About Loriann
As author of eleven non-fiction books and two novels, Ms. Oberlin stays abreast of research and earns way more continuing education credits each cycle than required. It's no surprise then that the modalities that resonate with Loriann are those people learn in order to be the best they can.
Loriann extols the benefits of reading carefully selected, self-help resources and losing oneself in a character's world. Research from the University of Sussex in the UK has shown that reading can lower heart rate and muscle tension, or put simply, it can reduce your stress!
Her latest non-fiction book is Overcoming Passive Aggression, for those struggling with hidden anger or someone in your life with it. She contributes to Psychology Today via The Full Picture, a testament to the breadth of her interest in a wide span of health-related topics. Many articles delve into bibliotherapy.
Perusing the articles tab/catalog, you'll get a feel for Loriann's knowledge, her conversational style as well as tips to help before, during and following therapy sessions.
When not seeing clients or writing, Loriann gardens, reads, swims/walks. Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit are game favorites. Creating beautiful puzzles another pastime.
She enjoyed the National Zoo's Panda Palooza, the giant send off before three beloved Pandas departed for China.
Determined to spell and pronounce each bear's name, Loriann checks You Tube to see what Xiao Qi Ji, "the little miracle," born in 2020 is up to. She watched on TV as the Panda Express landed at Dulles, and she braved the January cold to welcome the new panda bears at the member preview at Smithsonian's National Zoo when Bao Li and Qing Bao made their debut.
2023 Pandamonium
She spends her spare time with friends, family and her rescue dog.
Find Loriann's Psychology Today contributions at The Full Picture.
To inquire about one of her books, or to have Ms. Oberlin speak or conduct a workshop, please use the contact link(s) on this website.
Ms Oberlin was voted Best Life Coach by the readers of What's Up Eastern Shore
Theory & Influential Foundations
To graduate from Johns Hopkins University, students had to embrace one or two psychological theories that bring about change. Merely calling oneself "eclectic," as some therapists do, was not acceptable for one's Master's presentation or thesis, if you will.
Ms. Oberlin had learned cognitive-behavioral therapy years before and had begun writing about its evidence-based effectiveness. During her studies and internships, she was further exposed to family systems as a unique way to see how people function in relationship to one another. This perspective makes such a difference in one's personal and professional lives. Cognitive Processing Therapy or CPT helps those who have experienced trauma to process what's happened to them, using exposure, cognitive and behavioral therapies.
Therapy is more than merely showing up. It's learning how to work with your thoughts and challenge new behavior.
Reading and learning between sessions means you improve perhaps faster in counseling. This site includes resources Loriann may recommend.
How Change Happens
So often, people come to psychotherapy because some situation or perhaps another person has immense frustration. Sometimes, friends, family or physicians recommend such counseling. For sure, when you buy into the process, wishing to focus on what you can change about yourself, how you interpret things or respond to them, then you will be more open to new perspectives and challenges.
As systems theory informs us, we live in groups or systems. A classroom. An office. A family. Any group truly is a system, and a change in one member creates reciprocal changes in others. Therefore, rather than point to another who "should change," therapy encourages the focus on changing self. When you are the best human you can be, identifying your values and living life accordingly, rather than parroting anyone else's script or blueprint, you embrace happiness and more readily create the changes you wish to see.
As Mahatma Gandhi said: Be the change you wish to see in the world. Work on self helps you to that end.