Figuring out what to do with emotional pain is the foundation of psychological health and happiness. It usually takes us a while to piece things together.
Phase 1: We Don’t Realize We’re In Pain
We don’t realize we’re in pain. Sure, we may be doing weird shit with food, alcohol, drugs, sex, unavailable men/women but we think all is well-ish and we just need to sort some …
As I type this the US election is razor close. I know a lot of people haven’t slept much overnight and are racked with tension and anxiety and disbelief (whatever side they’re on). As a psychotherapist my job is to listen to people and that means people who sit across the political spectrum. It’s been very eye opening.
What I’m continuously struck by …
We’re often very quick to weigh ourselves – both literally by jumping on a scale and more figuratively by assessing where we are in our lives. We tend to make a judgement based on surface results that are measurable – number on a scale, number in the bank account, number of likes, grades etc.
It makes sense. Our minds are trying to gauge how we’re doing …
The doll in this photo is called Azlynn and is one of my daughter’s favorite toys. She was a gift from the children’s grandparents who live in Swaziland, Africa so her arrival was more coincidence than strategic planning on my part.
When I was pregnant and thinking about raising children I thought about gender. How to raise a boy so that he didn’t get caught …
I won’t lie. Living in the US is feeling quite intense right now. I was just about adapting to the new realities of Covid when the Black Lives Matter movement exploded. And of course the very fact that I experienced it in that way speaks volumes about my white privilege – for so many people it’s something they’ve been grappling with day in and …
I remember years ago wondering why I was so messed up when nothing “that bad” had actually happened to me. This a question a lot of my clients face when they look back at their childhoods. Ok, their childhoods weren’t perfect by any stretch, but in the context of world problems they weren’t that horrific either. So why all the struggle with anxiety, depression, relationships …