As a therapist, I frequently talk with my clients about their quality of life. In fact, assisting them in increasing their quality of life is often one of our goals. As you might agree, quality of life is an especially important concern and, yes, challenge, for individuals and families who are living with a chronic […]
My take on procrastination is that it’s a way of having control in our lives. We don’t like to be told what to do. We don’t want to do things we don’t like to do. And so, we maintain control by deciding when we will get started on an undesired task. Unfortunately, as in Chad’s […]
We all have those days when we just aren’t feeling ourselves. If you are living with a chronic condition, it is only human nature to start to worry about your health. Am I coming down with something? Are my medications working? It is also human nature to worry about your mental health on a bad […]
Changes are coming! So… what’s your first reaction when you read those three words? Let me guess. Oh wow! Enthusiasm? You just can’t wait? Or oh wow! Again? More? Why? Followed by some fear, frustration, disappointment, and lots of anxious thoughts. Maybe all of the above? Humans are wired to keep things as they are, […]
Have you felt that need for closure eating away at you lately? Can’t quite let it go until it has all been sliced, diced, and lined up in a neat row? You’re in good company. However… while wanting closure is only human, it can also be detrimental to your emotional wellness. Digging in your heels […]
Mad? Sad? Glad? Scared? Ashamed? These are some of the words therapists use to help get their clients started on identifying their feelings. You might be using these words, among many others, to identify your own feelings. If so, good for you! However, you might also find yourself to be not so comfortable in talking […]
I often talk to clients who seem to approaching the holiday season with a sense of dread. Their focus is on avoidance. Not spending too much. Not eating too much. Not being too busy. And when I hear about their sense of dread, I just have to ask them where the joy is. So a […]
We live in very uncertain times. No one better understands how to live with uncertainty than someone who has been coping with a chronic condition. Living with all that uncertainty can pack an emotional wallop. Fear. Sadness. Disappointment. Anger. Over time, sitting with these feelings can lead to anxiety, constant worrying: What’s gonna happen to […]
My colleagues in the mental health professions have often lamented the lack of emergency mental health assistance available to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. We have had to rely on services available through 911 which, while able to respond to an emergency, are not trained mental health professionals and therefore not able to provide […]
We are hearing a lot about unconscious bias these days. Along with many examples of what unconscious bias looks like, how it affects the ways in which we communicate, how it harms those who are the victims of unconscious bias. We hear about it in the media, of course. We see examples of it in […]