You probably recognize this scenario: A friend or family member makes a comment about a current issue or political figure, and you feel your body and mind reacting. Your blood pressure rises, muscles tense and a series of automatic thoughts enters your mind like, “How could they say that?” or “They are so wrong!” Maybe you feel an urge to...[ read more ]
By looking at our photo collections, it seems like the “important” stuff of life takes place at big events and special occasions. While we enjoy those memorable times, the majority of each of our lives plays out in ordinary day-to-day tasks that rarely get documented. In fact, my daily round looks a lot like yours and everyone else’s. Instead of...[ read more ]
The impacts of guilt and shame have been a consistent topic in the therapy room. Clients, finding themselves tossed and turned by the waves of these emotions, have reported increased levels of anxiety and depression, the symptoms of which often leads to a paralyzing sense of immovability. The guilt/shame cycle has a cunning way of making our brain fire in...[ read more ]
What types of self-care activities would you recommend to clients during this holiday season in light of the continuation of the pandemic? “I have found that for me and also for my clients, ideas or past habits of self-care abound, but the road blocks to self care right now can look like low energy, a mental load that's past capacity,...[ read more ]
What inspired you to become a counselor? I had a job in college that was in the same office suite as the counseling center on campus. During lunch breaks, the therapists and I would often chat about our lives, trading stories back and forth. My eyes would light up whenever they talked about what they learned in school or traded...[ read more ]
“You can look now...” I had been anticipating this moment for the last several hours of the drive across Utah —to see the Grand Canyon for the first time. Crossing the parking lot a few minutes earlier, I had decided I would look down until I reached the overlook. Everyone had warned me that there was nothing like it, that...[ read more ]
As we experience a seismic shift in our day to day due to the effects of a pandemic, we are becoming aware that what we are experiencing is a collective trauma. COVID-19 has created a mad dash for safety and resources. And like any response to trauma there is a pattern of initial shock and denial, panic and hypervigilance, and...[ read more ]
I hesitated, my index finger hovering haltingly over the “Cancel flights” button, the click that would undo six months of joyful, hope-filled anticipation of visiting my brother and his wife before their daughter and first child would be born. I already knew that following my niece’s birth I wouldn’t see them for some time given hospital and health restrictions already...[ read more ]
The purpose of this short blog entry is to keep before us as mental health professionals the continued need to remember the wrong that was done, to support the demand for justice, and to help transform ourselves and our communities into places where all people are held in equal regard, where interpersonal respect is the universal expectation. Breath. The first...[ read more ]
Tears of sadness were heard from my wife’s home office as she pointed to her computer screen. There presented in a grainy and distant image was the wedding of her nephew and his bride. The pair stood alone at the altar, absent were the previously named wedding attendants, a few isolated family members sat the front row of what would...[ read more ]