Couples therapy is a valuable resource for happy couples as well! You don’t need to be experiencing a crisis or contemplating divorce for your relationship to benefit from couples therapy. Here are a few scenarios in which couples who are generally content can still gain much from couples therapy, including going through a life transition, becoming parents, being part of a cross cultural relationship, or simply wanting to strengthen the foundation of your relationship.
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The lies we tell ourselves: How core negative beliefs wreak havoc on your relationships (and how to heal)
Have you ever come away from an interaction with someone and felt overwhelmed because the intensity of your response did not match the intensity of the situation? Perhaps you felt judged, abandoned, or accused despite this not being directly conveyed by the other person. When this happens, building insight to understand your emotions and your specific triggers will be helpful for your future relationships, both with others and with yourself. But sometimes that isn’t so easy, and never more so than when a person has a trauma history and/or deeply embedded core negative beliefs. Continue reading to learn more about how therapy and EMDR can help you heal from these negative beliefs and trauma responses.
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How to Make Friends You Can Actually Talk to: Deepening Vulnerability
If you are the person who is always there for everyone else but it feels like no one is there for you, the person who intentionally keeps people at arm’s distance and your friends likely don’t have a clue you’re doing it, or the person who seemingly has hundreds of friends and is always with people but you wouldn’t know where to turn if you actually needed help, this article is for you. I encourage you to mull over these truth bombs and evaluate how you can deepen your friendships, allow yourself to be known (and get to know others better), and ultimately create a beautiful, enriching support system of wonderful people in your life.
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5 Mindfulness Hacks for Busy Lives: Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Routines
Mindfulness is the moment-to-moment awareness of your physical, mental, and emotional state, all through a lens of curiosity and non-judgment. Many people employ mindfulness techniques to evoke a sense of calm through grounding themselves in the present. Regardless of where you feel your mental health is at the moment, mindfulness can enrich your life in both smaller and more significant moments. If you worry that you are too busy to incorporate new meditation or mindfulness practices into your busy life, I have good news for you: You can incorporate mindfulness into your life while essentially continuing your busy, packed life as is! Here are five mindfulness hacks for adding mindfulness to your current daily schedule.
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A Self Care Guide to Surviving the Holidays
So often the holidays are viewed as a time of family connection, warmth, and meaningful celebration. However, for many, the holidays highlight losses, a lack of belonging, sorrow, and family dysfunction. Below are specific recommendations for holiday self care for different holiday ailments.
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A Hidden Depression Among Young Professionals
There is another face of depression that is less recognized but is prevalent, especially among intelligent, young professionals. Persistent depressive disorder (PDD), formerly known as dysthymia, is a low-grade, persistent depression that has been present for at least two years in adults (or 1 year in youth below age 18.) People often refer to PDD as “high-functioning depression,” meaning that a person suffering from it can often hold a demanding job, engage in personal and intimate relationships, and even cover it up to the point that those around them would classify them as “happy” or “energetic.” The reality is that those experiencing PDD are often physically and emotionally exhausted, feel sad or hopeless frequently, tend to question themselves, are easily irritated, and are more likely to struggle with regular, healthy sleep and/or eating patterns.
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Busyness: The Socially Acceptable Drug
When we don’t intentionally integrate mindfulness practices into our lives to re-center and to cope with difficult emotions, it is actually easier to remain busy and to distract away from what is going on below the surface with us. I believe that one of the most common and incredibly damaging coping mechanisms of highly competent adults is to stay busy. To throw ourselves into more and more work, to consistently have to-do lists we are attending to, to join commitment after commitment, to feel unable to say “no” to requests, to need to be busy in order to feel worth something or to feel important.
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Five Tips For Keeping Your Teen Safe AND Promoting Independence
Earlier this week, I released an article on the importance of allowing your teen to grow up, supporting your teen’s independence and emerging adult self, and acknowledging how this process may bring up your own anxiety, loss, or difficult experiences as a teen. Now, I present you with five specific tips for both keeping your teen safe and promoting your teen’s independence. My hope for you is that this article will highlight helpful shifts you can implement in your parenting that will prioritize your teen’s safety while also giving them opportunities to build their trustworthiness and a healthy level of independence that will help your teen prepare for adulthood. Remember to seek connection with your teen in each and every conversation you have with your teen — yes, even limit-setting conversations.
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How Can I Talk to My Teen? Let Them Grow Up (And Be Excited For Their Emerging Adult Selves)
How can you encourage your teen’s growing independence as they near adulthood without being a nervous wreck about all of the safety issues in the world? I propose a balance of setting boundaries and controls where necessary that gradually decrease in intensity as the teen gets older, while also helping your teen develop and strengthen their problem-solving and discernment skills needed for independence, college, and adulthood.
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How can I talk to my teen? Be Imperfect.
Being imperfect is part of being human. What I am encouraging, however, is that parents embrace their imperfection, become aware of it, and own it, especially in front of their teenagers. Perfectionism keeps parents fixated on and stuck in their mistakes and often cripples the ability to problem-solve and make necessary changes. Read about how to promote problem-solving abilities, resiliency, and self-acceptance in your teenager.
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How Can I Talk to My Teen? Be Curious, Don’t Assume.
The teenage years are a wild ride for teens and parents alike. This is a time for teens to explore their identities, connect with peers in more meaningful ways, and identify what brings them passion and purpose in the world. Parents, you can have a valuable role in supporting this process. How? By creating space to connect with your teen and by asking them lots of open-ended questions about their interests and experiences. In this article, we will discuss one way to improve your communication and connection with your teenager.
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