz2025-10-31T12:44:55+00:00September 22nd, 2025|Depression, Featured, Individual Counseling, Men’s Issues, Women’s Issues|

If you struggle with depression, then you understand the difficulty of getting up in the morning. The same monotonous routine only makes it that much harder. For those dealing with Seasonal Affective Disorder, the fall and winter months can be incredibly challenging. If you are feeling depressed, try setting goals. A well-crafted goal and action plan can get you up in the morning, giving you something to look forward to in your day. The sense of accomplishment, as well as the journey to achieving the goal, can boost your mood and self-esteem. How Goal Setting Helps When Feeling Depressed Goal setting really can help when you are feeling depressed. The ability to work toward a goal will leave you with a sense of purpose and confidence. Imagine waking up in the morning, ready to tackle the next task on your list and watching your progress. Goal setting is a skill that will serve you for the rest of your life. When you set goals, you focus on what is important to you. When you feel like you have some control over an outcome (your goal and plans to reach that goal), you feel less anxiety and depression and more confidence. How to Set Goals Once you learn how to set goals, you can apply the concept to any area of your life. Do you want to move further in your career, improve relationships, or lose weight? Setting goals and implementing the action steps can take you there. But it all starts with a plan. The first step is fine-tuning your goal until it is clear, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. This is also known as a SMART goal. You must be able to envision your goal. For example, if you want to lose weight, you focus on precisely [...]

Comments Off

The Effects of Social Media on Teens

The Effects of Social Media on Teens

Melissa Plantz2025-08-05T09:01:26+00:00August 5th, 2025|Christian Counseling For Teens, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

Do you remember the days when social media did not exist? The time as a teenager when you called your friends and talked for hours, or rode your bike to their houses to tell them all the latest gossip, or to make arrangements to hang out? As an adult, you chatted with your friends over the phone or met them in person. For your long-distance friendships, you wrote letters and, later, emails. Social media has changed the way we communicate with each other. With the swipe of a finger, we can learn about a friend from high school thirty years later. As mature and responsible adults, we know how to spend our time on our phones. We don’t believe everything we read, and for the most part, we scroll past posts we disagree with. Teenagers today have an almost endless supply of social media platforms to choose from and often host profiles on a few. Their role models not only include the predictable celebrities, sports players, and actors but also various influencers, whose job is to get us to buy a product or behave or think differently about a topic. But what are the effects of social media on teens? Should we be worried? The Benefits of Social Media Before discussing social media’s negative effects, we should point out the benefits. Communication has never been more accessible than now. Your teen can chat with their older sibling stationed in another country on FaceTime or learn about class changes from their school’s Facebook page. They can keep up with the football game schedule on X or get ideas about prom from posts on Instagram. Teens can also scan college QR codes and learn more about their chosen fields through the universities’ pages. If they are looking for motivation for a career, [...]

Comments Off

Common Signs of OCD in Adults

Common Signs of OCD in Adults

Melissa Plantz2025-02-19T11:54:20+00:00February 19th, 2025|Featured, Individual Counseling, OCD|

Signs of OCD in adults can interfere with your daily responsibilities and relationships. The behaviors can be embarrassing, and many people with OCD struggle to behave normally around others. What is OCD? Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health disorder affecting more than 1.2% of the American adult population. Our thoughts influence our emotions, and how we react to these emotions results in behaviors. With OCD, intrusive or obsessive thoughts lead to anxiety and fear, resulting in compulsive behaviors to relieve those emotions. The compulsive behaviors give temporary relief, but the obsessive thoughts quickly return. The signs of OCD in adults can lead to trouble at work, school, and home. Many people with OCD feel helpless to stop their thoughts and compulsions. They may withdraw from society. When they engage in compulsive behaviors, they feel no pleasure. It is only a way to relieve the anxiety for a little while. Common Signs of OCD in Adults Most with OCD exhibit one or two signs of adult OCD. These behaviors go beyond wanting a clean kitchen, good personal hygiene, or going back to make sure you locked the back door. These behaviors are extreme and are the result of unwanted thoughts and fear. Only a mental health practitioner can diagnose OCD. Contact a mental health professional if you suspect you have OCD. Washing hands – Someone with OCD may fear germs or getting sick. They may wash their hands to the extreme, resulting in dry, cracked, raw, or bleeding hands. They may overuse hand sanitizer and avoid touching surfaces or shaking hands with people. Excessive cleaning – Germs and getting sick are a driving force behind many people with the type of OCD of excessive cleaning. They may clean a space several times using bleach and other products. They [...]

