Self-Care on Family Trips: Therapist Tips for Reducing Stress and Staying Present
We are quickly approaching the time of year where people take time off to go on vacation. For some that means solo trips, for others that means a trip with friends, and for many people that means family vacation. While family vacation can be fun, it is important to know how to incorporate self-care into your family vacation to help your overall mental health. Some people may need more or less of this time and dedicated self-care activities, depending on their family dynamic.
How ADHD Shows Up in Adults: Common Symptoms and Practical Coping Strategies
Understanding ADHD symptoms in daily life and simple strategies to improve focus, organization, and productivity.
Over 11 million American adults struggle with ADHD. You may understand the difficulty of avoiding distractions, staying organized, and coping with overactivity and focus challenges. The lack of mental focus and increased restlessness can make achieving mundane, everyday tasks incredibly difficult. So how can you increase your productivity and your personal satisfaction with your ability to manage your tasks?
Can You Have Seasonal Depression in the Summer? Understanding Spring and Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder
The term SAD is an acronym for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
SAD is a condition where a person experiences depression that coincides with seasonal changes, most commonly during the shift from fall into winter. As we dive deeper into March, we approach the spring season, which for some means that they are nearing the end of their experience of SAD. For others, this actually could mean the beginning of SAD. While SAD is most common in the fall and winter, some people may experience SAD in the spring and summer as well. With that, some of the commonly seen symptoms between these two presentations are slightly different.
How to Bring Up Self-Harm in Therapy: A Compassionate Guide to Talking About Non-Suicidal Self-Injury
If you’re searching for help with self-harm or non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), you are not alone. Many people struggle with urges to hurt themselves as a way to cope with overwhelming emotions, trauma, anxiety, shame, or numbness. And one of the hardest steps can be figuring out how to bring it up in therapy.
As a trauma therapist, I want you to hear this clearly: you are not “too much,” “too broken,” or “attention-seeking.”Self-harm is often a coping strategy developed during times of deep distress. It deserves understanding and care, not judgment.
This guide will help you understand what self-harm is, why it happens, and how to talk about it with your therapist in a way that feels manageable and safe.
Saturday Spotlight: Cassie Thomas, LPC, EMDR Certified Therapist
Join us every Saturday in February as we spotlight the wonderful providers on our team. Today we are featuring Cassie Thomas, LPC, EMDR Certified Therapist. Waitlist Only.
Eating Disorder Awareness: How to Recognize Disordered Eating and Get Support
An eating disorder occurs when an individual has difficulties due to distorted beliefs around food, body image, and weight. This leads to unhealthy behaviors around things like food and weight. There are multiple different types of eating disorders and these conditions do not look the same from person to person. These conditions can often go misdiagnosed due to many eating patterns being misunderstood, hidden or disguised.
Saturday Spotlight: Alison Shimoda, LPC
Join us every Saturday in February as we spotlight the wonderful providers on our team. Today we are featuring Alison Shimoda, LPC. Now accepting new clients!
Healing Happens in Connection: How Community Supports Mental Health
Social connection and community engagement is vital to our mental and physical well-being.
In a digital and isolated age of social media and constant “hustling”, we often push this to the side or forget about it altogether. Being with friends, family, and community fosters feelings of belonging, value, and love in our lives. The emotional and physical support that comes alongside meaningful social connections helps us lead happier, healthier lives.
Saturday Spotlight: Anna Grace Boyd, Clinical Intern
Join us every Saturday in February as we spotlight the wonderful providers on our team. Featuring Anna Grace Boyd, Clinical Intern. Now accepting new clients at a reduced rate!
Attachment Styles Explained: How Trauma Shapes Relationships and How to Heal
Attachment style refers to the type of bonds we were taught to form with key people in our lives. It starts when we are children, with our primary caregivers, and often shows up later in life in our adult relationships.
Saturday Spotlight: Lacey Fivecoat, LCSW
Join us every Saturday in February as we spotlight the wonderful providers on our team. Up first - Lacey Fivecoat, LCSW. Now accepting new clients!
