When I counsel clients about friendship, I ask them to imagine a swimming pool filled with large steps–maybe 4-5 levels total—descending into the water. I tell them that some friends we hang out with on the first step in the pool and others we swim with in the deepest part.

Not everything about getting older is bad. In fact, some things get better with age, especially if we work on them. I am going to be incredibly transparent and say that in the past I was not good at treating myself or self-care, as described in the first part of this blog.

In Season 4, episode 4 of Parks and Recreation, Donna (Retta) and Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) created the tradition of “Treat Yo Self” day. In this episode, they can be seen buying themselves whatever they want for a day. After the airing of that episode in 2011 the phrase “treat yo self” gained popularity. In […]

I would love to tell you that as a mental health therapist I have always practiced great self-care and never felt overly stressed or burned out. However, that is not the case. I have experienced seasons of stress and burnout and have had to walk through them and find support just like I am encouraging […]

Stress, busyness and commitments of all sorts (those involving work or play) have become badges of honor in our society. Rarely are people praised for carving out time for rest or putting boundaries around what they will and will not commit to.

As a therapist, what is more concerning to me than burnout itself is that it has been normalized. Along with realizing that a lot of the people I talk with think that burnout is “normal,” neurodivergent clients experience burnout at a more intense and frequent rate than others. My 20-something neurodivergent friend recently told me […]

If “burnout” was not something you heard about prior to the pandemic, 2020 sealed the deal in ensuring we all knew what burnout looked and felt like. I can still remember images of nurses and doctors with deep indents on their faces from wearing masks for endless hours while trying to save those battling COVID. […]

Last month we began exploring the treatment modality of Internal Family Systems (IFS). As stated last month, IFS is an approach to therapy that aims to help the individual become aware of their inner voices to begin the path to healing and wholeness. IFS recognizes that each person has a true Self, but that the […]

Internal Family Systems (IFS) was created by psychologist Richard Schwartz.  Schwartz worked as a family therapist and noticed that people described their thoughts and feelings as different parts. Furthermore, he discovered that people’s parts often did not get along or were in conflict with one another. As a result, Schwartz began to develop a system […]

Last month we started unpacking what the term “neurodivergent” means. The word neurodivergent was coined in 1998 by a sociologist named Judy Singer who wanted to point out that each person’s brain is uniquely developed.