Self-compassion means being gentle and understanding with yourself.  You are not perfect, in fact, no one is! Mistakes are opportunities for growth and improvement. It may be hard, but try not to get angry with yourself when life falls short of your set expectations.  

Mealtimes don’t have to be such a struggle, if parents can put healthy habits in place around eating. The Parents Active in Their Children’s Health (PATCH) Program provides helpful tips for healthier mealtimes by using the acronyms PREP and PARED shared below. 

This year has been a challenging and terrifying ride for most humans. Yet, here we are. The holidays look very different this year

Real talk- avoidance just feels easier sometimes. Avoidance can show up in so many different ways in our lives and we may not even realize it. To first understand why avoiding avoidance is important, we have to first wrap our head around the anxiety cycle. So lets’ take a look.   

After a vast review of research and literature by relationship experts, psychotherapist Jessica Fern, author of Polysecure, indicates 5 ways you can cultivate a secure attachment with your partner.

Incorporating your five senses can be a great way to relax, control anxiety and find the self-care practices that work for you. Without even knowing it, our senses can affect our emotions. Some of the following techniques can be used for grounding during a moment of escalation or heightened anxiety. Others are long-term practices of self-care and relaxation.  

Have you ever felt disappointed or given up on a goal because you thought you were “falling off track” or not progressing as you would have liked to? We often get discouraged when we do not see a linear progress in our goals, but realistically we will often face setbacks and growth will not happen overnight.

When grief, sadness, anger, and anxiety roll in, it’s only natural to be overwhelmed, feel threatened, or let it consume us. We’re only human, after all, and our internal weather is wild with feelings that sometimes land without warning. It’s helpful to recognize a storm of emotions as perfectly normal, even holy. It arrives to say, “you have a heart.”

Steps to boosting your resilience and feeling like your mental health are manageable this season.

One of the simplest, yet most powerful tools a parent can use to influence their child’s behavior is praise. Praising your child is one of the many valuable skills that are taught, reinforced, and coached during Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). Praising or complimenting your child’s behavior has many benefits for both the parent and the child.

The year 2020 has brought us a worldwide pandemic, physical isolation, a contentious election, and an overall sense of uncertainty. So, this holiday season, as we balance COVID-19 safety, and political landmines with family, it's essential we talk about the anxiety, depression, and apathy we may be feeling this year as well. 

Have you ever thought about going to therapy and worried about “what if it’s not a good fit” or “what if I want to stop therapy, how would I tell them that?” Then you’re not alone. This is a common barrier to people starting therapy altogether or ending it in a therapeutic way. 

Have you ever experienced a situation that left you feeling helplessness, fearful, threatened or overwhelmed? You may attribute these feelings to “normal” stress, but you may actually be experiencing traumatic stress. Traumatic stress results from two types of traumatic experiences, a genuine personal crisis or a crisis ridden experience.  

The past year has been challenging, to say the least. We're all adjusting to constant changes and doing our best to navigate these uncertain times. Recently I’ve had several clients reach out to me and ask if I know of any organizations in the area that provide free or discounted services for health care, behavioral health, psychiatry, or medication management. 

Everyone who comes into the therapy room has standards, a moral compass that guides their individual and family lives. Those compasses differ but they are every person’s reality.