My anxiety has been especially challenging over the past month. In this post, I’m going to share the various coping and calming strategies I’ve been using to free my mind from the symptoms of anxiety. I resonate deeply with the song, “Free Mind” by Tems, so I’ll include some relevant lyrics throughout the post as well. Exercise My favorite form...[ read more ]

Today I'm excited to review the new workbook, Successful Coparenting with a Toxic Ex: A guided Journal to Support and Encourage you and your Children, written by my friend and colleague, Susan Buniva, LCSW. She's a licensed therapist, divorce coach, and co-parenting counselor with over 30 years of experience. As the title of the book suggests, this book is for...[ read more ]

In part 1*, I talked about: How vaping is pervasive among teens and young adults How targeted marketing plays a role The associated health risks of teen vaping And I also provided some tips to parents Today, I'll be reflecting on a WSJ article** I read earlier this week to continue the conversation. The Article The first post focused primarily...[ read more ]

Since I'm always the one recommending books, I was surprised when one of my clients recommended a book to me. And what a great recommendation it was! Today, I'll be sharing some of the insights that I gained from No One Succeeds Alone: Learn Everything you can from Everyone you can, by Robert Reffkin. What's this book about? This book...[ read more ]

It's obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our lives and that our concept of "normal" continues to evolve. Though I've written previously on work-life balance and remote schooling/working, today I'd like to talk about how our concept of work is evolving. I'll cover the pros, cons, and provide tips on how to find balance in this...[ read more ]

When I was in college, I took all of the developmental psychology courses. Why? Because learning about the various life stages has always fascinated me. At the time, I found it odd when I read how famous psychologists like Piaget conducted research on their own children! Now that I'm the parent of a toddler, it makes more sense. With that...[ read more ]

As the world continues to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year and a half has pushed most of us into a more virtual existence. With that in mind, I thought I'd share some insights on the impact of technology on mental health using insights gained from the audiobook, Finding Balance in a Digital World, by Doreen Dodgen-Magee**. Research...[ read more ]

Given the events of the past year, we should all know what racism is and that it is, unfortunately, alive and well. Today, I’m going to talk about a form of racism that happens to folx of color, often by folx of color.  It's called colorism.  Colorism is prejudice towards darker skin; more specifically, it’s the idea that lighter skin...[ read more ]

Boundaries are definitely the most common challenge that I see in my therapy sessions with clients, doesn't matter if they're facing anxiety, life transitions, addiction, etc. But what are boundaries? Boundaries are expectations that we set in interpersonal relationships to optimize our quality of life. What are the types of boundaries? Harper (2020) describes boundaries in seven categories: Physical boundaries- These...[ 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 ]