X’s over O’s? Plenty of couples spend time, energy, and money trying to fix relationship problems, increase intimacy, or simply kick things up a notch in their relationship. Well, there is a free way to do all of the above that is often overlooked and underrated: Hugs. Yes, hugs help all of the problems listed […]
Tag: Anxiety
I’m Not Trying To Fix You: A Letter to Those in Therapy
As a therapist and counselor, I am here to embrace you. The good, bad, messy, silly — all the parts. So many clients come to therapy saying “Fix me!” or “Just help me erase or get rid of these painful memories!”or “Make me better!”, especially when they’ve been struggling with pain from trauma, grief, a […]
Millennials are the Most Depressed Age Group During Pandemic
Millennials are struggling more than other age groups with their mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. As a refresher, this is the age group born between 1981 and 1994/6, ages 25 to 40 years old. According to a 2019 report from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, major depression diagnoses are rising at a faster rate […]
Parenting is Hard.
Rebellion One of the most valuable phrases I’ve learned when working with families is: Rules – Relationship = Rebellion This concept was originally created to help step-parents and blended families understand the oh-so common rebellion that can happen when a step-parent steps into a child’s life and tries to enforce rules, while failing to foster […]
Substance Abuse: Why Jail Fails People Who are Struggling with Addictions
*To preface this article, I want to start by saying that this is not about police bashing or to put out fear or disconnection to any sort of agency in America, this is about giving both an empathetic and responsible look at the War On Drugs and the system we are currently using with the […]
Systemic Therapies and Somatic Experiencing
Introduction to Systemic Therapies and SE A lot of people are familiar with cognitive behavioral therapy (most popular types of therapy), but there are other forms of therapy that can also be effective in treating different kinds of issues. One such form is called systemic therapies, and another is somatic experiencing (SE). Let’s look at […]
The Many Faces of Anger
Anger comes in many faces. It can look like kindness, it can look like silence, it can look like withdrawal. Most people only know the more violent, the more loud, the more outward presentation… But my oh my, how insidious the damage of inner anger can be. How deceiving it can look in the “nice […]
When Happiness Feels Bad
Although millions of people search endlessly and spend copious amounts of money searching for the key to “happiness”, some people find happiness to be a really anxiety-provoking emotion. This is because happiness is an extremely vulnerable emotion. As people review their lives in their head they start to think, “Life is good right now…the family […]
When Your Loved One Hurts You
We’ve all been there. We are talking with a loved one and out of the blue something inside of us gets triggered by what they say. Our thoughts and body begin moving faster than we can process and we get that feeling of discomfort deep in our gut or a racing in our chest. “What […]
You Deserve Healthy Love
We all deserve love. Yes, you too. Although many of us learn something different from early life experiences where we may not have received the love or safety we needed, romances gone wrong, or bc we don’t have that secure love foundation, and other various traumas — it’s still true. When we believe we don’t […]