Do you often experience shifts within yourself?

You have awareness of your triggers, your childhood history, and your attachment style. You can recognize what is happening at the time and describe why it is happening. Your body is still physically tense, your chest may be feeling tight, and your nervous system has seemingly missed all the above.

Without a doubt, I loved my coaching career. Coaches do not know everything, but athletes often believe we do. Over time, though, coaching teaches you a great deal about competing, pressure, failure, resilience, and human behavior. In this piece, I am sharing what I have observed as both a former coach and an athletics-informed psychotherapist.

One of the joys of working with children is seeing how they lead with curiosity. Children have the wonderful position of finding most people/places/things new and exciting. However, that curiosity can sometimes turn into a headache for parents when that energy goes towards a behavior that is not appropriate. In my experience as a play therapist, I understand that children need room to explore things but limits are needed in that exploration.

We hear more often now about postpartum depression, but what about postpartum anxiety. I once heard someone say that it wasn’t anxiety it was just new mom worries. Doesn’t every mom worry about their child?! But what if it is beyond the “normal worries” what even defines that. The Postpartum Support International organization lists the following symptoms for postpartum anxiety- “Constant worry, feeling that something bad is going to happen, racing thoughts, disturbances of sleep and appetite, inability to sit still and physical symptoms like dizziness, hot flashes, and nausea” (2023). If you have a history of anxiety, you have an increased risk of developing postpartum anxiety. About 10% of women will develop postpartum anxiety.

Welcome back! If you didn’t join us for the first blog in this 3-part series, go read it now! (Or, you know, don’t—I’m not the boss of you.) As we saw last time, attraction is a surprisingly complex thing and informs our relationships in countless ways. I promised that this time, we’d take a look at some of the groups and orientations in our alphabet soup. Today, we’ll hit on L, G, B, Q, and A (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and asexual), among others, introducing terms and concepts I bet you’ve never heard of or considered. It’s a lot, I know, but from speaking with other people, a lot of this stuff was new information and gave them a lot to think about. I hope it does the same for you.

Welcome to the first blog of a unique 3-part series on LGBTQIA+ people: who exactly they are, how they experience themselves, and how they interact with the world. Maybe you’re a friend, parent, or ally of a queer person, or maybe you’re just curious to learn more than the basics.

Today, we’ll take a quick dive into what makes people gravitate toward one another, romantically or otherwise. Why do I say “LGBTQIA+” you ask? Seems long. Good question! People often talk about the “LGBTQ community,” but lesbians, bi men, trans women, demisexual people, and those with Klinefelter syndrome, let’s say, have wildly different experiences and challenges—which is why I personally prefer “communities” over “community,” FWIW. The added letters just stand for a couple of significant groups that don’t always get a seat at the table. We’ll meet them later. (These are just the terms I like to use. Continue to use whatever you’re used to or comfortable with!)

Do you ever walk away from conversations with your partner and feel completely misunderstood? Like no matter what you say, you cannot make them hear you?

Maybe this happens in all your conversations, whether you are discussing chores, plans, schedules, insecurities, hurt, or needs. You do not know whether to fight harder or to shut down and give up. You both end up feeling hurt, disconnected, or emotionally exhausted.

Boundaries are an interesting concept. They are invisible, subject to change, and are present in practically all of our friendships, relationships, and other social connections. But what exactly are boundaries, and why do they change as we move through life?

Self-care is a term that we all know and love. But what is self-care really? Despite how often the term is mentioned on social media or in wellness articles, self-care is one of the most misunderstood concepts in mental health. When some hear the term, lavish spa days, vacations, or elaborate routines are quick to come to mind, while others may associate the term with being just another item to add to an already long list of to-dos.

Physical touch with a partner is one of the simplest ways to remind your nervous system: “You’re safe. You’re not alone.” These are not grand romantic gestures. They are just small, steady moments of reaching for one another.

To be clear, I’m not talking about big romantic movie moments here. This isn’t The Notebook or When Harry Met Sally. I mean the small, everyday ways we reach toward each other in passing.

When we talk about performance—whether in sports, music, theater, public speaking, or competitive events—we tend to focus first on the physical side: skills, strength, conditioning, repetition, rehearsal. We measure effort by how many hours were spent training and how much sweat was poured into preparation.

Hello, beautiful humans…

Something’s been on my mind lately — a quiet ache I think many of us are feeling. In a world lit by screens, we are constantly connected yet profoundly alone. Faces glow under artificial light, fingers scroll, voices ping, but our nervous systems feel a quiet emptiness. We are surrounded by information, advice, and digital “community,” yet our limbic systems — the emotional centers of our brains — hunger for something far more ancient: true human presence. Feel familiar? This is limbic resonance — the subtle attunement of one nervous system to another, the wordless synchrony that reminds us we are not alone.

The Anger Iceberg is a therapeutic technique used in mental health counseling to explore and understand the underlying emotions beneath anger. It is based on the idea that anger is often a surface-level emotion that masks deeper, more complex feelings. The iceberg metaphor suggests that just as only a small portion of an iceberg is visible above the waterline, anger is just the tip of the emotional iceberg.

Being a teen is tough stuff. I mean can you remember back to when you were in middle/high school? All of the stress of keeping up with grades, latest trends, parent demands, extracurricular activities, and as if that wasn’t enough, all of the drama! The drama between couples, friends, and home was at times just too much to bear.

Mood tracking is a component of a holistic approach to health. It allows you to consider the interconnectedness of factors such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, and social interactions that influence your mental well-being. There are various methods for mood tracking, ranging from traditional journaling to smartphone apps designed for this purpose. Choose a method that fits your preferences and lifestyle. Remember that while mood tracking can be a valuable tool, it is not a substitute for professional mental health care. If you're experiencing persistent or severe mood changes, it's important to consult with a mental health professional for personalized support and guidance.