family challenges

How Does Gaslighting Work?: Understanding Gaslighting and Learning to Trust Yourself Again

July 26, 2023

anxiety counseling, anxiety therapy, boundaries, culturally affirming therapy, depression, depression therapy, family challenges, poor self-esteem, relationship challenges, self-care, self-image, social support, trauma, trauma therapy

In my twenties, I was in an abusive relationship with a partner struggling with a substance use disorder. I didn’t know what was going on until I was way too deep into the relationship, and at the time, I didn’t know enough to get him (or myself) the support necessary. What I do know is that the relationship made me my worst self. My partner…

Where Can I Be Loved and Accepted?: The Importance of Chosen Family for LGBTQIA+ Individuals

June 30, 2023

anxiety counseling, anxiety therapy, culturally affirming therapy, depression, depression therapy, family challenges, gender identity, poor self-esteem, self-care, self-image, sexuality, social support

Note to reader: In this article, we will be utilizing the term queer to encompass the LGBTQIA+ community in its entirety, including gender-nonconforming, genderqueer, and nonbinary identities. During college, I often felt homesick. I would experience this longing to go home, and when I finally did, I was disappointed. What I longed for had never really existed, or at least not where I imagined it…

What is Intergenerational Trauma?: Understanding the Impacts of Intergenerational Trauma on Mental Health

May 28, 2022

anxiety counseling, communication challenges, coping patterns, culturally affirming therapy, family challenges, family dynamics, poor self-esteem, self-image, trauma, trauma therapy

A few weeks ago, my mother accompanied my children and me on an errand. We were in a familiar store, and my 6-year-old went up the escalator ahead of us and then walked off. My mother started to panic and stormed up the escalator, muttering that someone would take off with my daughter. At that moment, I, too, had felt unnerved but was trying to…

How Do I Manage My Anger?: Tips for Emotional Regulation in a Time of Collective Moral Outrage

April 22, 2022

communication challenges, coping patterns, family challenges, family dynamics, poor self-esteem, self-care, self-image, trauma

To say that these last few years have been difficult would be an understatement. In addition to living through the worst public health crisis this planet has seen for centuries, we’ve witnessed a global social justice movement aimed at combating various forms of systemic and institutionalized oppression that were further exposed by the pandemic, devastating humanitarian crises in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ukraine (just to…

two clear hands held out in front of a face that is blurry to communicate boundaries and saying no

How Do I Set Boundaries?: Learning to Care for Yourself by Advocating for Your Needs

March 18, 2022

anxiety counseling, boundaries, communication challenges, depression therapy, family challenges, family dynamics, poor self-esteem, relationship challenges, self-care, self-image

While the term boundary gets used often these days, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand what boundaries are necessarily, or what it takes to establish and reinforce them. My eldest started playing basketball this year, and while I’m typically not a huge sports fan, I was invested when it came to watching her play. One of the things that I quickly learned was when…

Why Does This Keep Happening to Me?: How Our Attachment Styles Can Impact Our Relationships

February 23, 2022

communication challenges, coping patterns, family challenges, family dynamics, poor self-esteem, relationship challenges, self-image, trauma

I’ll be honest, when I decided to pursue a career as a therapist, one of the motivating factors was the desire to better understand myself and my own relationship patterns. Yes, I wanted to offer others support and care, but I also wanted to learn how to better engage with others and finally figure out why I was drawn to the same type of dating…

Image of two individuals with trash bags picking up litter off of the beach. Both are dressed in warm clothing and are wearing gloves.

Is Doing Good Good for You?: The Effects of Philanthropy and Giving on Mental Health

December 16, 2021

anxiety counseling, anxiety therapy, depression, depression therapy, family challenges, family dynamics, self-care, social support, trauma

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?” — Martin Luther King, Jr. The end of the year can be a time of stress for many. Spending time with family, while joyful for some, can still carry its own challenges and complications. The holidays can be quite loaded, and planning for the holidays can bring up fears, sadness, and feelings…

Image of the shape of a person under the covers in bed. Superimposed on this image is a quasi-transparent image of a woman with her head back to depict layers of grief.

How Do I Know if This is Grief?: Understanding and Honoring Grief In All Shapes, Sizes, and Seasons

November 18, 2021

depression, depression therapy, family challenges, family dynamics, grief counseling, self-care, trauma

Over the past 20 months I have watched more TV and movies than I had in years. They offered me a way to cope, a distraction, and space to process. Unsurprisingly, the common theme in a lot of the shows and films I watched last year was grief. It just couldn’t be escaped. Animated films, TV shows… grief was everywhere. I suspect that’s because we…

What’s With All the Burnout?: Defining Burnout and What You Need to Recover

October 18, 2021

anxiety counseling, anxiety therapy, becoming parents, burnout, depression, depression therapy, family challenges, rest, self-care, work stress

Recently I keep seeing the word “burnout” in the headlines of articles and in stories on the radio. People are talking about work burnout, parenting burnout, even social burnout. It seems that one thing we can all agree on is that as a society, we are burnt out with a capital B. So what is burnout? Burnout occurs when a person has met their limit,…

You’re Worth it Too: Self-Care for Caregivers

March 31, 2019

anxiety counseling, depression therapy, family challenges, work stress

Self-care is exactly what it sounds like: caring for yourself. It sounds simple in theory, but in reality, sometimes caring for yourself is a very difficult endeavor. The people for whom practicing self-care may be most challenging may be caregivers. This could be individuals who have taken on a caregiving role (such as being a parent, being an adult child who is caring for an…

family challenges

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