Coping with Summertime Sadness
Sunshine, vacations, playing outside, pool time and parties. Summer conjures a celebratory energy and a lightness of being. It's a time to revel in the moment and savor the sweetness of life. Unless it's not. While summer can bring hope and happiness after some long,...
Let It Be: Lessons from the Solar Eclipse
Let it be! This is the message being shouted at me as I reflect on my experience with "The Great American Eclipse" on April 8, 2024. I first heard about the eclipse at some point during the fall of 2023. Having witnessed totality back in 2017 I was eager to have that...
Feeling Blue But Don’t Know Why?
Have you ever been going about your business, putting away groceries or brushing your teeth or something, and found yourself suddenly crying? Or lying in bed at night struggling to fall asleep because you're experiencing overwhelming anxiety? Have you found yourself...
New Year’s Realizations
Is it me or have the last few years been exceptionally challenging? Does it seem to you like reality feels more and more trite with each passing year? Maybe this sense is a symptom of middle age? In any case, I find myself having a harder time getting on board with...
How to Get the Most Out of Therapy
Are you a self saboteur? Of course you are. We all are in one way or another. What this means is that you subconsciously sabotage your success. I see this all the time in therapy. People make the effort to find and sign on with a therapist but then derail their...
Coping With a World Gone Mad
Dishes are piled up in the sink. Clothes are spilling over the edges of hampers. White fluffs of dog fur cover the floor. Emails are unwritten. Texts have been ignored. Deadlines remain unmet. This is my life right now. Like many, I'm saddened by the state of the...
Listen to Your Ancestors
I could feel her pain as if it were my own, and it was excruciating. An ocean of sorrow crashed against me, inside my body. I wailed and wept, utterly overwhelmed by the intensity of emotions. I saw blood. A miscarriage. I felt the mother's grief. She was a young...
How to Choose a Therapist
I hated my counselor. She was nice enough but I was convinced that she didn’t really care about me and that the only reason she pretended to was because she was getting paid. I was twelve years old and had been forced into therapy. I didn’t benefit from the...
Who’s Afraid of Shadow Work?
"Do I have to?" "I'd rather not." "I'm not a fan." These are all responses I've heard from clients when I've invited them to go deeper into their psyches. Few people are eager to explore the depths of their own subconscious. I've noticed that the discomfort is most...
Using Archetypes for Guidance and Growth
What was your favorite toy as a child? Mine was Barbie, without question. I had a ridiculous number of them and pretty much never wanted to play with anything else. Sometimes I played with my sister, but mostly I enjoyed playing alone. I enjoyed traveling deep into...
How’s Your Soul Doing?
When was the last time you exercised your soul? Health and wellness tends to be compartmentalized but we can't really isolate any aspect of wellbeing. We're whole beings with complex, interactive systems. In recent years, there's been a growing understanding that...
ReParenting For More Confidence and Self Love
Think back to your childhood. How would you describe it? How would you describe yourself? How did it feel to be a kid? Adults often have a romanticized notion of childhood. As if being a kid is simple, carefree and easy. Was that your experience? Or do you feel sad or...