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5 Ways Emotions are Wisdom, NOT Weakness
The Wisdom of Emotions If you have ever found yourself thinking that feeling a certain way was the equivalent to being weak, dependent, desperate, frail, or broken, here are...
Navigating Holiday Loneliness: 5 Tips from a Therapist’s Perspective
Navigating Holiday Loneliness The holiday season often presents a paradox: while it is celebrated as a time of joy, togetherness, and warmth, it can also intensify feelings of...
ADHD AND ORGANIZATION: HOW CAN THERAPY HELP?
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neuro-developmental disorder that affects both children and adults. Neuro-developmental means certain conditions which affect the brain from early on. These conditions alter...
Ways to Manage Grief and Loss and How Therapy Can Help
Some situations in life do not have a step-by-step manual on how to get through. We know that loss is a natural part of life, yet we don’t talk...
Four Elements of “Doing the Work” on Yourself in Therapy
You will often hear people say things like, “I’ve done a lot of work on myself” or “You have to do the work”. What does it actually mean? Self...
What Can a First Timer to Online Therapy Expect?
If you don’t have any experience with therapy or mental health treatment in general, it can be pretty daunting to schedule to see a therapist. In fact, I think...
A California Online Therapist’s Favorite Meditation Tips
Meditation is a practical skill that can be used by anyone, nearly any time. It can be a spiritual exercise for seekers of any path, a straightforward way to...
Improve Relationships With 4 Components of Effective Communication
What is Effective Communication? A great model of effective communication is called Non-Violent Communication (NVC). This is an amazing approach that helps you connect more deeply with yourself and...
Caught in a Spiral? 2 Tools to Get Unstuck
How do I get Unstuck? There are two major questions that we all need to ask ourselves to get unstuck. These questions help us to gain clarity and understand...
Confirmation Bias: How to Relieve Suffering
What is Confirmation Bias? The phenomenon of confirmation bias can be discussed as it relates to a myriad of themes – religion, politics, science, etc. Knowing that we tend...
Meditation and Healing Mind, Body, and Spirit
Meditation and Healing Meditation and mindfulness are buzzwords nowadays. Part of me believes this is wonderful because anything that becomes popular naturally becomes more accessible. It means that more...
Past Trauma and Inner Working Models and Therapy
Past Trauma and Our Life Perspective When clients come to therapy with symptoms of distressing anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or energy-depleting depression, there are usually present-day circumstances causing stress. But...
6 Things an Online Therapist Does to Reduce Anxiety
How Does Therapy Help Reduce Anxiety? This may come as a shock to some of you, but even therapists have experienced difficult emotions such as anxiety, depression, shame, despair,...
6 Ways to Achieve Therapy Goals Outside of Session
What Do I do Outside of My Therapy Session? The therapy hour is wonderful. We can create therapy goals and dive deep, reflect, and have new emotional experiences, all...
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Your Mental Health
How Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Impact Me as an Adult? It’s not uncommon to think of our childhood as a distant series of events (some of those being what...
4 Tips for Smooth and Effective Communication
Effective Communication Non-Violent Communication (NVC) is an amazing approach that helps you connect more deeply with yourself and others. It was developed by Marshall Rosenberg as a tool for...
Current Event Overwhelm: Six Ways to Stay Centered During Times of Uncertainty
Overwhelm in Stressful Times We are living in a time of high stress worldwide, with access to headlines and news coverage available 24 hours a day. While information is...
All About Learned Helplessness: Feel More Capable
Learned Helplessness There was a series of terribly unethical animal experiments that occurred in the 1960’s. While they are horrifying to read about, they really give wonderful insight into...
The Negativity Bias: 3 Ways to Think More Positively
The Negativity Bias Why is it that when someone gives you a critique, it seems stained in your memory for all of time, but when someone gives you a...
Emotional Reactivity: 2 Ways to Remain Calm
What is Emotional Reactivity? There are times when we feel perfectly in control of our emotional and behavioral responses. We might be standing in a long, long line at...
The Wild World of Emotions: Repressed and Suppressed Feelings
What are Repressed and Suppressed Feelings? Although we may colloquially use the terms “repressed” and “suppressed” interchangeably, when it comes to emotions they have two separate meanings, thanks to...
Thinking Versus Feeling: Discover the World of Emotions
Thinking Versus Feeling There are many things in life that you can do by thinking. You can do math equations, project future scenarios, imagine past events, and calculate how...
Caution: Therapy is Not These Three Things
What Therapy is Not Meant to Do We often have misconceptions about what therapy’s purpose is and how it can help us in our lives. This might be from...
Caring What Others Think: 4 Ways to Explore and Heal
Caring What Others Think is Normal It is a common and relatable experience to care what other people think about us. It’s also totally normal. As humans, we are...
Validation: 2 Examples to Use This Helpful Tool in Creating Health and Happiness
Validation of Experience In therapy, you may hear your therapist talk about the importance of “validating” your experience. When we validate, we “recognize the value of a person or...
Is Therapy Working? 11 Ways to Check Your Progress
Is Therapy Working for me? One of the worst experiences is investing time, money, and energy into something in order to make a change, but instead of change, we...
Understanding Emotional Avoidance for a Happier Life
Why Emotional Avoidance? As humans, we tend to avoid what is uncomfortable and painful. And as a general rule, this makes sense. Why would I purposely stub my toe...
Apologizing Effectively: 8 Tips
8 Tips on Apologizing Effectively Apologies are important; they can provide a bridge in the midst of a ruptured connection. They can offer relief, understanding, and help to repair...
Do I Need Trauma Therapy?
A definition of trauma and how trauma therapy in San Diego and throughout California can help you. What is trauma? The word “trauma” can be defined both as a...
5 Tips for Peaceful Mental Health in Covid Times
Five Tips for Managing Mental Health in Covid Times Experts are saying that the next pandemic coming in is the mental health one, related to all of the stress...
Is Therapy for Me? 2 Reasons it Isn’t Scary
Therapy Does Not Have to be Scary Going to therapy can be intimidating. You might fear that it will be uncomfortable, embarrassing, or simply unhelpful. You may be afraid...
