I enjoyed reading and reviewing Ashley L. Peterson's new book, A Brief History of Stigma: Looking for Ways to Move Beyond Mental Illness Stigma.  Below, you'll find the two podcast episodes I did to discuss the book in more depth. Click the links to be taken to the episodes. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Nuances of Mental Health Stigma...[ read more ]

My wife and I haven't been to a movie theater since before the pandemic. On a whim, we reserved seats this morning for a matinee showing of Dear Evan Hansen. Though we were masked up and fully vaxed (also boostered!), we were relieved to learn that we were the only people who bought tickets for that particular showing. That's right,...[ read more ]

"Resilience" is an important trait in my line of work for both my clients and myself. As I reflected on the lessons that I've learned during these past 5 months in quarantine, the word resilience stood out. The dictionary on my Mac defines resilience as, "The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness;" however, I thought I'd reach out to...[ read more ]

Today, I talk with Dr. Lakesha Roney, LPC about the impact of racism on mental health. https://youtu.be/vjw_zy3sg64 Here's the article I mentioned where Dr. Roney discussed being a parent of a child with autism https://panoramiccounseling.com/538-2/ Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this content, feel free to buy me a coffee to support the blog and podcast. Be sure to sign up for my...[ read more ]

Because I plan to start offering EMDR therapy at Panoramic Counseling in early 2020, I have been immersing myself in the writing of EMDR’s founder, Francine Shapiro. Today, I want to share some practical insights that I gained from Shapiro’s EMDR self-help book, Getting Past Your Past. If you’re not familiar with EMDR therapy, I’ll provide the cliffnotes definition: It’s...[ read more ]

There's no doubt that obesity carries with it a ton of health risks; however, for today's article, I want to focus on the mental health consequences of fat shaming. I was surprised to see a piece in the most recent issue of Psychology Today on this topic. Within the article, the writer discussed how plus-sized people tend to face verbal...[ read more ]

Today, I'm sharing about radical acceptance, which is a concept that I use both personally and in my therapy work with clients. Radical acceptance can be both simple and difficult all at the same time. So let's dive in, shall we? Radical acceptance is the ability to acknowledge the reality of your situation without judging, blaming, or criticizing yourself or...[ read more ]

After being diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder years ago, it took me a very long time to find any positives to such a condition. Nowadays, I embrace that I'm designed differently and that having anxiety doesn't mean that I'm broken. Here are some lessons that anxiety taught me. Flexibility If I had a nickname, it would probably be Mr. Routine....[ read more ]