Blog
6 Tips For a GREAT School Year.
School is just around the corner. It doesn't have to be a hard transition. Here are 6 GREAT tips to help with the transition.
6 Things NOT to Say After a Death.
It's always hard to know what to say after a death, here are 6 things you should never say.
Do You Have High Functioning Anxiety?
You often set you feeling aside or compartmentalize your feelings and you do not where your heart on your sleeve. You are an in-charge type person and often you friends call your “stoic.” Inside however, that is simply not true, your feelings do get hurt but you push them away because you say to yourself “oh I’m just being a drama queen.”
What does it mean for me to be “diagnosed?”
Think of a diagnosis as a snapshot of who you are not a life sentence.
During the course of our lives, it is safe to say that any of us can be identified as having a mental health diagnosis at one point in our lives. The death of a loved one, job loss, relationship issues are all potential catalysts for concern and they technically may lead to a diagnosis. This doesn’t mean that we are meant to carry a diagnosis forever or that we cannot recover or live fully functional lives. A mental health diagnosis is identifiable and agreed upon a cluster of symptoms meant to describe a person’s experience at that moment in their life.
Should We Avoid…Hearing, Knowing, or Talking About Abuse?
I am sure we all know someone who has suffered or who have been exposed to acts of such barbaric magnitude, sexual assault. One thing is for sure it happens, has happened, and will likely happen again to some unsuspecting male or female in our cities, states, and country.
Marriages Like Fine Wines Take Time
Relationships are like fine wines; the taste and consistency will not happen overnight. However, the steadiness, texture, and palatable is borne out of care, understanding, patience, and desire. In my couples, therapy work…I find the “crystal ball” effect being quite prevalent, in fact, it’s so prevalent that when mentioned individuals appear bewildered.
The Real March Madness
As we all may know, March is known for St. Patrick’s Day, wearing green, the coming of Spring, and college basketball otherwise known as March Madness.
Although filling out your impeccable bracket is madness enough, there is even more madness that arises after March.
April is Alcohol awareness month
but what else does it lead to?
There is LOVE in the air.
Love is in the Air, but sadness can still be in our hearts. One advantage to living in Southern California is the perfect weather.
Celebrating Your Holidays Away From Home
Choosing to move to Southern California 15 years ago still, stirs up a variety of emotions during the Holidays for me. Even though it was very exciting to move from a cold, wet, dark country to sunny California, it was so strange and foreign (pun intended) to hear Christmas songs and seeing decorated trees in 80-degree weather. My first Christmas in Southern California was celebrated with friends at an outside barbecue gathering, which was total opposite from an inside dinner with close relatives around a fire in the fireplace.
It’s Been A Year Since the San Bernardino Regional Center Attack
And then. Shots fired. News channels exploded. Social media filled with scary images that seemed like they must be from some other place. Not from here. Not in San Bernardino. Not the Inland Regional Center, where kids with special needs go for services with their families.
Thanksgiving When You Don’t Feel Thankful
The holidays are a great way to reconnect with family, to have a Friendsgiving with those who aren’t family but probably should have been, to share old traditions, welcome new folks, watch a game (and argue about the game),
Grief Doesn’t Come in Stages
As a therapist, and especially a therapist who specializes in grief and loss, I find the concept of bereavement lasting more than eighteen months at the outside a bit hard to fathom.