You know that feeling when you want someone close—but the moment they actually get close, something inside you recoils.
Or maybe you feel safer on your own—until the space around you gets so quiet it starts […]
The line between stress and trauma
It’s no secret that many of us are waking up each day to a very stressful reality. Yet where is the line between stress (from which we can recover) and trauma that overwhelms us?
Trauma can occur when stress becomes prolonged, when we don’t […]
Healing from therapy trauma:
Most therapists are good people who are competent, kind, ethical, and qualified when it comes to helping people with mental health or relationship struggles. Licensing and ethics boards also exist to help protect clients from being harmed by therapy.
But therapists are […]
Feeling Stuck? Your Unconscious May be Trying to Tell You Something
Lacan suggested that the “unconscious is structured like a language”.
And for those of you who feel STUCK, it’s a language you may want to learn.
STUCK may mean that you can’t move forward with something in […]
When You’re Tired of the Pain
If you’ve ever looked at the people around you and wondered, Why does everybody seem to have it so easy when I have it so hard, no matter how hard I try, then you might know what […]
Contamination Fears in Relationships and Toxic Shame
While most of us associate fears of contaminating others with physical illnesses like the chicken pox or the Zika virus, many people harbor similar kinds of fears about being emotionally damaged or infected in ways that […]
Who is this person who abuses his/her partner?
(For the sake of simplicity, I at times have used the male pronoun to refer to the abuser, and the female pronoun to refer to the victim. In reality, the roles of victim and perpetrator are not […]
(Disclaimer: This story is a fictional piece)
Letting Go: Sarah’s Story
Sarah stared blankly at the empty journal in front of her, her therapist’s words reverberating in her head. “Just put yourself back there, as if you’re 14 again…or even 6. And write to me about […]
Disappointment Anxiety
Most of us recognize the sense of let down that comes with longing for something we cannot have, or hoping for something that doesn’t pan out. Relationship hopes that don’t work out, career dreams that get derailed by unexpected circumstances, and even simple disappointments like […]
Coping with Grief
There are many types of losses that we all face, some major- like a death or relationship breakup- and some less so- like a missed opportunity or saying no to something we want to do. How we cope with disappointments, not getting […]
