01Jan

Healthy, Wealthy, Wise and More—The Practical Side

What do you think of when you think of the word “health?” Do you think about your physical or mental health? These are the first two that come to my mind. However, there are many types of health. Years ago, I spoke with someone who was studying what they called “different types of intelligence.” She […]

01Dec

Gratitude in Uncertainty—The Personal Side

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” This quote comes from Viktor Frankl who survived the Holocaust and wrote Man’s Search for Meaning. It is a good place to start when talking about gratitude.  

01Nov

Gratitude in Uncertainty—The Practical Side

Control is mostly an illusion. We can control some things—such as the clothes we pick out to put on each day, the food we take into our bodies and how we spend our time. And yet, there are so many things we cannot control. And most of these are big things.  

01Oct

AI in Counseling –The Personal Side

In the practical blog on this piece, we began unpacking the pros and cons of AI in the world of counseling. Here, I would like to continue that conversation. If you have not read the practical part of this blog on this topic, I encourage you to go back and do so. There are definite […]

01Sep

AI in Counseling – The Practical Side

*Content Warning:  This blog post contains a discussion of suicide.  Please take care while reading. If you are in crisis or need support, please dial 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.  It is hard to believe that what we know as AI actually began in 1950. And, the first chatbot was created in […]

01Aug

What To Do in the Waiting –The Personal Side

Looking back over my life, the list of what I have waited for is somewhat daunting. In my adult life alone, I have waited for: high school to finish, college to start, college to finish, grad school to start, grad school to finish, dating to begin, engagement to take place, marriage, children and home buying […]

01Jul

What To Do in the Waiting—The Practical Side

Waiting seasons are like challenging seasons. You are either in a waiting season, coming out of a waiting season or in the middle of one. The same can be said of challenging seasons—you are either in one, coming out of one or in between them. For today, we are going to focus on waiting seasons.

01May

Better Together: The Strength of Community—The Practical Side

I have an old therapy intervention I have used for years which I simply call, “the two buckets.”  When clients are feeling anxious about different things in their lives, I encourage them to imagine two buckets. One is labeled, “control” and the other is labeled “not control.” For more hands-on learners, I take a sheet […]

01Apr

Creating Boundaries to Make Peace—The Personal Side

In the first half of this blog, we talked about boundaries and how our experiences and personalities (including genetics) affect the way we see and set boundaries. We also talked about visualizing the boundaries you want in your life. For example, maybe you want to set the boundary with your boss that you will stay […]