Be a Garden Well Tended
Springtime is around the corner. I have noticed more trees flowering, grass growing taller, and many in my social network are getting their flower beds ready for new growth this year. When I look at my own yard, I see dandelions, an unpruned hedge, weeds in an unkempt flower bed, and splotchy brown spots in the grass. I couldn’t help but make this analogy: We are all living a life where the garden is either well tended or an unkempt and overgrown lot. I could write many excuses as to why I haven’t put on the gardening gloves or picked up the rake/tiller, but I think all those excuses would lead to one simple conclusion, it seems like too much…WORK.
Read More
New Year’s Restoration
While many are familiar with New Year’s resolutions, my life experience knows them as the light and fluffy uncommittable goals that I say once and never follow through. I know that for some, maybe many of you, the pandemic was just last year right??? Nope, it will be four years ago this year, and it still feels like my brain and body are in recovery from the trauma. Each of us has life stressors, traumas, and insurmountable obstacles that either come and go or compound as time progresses.
For this blog post, I would like to shift attention away from the problem itself and possible solutions and redirect it inward. I ask you to reflect on the questions below and what they mean to you.
Read More
Lots of Grinches in Your Life This Holiday Season?
With the holiday season quickly approaching, I wanted to post some quick reminders about how to prepare yourself for the plethora of gatherings over the next few weeks. Whether at home, school, work, or in other communities, I am sure everyone can identify at least one person that stifles your joy.
Read More
Getting into The Feels: Just Let it Go!
I am sure some of you just now screamed, “But I can’t!” That is a highly common reaction to the feedback, “Just let it go already!” One of the central understandings about emotional experiences is that no two people will be alike in how they react to the world around them. For one person, getting cut off on the highway is no big deal, yet for the other, they are blaring their car horn and screaming profanities. The same is true for any of us who experience…
Read More
Getting Into the Feels: #Triggered
Trigger Alert! Trigger Alert! Trigger Ahead!
Welcome again to the Blog series on Getting into the Feels. Today, I am going to focus on triggers and hopefully bring more clarity as to why you might be noticing more trigger warnings on social media and through other media outlets.
Read More
Getting Into the Feels: How Can EMDR Help?
What is this therapy I keep hearing about...EM–something???
Acronyms never fail to confuse haha! Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidenced based modality of therapy developed by Francine Shapiro, PhD in 1987.
EMDR works on a psychological and neurological level by providing adequate resources for persons to process stressful life events and emotional experiences without the requirement of dictating every detail or aspect.
Read More
Getting Into the Feels: Embracing vs. Numbing
You’ve made it to another blog post on emotions! Give yourself a woot-woot and a high five because diving into feelings is no easy task! This post will be exploring polar opposite approaches to emotions, and my hope is that by the end of the post, you will increase insight about your willingness to approach or avoid emotions.
Read More
Getting Into the Feels: Is it Shame or Is it Guilt?!
Welcome back! Give yourself a pat on the back for continuing to lean into curiosity and vulnerability and taking a deeper dive into feelings. This post is going to help you discern whether an emotional experience is shame or guilt.
Quite often, many people use these terms interchangeably. In reality, these emotional experiences refer to two distinct emotional states. When we experience guilt,…
Read More
Getting into "The Feels": An Introduction
Feelings for many of us are messy, annoying, and/or overwhelming.
Throughout this blog series, I will be sharing my clinical perspective about why we have feelings and emotions, their purpose, and specific tools we can use to work through these experiences.
Read More
May is Mental Health Awareness Month
True North Counseling and Development wants to help you celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month.
Why celebrate?
Because good mental health provides a foundation for living lives with the following characteristics:
Read More
