coping patterns

The Lifelong Commitment to Being An Ally

Start Where You Are: The Lifelong Commitment to Being An Ally

I will be the first to admit that I have had to do some hard work recently, and that until the past couple of weeks, I was not always actively thinking about or challenging my own privilege. While I considered myself a feminist and an ally, there was a lot that was happening in our country and that happened in our history, that I didn’t…
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Adapting Without Acclimating

Adapting Without Acclimating: Keeping Your Imagination Alive

I visited India in my early twenties. When I first got there, I didn’t think I would be able to handle it. I had never really traveled before, and I was used to daily hot showers and sleeping in my own bed every night. Backpacking, eating unfamiliar foods, traveling by rickshaw… it was all way out of my comfort zone. Yet after a week or…
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Getting Through (Another) Day in Social Isolation

What Do You Need? Getting Through (Another) Day in Social Isolation

How did you feel when you clicked on this article? Hopeful? Anxious? Overwhelmed? My email inbox and social media feeds have been full of tips on getting through quarantine and countless examples of folks making the most of their time at home. As I scroll through sourdough bread recipes and exercise routines, I find myself feeling both overwhelmed and angry. Then I remind myself that…
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Life in the Time of a Pandemic

Life in the Time of a Pandemic: How to Stay Sane while Keeping Safe

Until the past few days, I was feeling both very detached about the news continuing to overwhelm my inbox, and simultaneously feeling afraid. Over the past 48 hours, my response has began to change, as there seems to have been a national realization of the seriousness of the situation. Is it possible to at once avoid checking out or panicking? How can we meet this…
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To Touch and Be Touched: Physical Connection and Mental Health

When you think of troublemaking middle schoolers, you might picture them doing things like smoking or talking back to adults. When I was in the 6thgrade, while those things were happening too, we often got in trouble for– wait for it – excessive hugging. That’s right, our school administrators had to reprimand us for being late to class because we were busy giving each other…
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Preparing For Hard Conversations

When Your Emotions Are “Too Hot”: Preparing For Hard Conversations

Sometimes things come up in our relationships that we have to confront. This can be really heavy and scary, especially since most of us don’t enjoy conflict. Oftentimes, we either avoid it, perhaps indefinitely (like ghosting someone over text message) or, since we’re frightened of it, we try to get it over with as quickly as possible (like putting a wall up immediately, saying something…
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Celebrating Our Wins

Ending the Year with Confetti: Celebrating Our Wins

I like to plan things and solve problems. These are great for a resume, but sometimes these attributes are surprisingly unhelpful. For example: recently, our team at Take Root Therapy put together holiday care packages for homeless folks in our neighborhood. Though the process of gathering supplies for care packages should be relatively simple, it became complicated in my mind very quickly. I didn’t want…
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It’s Not All in Your Head: Why Positive Thinking May Not Always Be the Answer

Recently, I woke up thirsty in the middle of the night, and when I was getting out of bed to get water, I somehow caught my leg on the foot of the bed. I fell, and fell hard. My ankle and knee took the brunt of the fall. I consulted with a medical professional, and after confirming that the injury wasn’t too serious, I have…
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