The holidays may serve different purposes, dependent on your family, cultural, religious, or personal traditions. It can also be a difficult time for individuals who are entangled in the threads of loneliness and isolation during the holiday season. Given the pressure of safety in the last two years, these patterns may lead to long periods of depression and anxiety about leaving home, participating in family activities, or being around others in your life. I wanted to take an

"When you suffer a deep wound, and your skin begins to scar, the tissue that grows over becomes stronger. You build your own testament to the pain that you were able to overcome." November 9th, 2021, my sister called me at 8:40 am PST. She called to tell me that my dearest grandma had passed. She shared that, while she was falling in and out of sleep, she felt grandma's hand squeezing her leg next to the hospital bed. She shared a photo of grandma's hand, in hers. My grandma

Narcissism on its own is a "complex phenomenon," as noted in a 2015 research article (Cascio, Konrath & Falk, 2015). When you take a moment to ask yourself what you know about the term itself, there may be various things that pop up in your mind, including: someone who only cares about their own needs, someone that is very defensive or aggressive, someone manipulative or controlling, or someone who is abusive or demanding. In any case, each of these may appear in someone who

In the context of religion and the church, many people find peace with prayer, service, or spirituality. For others mental health though, this has also been a place of painful and traumatic experience and memories. When you have endured hurt, rather than healing in this context, how do you begin to work through processing the difficulties that come with such experiences? For some, religion has led to extensive trauma that brought about a diagnosis for PTSD. In this post, we'l

I want to take you and your partner on a journey through secure connection - get imaginative and let's see what resonates with you and your relationship. You wake up, you roll over closer to your partner and exclaim, "I'm so excited to go on this hike together today!" You pack up everything you need for your trip (a tent, sleeping bags, flashlight, first-aid kit, snacks, cooler, bug spray, etc.). Now, you must take the 3 hour long journey to your camp site, and it's the first

What if the dreams you've hoped to fulfill could motivate or innovate new ideas or pathways for change? Dedication plays an integral role in our ability to feel successful and accomplished. Aspirations involve a deep sense of hope we have to achieve something great in our lives - we are responsible for understanding the actions that are involved in growth. What if the dreams you've hoped to fulfill could motivate or innovate new ideas or pathways for change? We've heard the p

You've heard the saying, "when it rains, it pours." How do you continue to embrace changes and push past the ongoing rainfall as you move forward in your journey through life? I want to touch on three distinct factors that may just be the difference between expecting ongoing downpours and sheltering yourself in the storm. These factors play an integral role in self-growth -- when you're able to find the resources and guidance you're looking for, you're able to make space and

Are you facing personal difficulties after a breakup? Various factors can influence how we "jump the hurdles" after such a transition, but we want to address what might help. One of the difficult transitions we often face in life centers on overcoming relationship loss. Emotionally, this can create a dramatic shift in the way we view ourselves or how we place relationships as a priority in our lives. Generally speaking, studies from various researchers have conveyed the messa

Here, I want to share with you a few different benefits that can be cultivated if you choose to work through issues early on in your relationship with your partner. We've seen the Hollywood romance genre and how it conveys "love at first sight" and "soulmate" connection. When we watch films like The Notebook or Forrest Gump, we see how different relationships pan out when two lovers find each other in times of great distress or shortcomings. When we look at recent findings, m

We didn’t all have the shared experience of a secure attachment in our childhoods, or for a long enough period to build a safe haven with someone else. Sometimes we learned to feel guilty about expressing our struggles to anyone. Thinking for a moment about current or prior attachments, has there been a point in time where you’ve told yourself, “I don’t want to put more on their plate.” Oftentimes, this becomes a repetitive pattern for individuals in their relationships. Whet

For standing ground, embracing one another through each of our own experiences, we still have to embrace our own fears as well. It’s June 2021, and we have made it through a very tough last year. It has truly impacted everyone on various levels, and I watched that Brené Brown did an interview on the Kelly Clarkson show during the midst of this global crisis. She was pointing to how, as human beings, we are not meant to withstand this level of “social” distancing when it comes

Just as attachment theory was cultivated from studies around infant and parent attachment bonds, we have the sole responsibility of cultivating a safe haven for our clients. Starting