You’ve sort of finished raising your kids. They are adults who still need you, yes, but since they’re on their own, they need you in a different way.
Read MoreWhat are Your Signs of Spring?
It’s been a long winter, literally and figuratively. With COVID and staying home, isolation and depression have been an awful stormy “season”.
Read MoreHow far do you want to go (grow)?
It's pretty hard, maybe even impossible, to go where you want to go right now. There are ways, though; there are ways.
Read MoreFeeling exhausted?
This time, right now, is one of the hardest in generations. It’s normal, you are normal, for feeling incredibly tired. As women during Covid, we are tasked with more and more of the heavy lifting.
Read MoreYour perfect anger
It’s alright to have anger. You don’t need to be happy all the time. You’re perfect, even when you’re angry.
Read MoreFind your inner Sassy Girl
Before life changed you, you had a sassy strength.
Read MoreAm I normal? 4 normal feelings for adults abused as children
As a child, your caregiver had the ultimate power over your life, death, and happiness. It wasn’t safe to play, make noise, or be noticed, and your emotional and physical safety, and maybe your life, depended on your brain’s ability to pick up on tiny cues that might signal upcoming harm to you. Now, you may be fearful of things others are not. This is normal, you are normal, and you are not alone.
Read More
Stomach in Knots?
If you get a tight stomach even thinking about attending seasonal family reunions, here are some tips to loosen the knots.
Arrive well rested and well fed
It’s harder to manage your emotions when you’re tired and hungry. Even though the gathering might center around food, don’t starve yourself thinking you can eat with everyone else. Eat something hearty and nutritious, like a cheese sandwich, a bean soup, or even veggie sticks dipped in hummus, before you leave your house.
Have a support person
Read MoreAlone for the holidays? Then this is for you
Whether this is your first holiday alone, or your twentieth, you will likely experience some uncomfortable feelings. Try one - or more - of these ideas to pass the time, survive and thrive, heal, or absorb some holiday joy.
Read More1,000,000: The number of suicide attempts in a year
In honor of Suicide Prevention Week 2017: Remember the old Reading Rainbow children’s book How Much is a Million? “If one million children climbed onto one another’s shoulders, they would be higher than airplanes fly.” That’s how many people attempt suicide in the United States each year.
Read MoreMad as Hell: 4 Ways to Sit With Anger
You know the feeling: a dull pressure in your head, pit in your stomach, narrowed vision, feeling white hot or icy cold. You might feel like you can’t sit still - your heart racing, and your jaw clenched. You want to yell, cry, or kick something.
Read MoreThe 10 most common questions I get asked about counseling
Is there something wrong with me? The short answer is no. There is likely nothing “wrong” with you.
How do I know if counseling will work? If you want to learn, change, or practice something about yourself, it will work.
How do I know if it’s working? A good therapist will work with you to set goals.
Read MoreSaying NO: 4 Steps to Telling Your Mother No
Like many women of a certain age, we’ve moved past being a rebellious daughter and into being a mother in our own families. We tell our children no when they ask for unreasonable or unhealthy things. We tell our partners no when they have unrealistic expectations. We even tell our best friends no when we need more time with our children and partners. Why, then, is it so difficult to say no to our mothers or fathers or other members in our family of origin?
Read MoreWhen feelings feel physical
Does my kid have anxiety? (And if so, what can I do?)
If you have a child who cries often, is easily frustrated or sullen or angry, has trouble falling asleep or getting up, refuses to engage, or is obstinate, they may have anxiety.
Read MoreFear of snakes in Issaquah - Or is it anxiety? Or is it panic?
Since the weather here in the Pacific Northwest is growing warmer and less rainy, my family and I spent parts of Memorial weekend doing yard work, mowing, weed whacking, moving potted trees and plants, and collecting rocks from the side yard that we can use to line the chicken coop fencing.
Read MoreHow to manage change (with less anxiety)
We are creatures of habit. We have our comfort zone established and even extroverts want that space to return to. So change is understandably hard for most of us, often causing stress or anxiety. I recently moved to a new city, both my family and my counseling practice. Along the way, I learned some things I want to remember, to help me with the next change. Maybe they’ll help you too.
Read MoreDepression: It's more than "just" sadness
Some people think depression and sadness are the same thing. Or depression and grief. Like you’re sad your kid made a bad choice at school and you wish he didn’t have to spend recess “on the wall.” Or you’re grieving because your aunt died, and she was your favorite, and you cry sometimes when you think about her. Those things are different from depression.
Depression is more about wanting to disappear, become tiny, curl up in a corner and stay that way forever. You can’t sleep but once you do you can’t get up. At all. And you feel like this pretty much all day every day.
Read MoreWhy am I so angry?!?!
Irritation, frustration, and anger are normal emotions - neither positive or negative. Anger is likely one of two things: a messenger or a symptom.
Read MoreGetting over getting stuck
Do you ever get working on a project or idea or maybe a complex set of tasks, and it’s so perfect for you that you whiz along, adding more, going off on side tangents to make it better, cleaner, more interesting, useful, or needed? The options are endless. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, you start to feel like you just need to hold your head in your hands and make it all go away?
You might have just sped into feeling stuck.
Read More