How Therapy Can Help with Low Self-Esteem
Low self-esteem is far more common than people may realize. It often shows up quietly, whether through persistent self-doubt, harsh inner criticism, people-pleasing, difficulty setting boundaries, or a deep sense of “never being enough.” For many, these beliefs didn’t appear overnight. They were shaped over time through relationships, life experiences, cultural messages, and moments when support or validation was missing.
Building a Balanced Life: When Your Surroundings Support Your Healing
Environmental wellness encompasses both the natural world around us and the spaces we inhabit at home and work. It invites us to thoughtfully examine our environments, recognizing not only their benefits but also their drawbacks. Consider how your interactions with these spaces influence your overall well-being.
Building a Balanced Life: Honoring Creativity and Curiosity through Intellectual Wellness
When we think about wellness, we often focus on emotional, physical, or social health. Yet intellectual wellness (one of SAMHSA’s 8 dimensions of wellness) plays a vital and often overlooked role in healing, especially for individuals with trauma histories. Intellectual wellness is not about academic achievement or productivity. Rather, it is about nurturing curiosity, recognizing creative abilities, and expanding knowledge in ways that feel safe, meaningful, and empowering.
Building a Balanced Life: The Interconnected Nature of Physical Wellness
Holistic wellness. It isn’t just a buzzword in our society that you may have heard. Understanding and attending to your whole person - body, mind, and spirit - is vital to your overall wellbeing. Your body, mind, and spirit operate through an interconnectedness that we often do not consider when we go through the motions of daily life. Physical activity, nutrition, and sleep are all impactful on mental and emotional health. You are not isolated parts; you are one, whole, and beautiful system.
Building a Balanced Life: Occupational Wellness in an Imperfect System
Within SAMHSA’s 8 Dimensions of Wellness, occupational wellness is defined as personal enrichment and satisfaction derived from work. Importantly, this dimension does not exist in isolation. Our experience of work is deeply intertwined with other dimensions such as emotional, financial, social, and physical wellness. Occupational wellness is not about romanticizing labor. It is about understanding how work supports or strains our overall well-being.
Building a Balanced Life: Expanding Purpose & Meaning through Spiritual Wellness
Spiritual wellness is one of SAMSHA’s 8 dimensions of wellness. This realm of wellness emphasizes expanding one’s sense of purpose and meaning through spiritual engagement. As we speak about this realm of wellness, it is vital to emphasize that “spirituality” does not have to mean religion; instead, it can be anything that helps someone feel grounded, connected or purposeful.
Building a Balanced Life: Nourishing Yourself through Social Connection
Social wellness refers to our ability to build, maintain, and engage in healthy relationships with family, friends, and our broader community. It also reflects our capacity for empathy, connection, and care for others. When we intentionally invest in our social wellness, we cultivate a sense of belonging, support our emotional well-being, and strengthen meaningful connections. Research shows that strong social ties can lower cortisol levels, enhance self-esteem, and help us feel more resilient when navigating life’s challenges.
Building a Balanced Life: Trauma-Informed Financial Wellness
When people think about mental health, they often imagine emotions, relationships, and stress—not budgets, bills, or bank accounts. But financial wellness is one of the SAMHSA 8 Dimensions of Wellness for a reason. Our relationship with money deeply shapes our stress levels, sense of stability, and long-term wellbeing.
This is why Financial Wellness is included in the SAMHSA 8 Dimensions of Wellness. It’s not simply a practical category; it’s an emotional and relational one.
Building a Balanced Life: Establishing Emotional Wellness
In this dimension of wellness we focus on building a healthy connection to our emotions and being able to gather the information they provide us. Seeking emotional wellness may also include building healthy and effective coping strategies and establishing the necessary skills to have healthy, supportive relationships.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) states, “the emotional wellness dimension involves the ability to express feeling, adjust to emotional challenges, cope with life’s stressors and enjoy life.”