Comments Off

9 Signs of Addictive Behavior

9 Signs of Addictive Behavior

Melissa Plantz2024-09-24T12:58:40+00:00July 9th, 2024|Chemical Dependency, Featured, Individual Counseling|

The brain rewards us for specific tasks that make us happy. For example, you binge-watch your favorite television program after a long day at work. You feel the stress leave your body as the brain releases dopamine and other chemicals to make you feel happy. The next time you have a stressful day, you will feel the urge to relax on the couch in front of the television. This becomes an addictive behavior. The brain creates neural pathways to recognize these behaviors. Addictive behavior is slightly different. Behaviors like kleptomania (theft), gambling, pornography, and shopping are also addictive behaviors. Substance abusers consume chemicals that change the chemistry in the brain. The substances consumed with addictive behavior, such as alcohol, illicit drugs, and prescription drugs, change the brain’s chemistry and the reward system. This is why it is difficult to stop. The person who has an addiction will go through a withdrawal period, which can make them physically ill. What are the signs of addictive behavior? There are various signs of addictive behavior, and in most cases, these can signal addiction to other behaviors aside from alcohol and substance abuse. You can use the following signs also to pinpoint addictions like pornography, gambling, and food. What characterizes addictive behavior is compulsion, craving, consequence, and loss of control. These characteristics can be applied to most addictive behaviors. Conflict at work Due to the compulsion of an addiction, it becomes the sole focus of the user. The person may stop caring about going to work or doing a good job. They may show up late for work, call in more often, not complete tasks, or cause conflict in the workplace with others. Spending excessive amounts of money on addiction Even if finances are tight, someone with addictive behavior will plan their income [...]

Comments Off

Aging in America: Long-term Care Options

Aging in America: Long-term Care Options

Melissa Plantz2025-04-23T06:21:48+00:00June 22nd, 2023|Aging and Geriatric Issues, Family Counseling, Featured, Individual Counseling|

There is a certain anxiety that many people face when they consider the future. They worry about what they will do when they reach retirement or who will care for them if they can no longer care for themselves. With more people aging in America, a retiree may live well into their eighties, nineties, or beyond. For successful aging in America, we should plan for long-term care even if we do not think we might need it. We can remove some of the anxiety and fear by having a written plan for long-term care in case of an emergency. Christian Counseling Allen can help guide individuals and families through the emotional and spiritual aspects of long-term care planning, offering support during these important decisions. For example, you may plan to live in your own home after retirement. However, twenty years after retirement, circumstances may require you to seek long-term care, possibly in an assisted living facility where you can age in place with healthcare available as you need it. Knowing the options available to you can make it easier to plan for the future. Types of long-term care Long-term care may be required if you struggle with activities for daily living (ADLs), such as housekeeping, preparing meals, personal hygiene and grooming, and laundry. These can range from someone checking in on you at home a couple of times per week or you live at a facility with full-time care. Unpaid family and friends. The most common option is relying on family and friends for help. These are unpaid caregivers who may stop in weekly to help clean and do laundry. This option also includes family members who live with you and help with ADLs like bathing, toileting, and cooking. Many family members fill this role for aging parents and [...]

Comments Off

What to Do When You Get Stuck in the Grieving Process

What to Do When You Get Stuck in the Grieving Process

Melissa Plantz2025-05-15T07:59:02+00:00June 5th, 2023|Featured, Grief Counseling, Individual Counseling|

No one wishes to lose a loved one, yet the passing on of someone close to us is part of the cycle of life. We may question why a loved one was taken from us, but in the end, we must learn to move forward through the grieving process and be present for the people here. The grieving process helps to facilitate that healing. We feel the loss in stages or phases, and our emotions have time to process the loss. However, there is no set time period for grieving. We cannot estimate that someone will go from the shock of learning of a loved one’s death to accepting life without them in a few days. This process is different for everyone. You may mourn for several weeks to several years. Christian Counseling Allen can provide support during this challenging time, helping you navigate the grief process with compassion and faith-based guidance. The grieving process There are five stages of the grieving process. The first is shock or denial: you cannot believe the person is gone. You keep waiting to hear that their alleged death is a prank or a mistake. The second stage is anger. You wonder how did this happen or who is responsible. You may be looking for someone to blame, or you may blame yourself. You may even be angry at your loved one for leaving you or being at the wrong place at the wrong time in an accident. The third stage is bargaining. You may pray that God let you die instead of your loved one. Or you may obsess over what you would give up for another day with your loved one. The fourth stage is depression. This stage often hits hard and in waves. Unlike persistent sadness, a common sign of [...]

Comments Off

12 Next

Melissa Plantz

About Melissa Plantz

CONTACT INFO

Allen Christian Counseling

ABOUT US