Life in the 21st Century is fraught with stressors and life events that can take a toll on one's mental health. Losing a loved one, being fired from a job, going through a relationship breakup, raising kids in an internet age, and other difficult circumstances can lead one to feel sad, lonely, and even scared. These feelings are normal reactions to life's stressors; most people feel sad, low, and/or anxious at times. When these feelings begin to degrade one's quality of life, which may lead to a diagnosis of depression or anxiety disorder, the symptoms are much more severe and tend to persist. At times, these conditions are best addressed by a psychiatrist (if medication is indicated). When it is necessary for one to change their approach to life and learn to manage stressful situations more effectively, a trained mental health therapist can assist an individual with learning and implementing new strategies for addressing these stressors.

Commonly known as "manic-depressive disorder," bipolar disorder is brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity level, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Living with untreated bipolar disorder is often a challenge; one may vacillate between extreme lows thus feeling emotionally drained or immobilized (depression), to extreme highs where one perceives they can conquer the world (mania). Unfortunately, at the extremes of mood, persons with bipolar disorder may experience crises in their relationships, employment, and even their financial well-being. Fortunately, psychiatrists have a number of new and effective medication to treat bipolar disorder. Psychotherapy may also benefit one's learning to live how more effectively once greater emotional stability is achieved.

Abnormal thinking and perceptions are characteristic of psychotic disorders; people with psychoses lose touch with reality and often experience delusions and/or hallucinations. Delusions are false beliefs, such as thinking that someone is plotting against them or that the TV is sending them secret messages. Hallucinations are false perceptions, such as hearing, seeing, or feeling something that is not there. Psychiatrists have a number of modern and highly researched medical interventions for these conditions. Individuals with untreated psychosis most often lead confused and unproductive lives; focused and effective psychiatric intervention has the potential of alleviating these symptoms, thus returning the individual to a more normal and productive life.

Psychiatric medication may have side effects, and it is important to work with your mental health practitioner to determine your tolerance to side effects should they occur. Often, family members are the first to notice side effects and how they affect family dynamics. Loved ones are typically the most objective observers of how medications are affecting the psychiatry patient. They are encouraged to participate in meetings with the psychiatrist to provide input on the desired effects, side effects, and behavior changes attributable to psychotropic medications. After all, the goal is to make life "better" for the client, and that implies that life will also be better for those closest to the client.

Clients enter into these types of therapies with the primary goal of becoming more effective as a family unit, or to resolve issues that have resulted in unhappy, ineffective, destructive or even abusive life patterns. A trained psychotherapist can assist family units to discover and understand the root cause of problems and help them to discover avenues of change within a warm, supportive, and non-judgmental environment. Several effective theoretical approaches are employed, most of which have a "systemic" emphasis. In short, such an approach assesses and strives to alter the interactional dynamics within the family unit, to build new levels of cooperation, and instruct on more effective interaction patterns within the system. These approaches are highly research-based and are known to be highly effective.