Are you often overwhelmed by anxious thoughts and emotions in your relationship? Do you yearn for deeper closeness but struggle with worries and doubts? Therapy can guide you in understanding and addressing these feelings, creating emotional safety and accessibility within relationships, and provide a secure base for both partners.
Read MoreThe journey to LGBTQ+ family building can evoke a whirlwind of emotions. As your therapist, I am here to offer you coping strategies, and a safe space to explore the depths of your emotional experiences. I can help you navigate the complexities and cultivate resilience in this process. I also assist clients in connecting with LGBTQ+-friendly healthcare providers, support organizations, and community networks, fostering a strong support system.
Read MoreGender-affirming therapy is a therapeutic stance that focuses on affirming a patient's gender identity, without trying to "repair" it. By addressing the mental, emotional, social, and physical needs of individuals navigating their gender identity and experiencing gender dysphoria, this therapy provides a safe space for self-exploration, processing experiences, and accessing essential support systems. Through collaboration with social supports, legal services, and healthcare providers, gender-affirming therapy creates a comprehensive care plan tailored to each individual's unique journey.
Read MoreThere is so much heightened anxiety and stress right now in these difficult times. In response, many of us are searching for tools to help us get more grounded. Enter Pema Chödrön: Tibetan Buddhist nun and renowned author of several best-selling books including “When Things Fall Apart,” “Comfortable with Uncertainty,” and “The Places That Scare You.” The titles alone are apt for the collective moment we are facing.
Pema’s quintessential teaching is that we must turn directly towards our pain, to sit in the middle of the fire and breathe it in.
Read MoreThere are endless tips and advice on how to best care for ourselves, especially in these times. Your IG feed and inbox is probably flooded with suggestions, and it might feel overwhelming. Rather than beating yourself up about what you think you “should be doing,” you can pay attention to your nervous system, and ask what would be most nourishing right now?
Deb Dana, Polyvagal expert and therapist, talks about the need for choice and flexibility in our daily routines. We honor our embodied wisdom by listening to and learning what works best for our unique system in any given moment.
As we face these times of change and uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 spread, it is more important than ever to draw on our inner and outer resources.
While we are "sheltering in place," we have an opportunity to slow down and strengthen our tools, connections and regulating resources, and perhaps even establish better coping skills than we had before!
Read MoreAddiction is like desperately trying to stuff the deep hole in our soul with thing after thing but never quite feeling satiated. We seek that thing outside ourselves that can fill this hole, but are left hungering for more & more. We can get so trapped in the spell of this chase that we barely recognize what it is that we are truly wanting.
Read MoreThis “Soften, Soothe, Allow” practice is one of my favorite meditations from Kristin Neff and Chris Germer’s Mindful Self-Compassion program. It’s designed to help us work with difficult emotions by offering ourselves physical compassion (softening), emotional compassion (soothing), and mental compassion (allowing). While turning towards our difficult feelings can make them more intense at first, it also helps them pass through us with more ease. However, it’s important to remember to take a break whenever the feelings are too intense and you don’t have to face all your feelings all of the time!
Read MoreThis practice comes from Ann Weiser Cornell, an expert on the psychotherapeutic Focusing technique. This mindfulness and somatic awareness exercise can help you get a handle on overwhelming emotions, calm your nervous system and gain a clearer perspective.
Our greatest longing is to feel alive. Meaninglessness, depression, and many other symptoms are reflections of our disconnection from our core vitality. When we feel alive, we feel connected, and when we feel connected, we feel alive.
Read MoreFor many folks coming to therapy, there can be a tendency to hyper-focus on what they are NOT doing well or on what is NOT working in their lives. This makes sense, as our brain’s “negativity bias” makes us more sensitive to unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and events. Psychologist Rick Hanson explains that “the brain is like Teflon for the positive and Velcro for the negative.” Our ancestors’ brains developed this adaptation in order to avoid danger and survive; however, it no longer serves us in the same way.
Read More“Being able to feel safe with other people defines mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”—Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
There is nothing more important to mental health than having safe connections with others; to feel truly seen and heard, and to sense that we belong. This visceral feeling of safety is a powerful buffer against stress, discrimination & trauma.
Read MoreWe need others. Whether we like it or not, we are designed to depend on others to feel safe, supported and understood in the world. So why do we place such high value on independence?
Read MoreLinda Graham, author of “Resilience,” claims this exercise can even calm a panic attack in less than a minute, but you can also use it anytime you’re feeling emotionally distressed.
Read MoreI’ve been diving deep into Sarah Peyton’s book, “Your Resonant Self,” which has quickly risen to my “Top Therapy Books” list. In this work, Sarah seamlessly integrates interpersonal neurobiology, attachment research, trauma
Read MoreLike a wounded soldier in everyday clothes,
you march in
looking like you’ve escaped a war zone.
You will screw up in your relationship; you’ll make mistakes, do or say the wrong thing, and hurt your partner’s feelings. It’s impossible to be perfectly attuned and connected ALL the time. In fact, studies suggest just the opposite.
Read MoreFor many, the arrival of spring marks the season of hope, love and renewal. The air is sweeter, the days are longer and the nights are warmer. The shifting seasons are reminders that everything is constantly changing, And so are you.
Read MoreA guiding principle of my work is that the body holds vital information that we cannot access through our thoughts alone. Many of our most painful memories, emotions, and traumas are held in the body, and became stuck there when we were unable to process them at the time they occurred.
Read MoreWe all fundamentally need to feel loved, cared for and worthy of belonging. And at times, we have all struggled with feeling worthless, empty, rejected, insecure and lonely. The solution we were taught to get rid of all these icky-painful-empty feelings was to find our one true love.
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