Practicing Kindness and Finding Delight As I opened my laptop to write today, I passed by headlines about wildfires and floods related to climate change, increasing COVID-19 numbers, economic instability, political scandals, and the fear and anger experienced and expressed by leaders and followers in our almost unthinkably polarized society. And in my clinical practice, … Read more
You Don’t Have to be an Olympian to Prioritize Your Mental Health When my daughters were younger, I was working on finishing my post-doctoral requirements for licensure, and my husband was working full-time and going to school to get an MBA. When it was nice weather, I would go sit on my porch for 10 … Read more
The Bad Reputation of “Average” With the Olympics fast approaching, I am eagerly anticipating sitting on my couch watching non-stop television for three weeks. In addition to the pomp and circumstance of it all, I have always loved watching the incredible athleticism and am completely awestruck by what the human body can achieve. There is … Read more
Preventing Meltdowns in Children During the Summer Break Research studies have documented that schedules and routines influence children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Furthermore, these two key environmental conditions can significantly reduce and even prevent meltdowns. So, what is a meltdown? I encourage parents to consider that a meltdown can be an “involuntary reaction to … Read more
Helping Children Manage Re-Entry Anxiety For many of us, it feels like the warm days of summer are also ushering in a chance to return to a long-awaited sense of normalcy as vaccination rates increase and the world is re-opening. However, as with all major life changes, it is also completely normal to feel mixed … Read more
Shhhhhh! Ways to Quiet Our Anxiety I recently gave a talk for Mental Health Awareness month and one of the talking points that attracted the most interest was about different kinds of self-talk we can use to calm our worries. Anxiety is an incredibly common emotion, particularly in our world right now. Many of us … Read more
Guidelines for Prevention of Mental Health Difficulties A good first line intervention for maintaining a healthy emotional balance in your life is to consistently engage in behaviors known to promote stability and prevent struggles. The following behavioral interventions are a good place to start addressing mental health from a stance of prevention (and/or maintenance): 1) … Read more
Finding Happiness in Challenging Times What is Happiness? While it may seem the answer is intuitive, there are various definitions for this term and researchers in positive psychology have identified a few central components and themes: Having positive emotions about your past, present, future Having a positive connection to the people in your life and … Read more
Finding Motivation When You’re Depressed One of the most challenging aspects of depression is the profound impact mood has on motivation. Depression often makes tackling even the simplest of tasks seem insurmountable. It can make it tough to go to work or school, keep the house clean, take care of basic hygiene, and even simply … Read more
Reflections at the Start of (Still in Pandemic) Springtime As I write this, the beginning of Spring is evident all around us – the days are longer and brighter, the birds are singing, trees and flowers are blooming, and more and more people are enjoying the outdoors. Cultures around the world are celebrating – Easter, … Read more
