By Feeling overwhelmed? Do you want to find a quick and healthy way to fight back your sadness or anxiety and get on with the rest of your day in peace? Mindful breathing can help most people get relief in just minutes. It sounds like a bad infomercial, doesn’t it? Mindful
Psychological Stress: Look Out for These 14 Signs
Everybody deals with psychological stress. Ask Joe Schmo down the street how he felt while organizing his wedding, and he’ll probably talk your ear off about how difficult it was. He might rant about sleepless nights, constant fights, and tiredness that just would not go away no matter how much
Anxious About Reopening? 7 Links For Making Sense of the New “Normal”
As I write this post, we live in a very strange time. After fifteen months of a nightmarish pandemic, many parts of the world–including here in the United States– are getting back to “normal.” We’ve eagerly anticipated this moment. Yet, for many, it’s not been as easy as we’d hoped.
Therapy and Writing: Why I’m Better for Juggling Both
Around the time that I turned 18 and my friends went off to college, I started getting the dreaded question. The one we ask far too much to teenagers just stumbling into adulthood: what do you want to do with your life? For me, I’d already narrowed it down to
“Do I Have ADHD?”: 9 Reasons You Can’t Focus
When I start an initial assessment with a new therapy client, I focus on getting a good idea of what symptoms they’re experiencing. People are generally pretty good at describing their mood and general anxiety-level. Then, when I ask about how well they’re able to concentrate, they often say something
The World and You: The Bronfenbrenner Perspective on Mental Health
When it comes to our thoughts and emotions, everything feels extremely personal. That sadness? Our fault. This anxiety? Our responsibility. However, back in the 1970s, a social scientist named Urie Bronfenbrenner suggested that the world around us has an enormous effect on our mental health. Our society typically views mental
How to Pay for Therapy, Psychiatry, and Other Mental Health Needs
Ah, money. Deciding to get mental health treatment can be a journey of its own. Next, the person has to figure out what type of mental health provider they want. Then, there’s the little detail of figuring out how to pay for your therapy or psychiatry. People worry about potential
Go to Sleep: Your Ultimate Guide for Catching Z’s
It’s a tale as old as time. You slip into bed, shut your eyes, and still, you can’t sleep. The later it becomes, the more you toss and turn, dreading how exhausted you’ll be in the morning. Sleep plays an essential role in our mental health. It can dictate our
Feeling Overwhelmed? Look Out for These 11 Physical Effects of Stress
Stress is a normal feeling that everybody has felt at some point in their lives. Yet for something so quintessentially human, the physical effects of stress can be overwhelming. Think back to life in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Don’t worry, I won’t make you think about it for
Three Reasons Mental Illness Is A Condition, Not Personal Failure
In every culture throughout history, there have been people operating in the “mainstream,” and folks that have been deemed outsiders. Anybody seen as “other” is at risk of being shamed and judged. Think of religious and ethnic minorities, non-cisgender heterosexual individuals, and people who are in some way ill. I’ll
