Sticking to those New Year’s resolutions with counseling help

WEST CHESTER — It’s New Year’s Day. Football is blaring from the TV. You’ve just consumed enough calories to keep going for three days.

And then you remember those New Year’s resolutions you made last night at the party.

Pat Brown can help. He is a licensed clinical social worker at ETHOS Treatment LLC, which assists people with substance abuse, gambling and other addictive behaviors, and behavioral health issues.

“You need to be vulnerable and transparent, open to solutions,” Brown said about changing, “and try new ways to change the same old problems and new ways to find new solutions.”

Brown said that when making changes we need to be curious and seek answers.

“Change takes time, patience and perseverance,” he said. “If I’m going to change my life, it’s going to take time.”

Samantha Osterlos is director of marketing and is a certified advanced alcohol and drug counselor at ETHOS.

She said New Year’s is the perfect time to change those sometimes “grandiose” resolutions since it falls at the end of the year and the beginning of the next year.

At this time, when spending more time around our families, we are exposed to those who know us well and can “pick up on the nuances,” she said.

Osterlos said that the first step is to ask for help.

“We complicate the situation, it’s as simple as picking up the phone,” she said.

Osterlos suggested that those seeking change with addictions call ETHOS, a local drug and alcohol facility or a primary care physician.

“Call somebody who knows a bit more than you do,” she said.

Osterlos talked about all those who join a gym at the start of the year to get healthy.

“We should start putting some emphasis on physical health as well as mental health,” she said. “We all should do work every day to be better versions of ourselves and seek therapy.”

Brown said that New Year’s resolutions often don’t work and are inconsistent at best. He is a proponent of group therapy.

“If you’re trying to change something, and trying real hard for days and weeks, you can come to the realization that if you could have done it on your own, you already would have done it,” he said. “Building a new habit takes time.

“To win the game of life you have to ask for help. If I’m going to change a life, it’s going to take time.”

Brown said that we are all individuals.

“What might work for you might not work for someone else,” he said. “Change takes time, patience and perseverance.

“Give ourselves grace, it’s not always smooth and not always linear.”

ETHOS has seven locations in southeastern Pennsylvania. For more information go to Ethostreatment.com.