Understanding Stress: Navigating the Biological Response
Stress is an inherent biological response to a perceived threat, triggering a cascade of chemicals and hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol throughout the body. This evolutionary adaptive mechanism, designed for immediate problem-solving in moments of danger, can, unfortunately, lead to a perpetual cycle of stress in modern life. Types of Stress: Common Manifestations of […]
Why Emotions Matter and What To Do When They Come Up
Emotions get a bad rap in our society. However, emotions help us to understand ourselves and our world better. Our emotions help us understand who we are, what matters to us, how we feel toward our relationships, and what we need. They give our lives and experiences meaning. Without our emotions, we wouldn’t be ourselves. […]
How Conscious Awareness Improves Your Life & Relationships
Teaching individuals to observe their own minds and stay attuned to their inner workings is one of the most important skills I teach as a mental health therapist. Our lives often slip into autopilot, as highlighted in a 2010 Harvard study suggesting the average person spends nearly half their day on autopilot, their thoughts adrift. […]
The Power of Self-Talk: Unlocking the Magic of Self-Compassion
Self-talk: it’s that constant conversation we have with ourselves, often running in the background. Some days it’s uplifting, some days it’s not, and sometimes, it’s merely a stream of neutral thoughts. What we often overlook is the tremendous impact of how we talk to ourselves. Enter the world of self-compassion—a game-changer in the way we […]
New Year’s Resolutions and Improving Your Mental Health
For those that celebrate, Christmas is now over and many of us are thinking about the new year. And with a new year comes ideas about what we want our year to look like. For many of us, it means setting goals, intentions, and resolutions. A 2022 poll by YouGov found that 37% of Americans […]
Practical Tips for Maintaining Your Mental Health this Holiday Season
In the last two weeks, I have talked with so many friends and clients about the holidays and what it brings up for them. While we are sold the idea of the magic of the season, most of the folks I talked to shared hard stories of everything from feeling stressed with all of the […]
Navigating Grief During the Holidays
The holidays can be a super difficult time for folks who are grieving. Emotions tend to be amplified during the holiday anyway, and grief in particular can be exacerbated because of memories and feelings of loss or aloneness that might come up. Grief during this season can certainly be in regard to bereavement (grieving the […]
How to Increase Your Happiness
I listened to the Rich Roll podcast yesterday with author and academic, Arthur C. Brooks. Brooks was sharing his knowledge and research (grounded in neuroscience) on happiness and how we can all be happier if we know what to do. He describes that happiness is not a destination, but a direction. First, he debunks western […]
How to Navigate Conflict
Most people do not like conflict. Understandably, conflict can make us feel anxious or fearful about losing connection or having a negative interaction that will impact our relationship with the other person. While there are certainly harmful ways of being in conflict (like stonewalling or criticizing or showing contempt), conflict in and of itself can […]
Reflecting and Moving into a New Season or Chapter
It is the end of the school year which means a change in schedule and regular programming for many of us. Even if you aren’t impacted by the end of the school year, we are changing into a new season which means it is a perfect time to reflect and plan. I have been thinking […]
Spirituality and Gratitude Improve the Quality of Our Lives
Regardless of one’s particular religious beliefs, I believe we are all spiritual beings. I find that when I am adhering to society’s values, my thoughts and behaviors skew toward materialism, vanity, more self-focused thoughts, less altruism, and a sense of comparison or never enoughness. Of course, all of this is exacerbated by an endless stream […]
Thoughts on Mass Shootings from a Columbine Survivor
How do we make impactful change with such polarized views and perceptions of safety? How do we come together to protect our children so they can have a future, so we can move about our communities feeling safer, so we can protect students, parents, school staff, families and first responders from having to bear witness to and live with unimaginable loss and trauma?
