After posting “From the Toys of Babes” last month, the words “You are your own Dolly Alanna!” have continued to echo in my mind. I was speaking about setting intentions for the New Year; specifically, cultivating values (i.e. honesty) and feeling states (i.e grateful) rather than chasing the sometimes grandiose and unrealistic goals we’re conditioned…
Christmas is my most favorite time of the year. I love everything about it: shopping, baking, gift wrapping, ornaments, Santa Claus, holiday movies, family sing-a-longs, and, mostly, the buzz of anticipation that starts as soon as Thanksgiving ends. There’s something about all of the spirit filled festivity that makes me feel lighter, brighter, and more…
The holidays are almost here! In between decking the halls, cozying up with the Hallmark Channel, and delighting in the tastes, sounds, and smells of all your favorite treats and traditions, you might be thinking about what you want to give everyone on your list. Maybe you’ve even thought about what you hope to get…
Every night I walk my puppy, Rocky, before he goes to sleep. For the most part our walks are uneventful save for the occasional run-in with someone else and their dog or Rocky’s discovery of what appears to be a cow patty, but is actually a dried mud pile in the shape of a pancake. …
My husband and I recently sold the house that he has lived in for 15 years and for the last few weeks we’ve been actively and exhaustively preparing it for moving day, which was Friday. This is our first move together and, like most changes, it brings stress, excitement, uncertainty, and mishaps (i.e. hot water…
Cheryl Strayed is one of my favorite writers/authors. What I love about her work is that it delivers hard truths in a direct, compassionate, sometimes humorous, and always wise way. Hers is a style that packs a punch without leaving a bruise; a style that, in my opinion, mirrors what good therapy is all about. …
I wish Chicken Little had been around last week to let my little corner of KY know that the sky was, in fact, falling! In what seemed like the blink of an eye, rain, hail, and wind engulfed the city, churning about everything in sight, plucking trees from their roots, and bringing traffic to a…
One of the issues I discuss most frequently with clients is perfectionism. In Brené Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection, she defines this pattern of thinking and behaving as “…a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the…
Many years ago I read “The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion. In it, she writes about her grief process in the year following the sudden loss of her husband, John. I remember being struck by her ability to capture such raw, intense emotion with unusually dry expression and tone. I also recall feeling…
Nothing makes me feel more anxious than being on an airplane that’s experiencing turbulence. As soon as the plane begins to bump and bounce, my entire body constricts. My shoulders rise and meet the bottoms of my ears, palms begin to sweat, and I freeze…as if my lack of movement will somehow lull the frenzied…