Let’s face it. Life comes in hard and fast at times. It leaves you scurrying from task to task and just hoping when you lay down to sleep that you’ve done enough and been enough to keep your head above water and your relationships intact. Time escapes from grasp and the feeling of being caught…
What is distance counseling? Distance counseling, or teletherapy, is counseling that takes place via phone or video conference because the counselor and the client are in separate locations. Clients and counselors may not be able to meet face to face for various reasons: the client is traveling for work or is on vacation the client…
BAM! What happened?! You just learned your partner has been cheating on you: I’m injured! This hurts! I’m angry! I want to cry! Why did my partner do this?! They wrecked us! This was all their fault! Now that everyone involved knows, you have to try and make sense of the who, what, when, where,…
In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, one criteria for PTSD is “having a near death experience.” As a therapist, I’m not the judge of what is truly diagnosable as “trauma.” I personally believe the true judge of something being traumatic is how our bodies respond to it. Our bodies communicate many messages…
Sometimes it can be difficult to know what to do or what to say when someone you care about is mourning a loss. The Bible tells us to mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), but we often don’t know exactly how to do just that. I hear a lot of shared experiences from clients…
We often hear the words “guilt” and “shame” used synonymously. But when we look at the underlying meanings, there are some important differences to notice. Guilt is defined as a feeling that often follows when we have done something against our moral conviction, usually in the form of “I did something bad.” It often serves…
Parenting, itself, is a challenge. But when parents are trying to raise children who are blended from different families, it is an even bigger one. When blending a family, a biological parent may feel disillusion that they found a new partner to share their life with and yet still feel like a single parent! A…
What if you could gift your child more than just a physical toy for Christmas this year? What if you could inspire them, build confidence, and encourage growth with the simple joy of a toy? The truth is, the kinds of toys we choose for our children can either inspire or stunt imagination, learning, confidence,…
With everyone’s favorite turkey-eating and cornucopia-decorating holiday just around the corner, I thought it the best time to share a thought about thankfulness versus gratitude. Although the two ideas are often synonymous, there’s an important distinction between the two. Thankfulness is traditionally defined as an expression of appreciation for things received. Being thankful often involves…
I once heard a story by Earl Nightingale, one that has stuck with me for many years. Earl Nightingale (1921-1989) was an American radio speaker and author. He dealt mostly with subjects of human character development, motivation, and meaningful existence. I have retold one of his stories many times and now I would like to…