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.”
Building a Balanced Life: Insights from the 8 Dimensions of Wellness
Over the next 8 weeks, we will be looking at each of the 8 Dimensions of Wellness. The 8 Dimensions of Wellness are distinct areas that, when viewed together, form a holistic framework for health and well-being. Having a holistic view of wellness enables us to address the multiple aspects of our lives that are essential to our health. This model also shows that we cannot simply prioritize one realm of our well-being. Wellness is most attainable when the many different aspects of our lives work together to help us focus on living life fully.
The Empty Chair at the Table: Making Room for Grief and Love During the Holidays
As we grow up, we are taught that the holidays are a time of joy—meaningful gatherings spent with people we love, celebrating milestones, traditions, and togetherness. Yet, when you’ve lost someone dear to you, these same celebrations can feel hollow, painful, or isolating. The season’s reminders of love and connection can amplify absence and grief in ways that are both tender and heavy.
This pain can feel unbearable at times, and it’s normal to want to push it away or ignore it. But grief doesn’t disappear when avoided—it waits for acknowledgment. Getting to know your grief and understanding how it shows up in your life can help you move through it with more compassion and care.
Holding Space for Hope: Supporting a Loved One Struggling with Suicidal Thoughts
Hearing that a loved one is having thoughts of suicide can be frightening and overwhelming. You don’t want them to suffer, and you may not know what to say or do. But if your loved one has reached out to you, take heart—this is an important sign that they trust you and are open to help.
There are other signs that someone may be thinking about suicide, including but not limited to:
Talking about wanting to die or expressing hopelessness
Giving away belongings or getting affairs in order
Noticeable changes in mood, routine, energy, or personality
Engaging in risky or self-destructive behavior
Trying to obtain access to weapons or large amounts of medication
If you notice any of these warning signs, reach out and talk with your loved one. Asking directly about suicide will not “give them the idea.” In fact, it can open a life-saving conversation. Try to stay calm, compassionate, and present—your steady support can make a world of difference.
The Healing Power of Purpose: How Meaningful Action Supports Mental Health
The age-old question many people face is: What is their purpose? What pushes them to be better and gives them goals that they can aim for? Before you can ask yourself these questions, you must first define what purpose is. Everyone has their own purposes that affect their day-to-day life. It can be hard to know where to start figuring out your purpose.
If you feel you have not yet found your purpose, reflecting on your values and how you define success and meaning can be a helpful first step. If you are struggling to identify your purpose or values, this could be a very beneficial conversation to explore in therapy.
Setting Goals and Defining Progress in Therapy
When you first start therapy, it can be helpful to set some goals you want to accomplish during your time with your therapist. Some examples of relevant goals to discuss with your therapist could include:
Learning better methods for dealing with anxiety
Having a space to process something happening in your life
Developing healthy communication skills to improve personal relationships
Discovering your identity and values to guide you through a season of change or transition
Separating Facts from Fear: Recognizing Real vs Imagined Threats
CBT interventions for Anxiety have been proven time and time again to be extremely helpful. CBT helps shift anxious thoughts to access the underlying helpful information your emotions are trying to communicate. Rather than focusing on your anxiety about an activity, CBT enables you to shift your mindset to planning tasks that prepare you for it. CBT can also help challenge “black-and-white” thinking, where we label things as either bad or good. It can help you acknowledge that an event can be a mix of both, where it wasn’t only bad but it wasn’t only good.
Managing ADHD Symptoms
October serves as ADHD awareness month, which helps to remind us to move from stigma toward understanding.
The purpose of learning to manage your ADHD symptoms is not to “fix” yourself, but rather a way to support yourself toward success by leaning on your strengths and systems that work for you. It is possible for you to thrive with ADHD.