Blog
Dancing Towards Mental Health: A commentary on effective self-care
It was a Sunday evening on a hot autumn day. Filled with my own apprehension, I climbed the steps painted with celestial planet symbols to an open, wooden floored room festooned with twinkle lights and roses. Little did I know at the time that I was about...
You are More than a Diagnosis
As a few of you know, I have had the privilege to work with quite a few agencies over my career thus far giving me some wonderful experience and training that I otherwise would never have gotten. As a result, I’ve noticed that certain agencies have a...
Everybody wants it, nobody is willing to pay for it
I frequently encounter a lot of people who don’t understand why I chose to be a private pay therapist which means that I don’t accept insurance payments. Why. Would. I. EVER. Do. That? Don’t I pay a lot for my health insurance?? Now I can’t use it when I...
Trump did what?!
Regardless of your opinions or political beliefs, it is unfortunate whenever a country feels a need to investigate its main political leader and representative. I am not writing this post to discuss what side I’m on or to condemn or condone our president’s...
A Counselor’s Thoughts on the Recent Chemical Attacks on Syria
With the recent, likely chemical attacks on the people of Syria in Douma by President Bashar al-Assad, I can’t help but wonder how I should respond to crises like this. Originally, I wondered if there was something clever to say that would somehow...
The Magicians and Feminism
I absolutely identify as a feminist. But before you run screaming for the hills, let me explain what I mean by that. I believe that feminism means equality for all peoples regardless of sex or gender or even race. It doesn’t mean that I hate having the...
Celebrating the Little Things
I was privileged to witness a rather amazing group therapy session the other night. All the members were willing to be vulnerable with one another and myself and it was a beautiful night of risk taking and emotional sharing resulting in validation, safety,...
Dealing with Loneliness
I’ve been getting a lot of requests to write about loneliness and it comes up a lot during sessions as well. To me, this means that this is a very rampant problem in our society and needs to be discussed. To start, a certain amount of loneliness is a...
The Importance of “I feel” Statements
If you’ve ever been to counseling before, perhaps you’ve encountered your therapist nagging you to speak in terms of “I feel” versus “you make me feel.” Hopefully you were provided an explanation as to the importance of this. But if you weren’t, I am happy...
Mission Statement and Calling
Having a wealth of ideas to talk about today, I decided to discuss an issue that is extremely close to my heart: existentialism and existential thought. When I was going through my own mental health journey, I ended up reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search...