Many folks come to therapy to learn coping strategies, tips, and tricks, concrete techniques that will help them feel grounded and at peace. Anxiety traps you inside the house. Depression tells you it will never get better. You feel it down to your marrow: you’ve gotten what you deserve, and you don’t deserve to liveContinue reading “Beyond therapy tips and tricks”
Author Archives: J T
Talking about suicide: Advice for communities, friends, and families
A high school student in our community died last month, likely by suicide, though no one has officially identified the cause of death or released the student’s name to the larger school community. The principal and district superintendent sent emails shortly after the incident. They offered additional mental health support and lamented the loss, imploringContinue reading “Talking about suicide: Advice for communities, friends, and families”
Book announcement!
On May 31st, my new book, 52-Week Grief Journal: Prompts and Reflections for Navigating Loss will be published by Rockridge Press. The book is a week-by-week, year-long journal for processing grief. It includes affirmations, prompts, and exercises organized around the feelings and experiences that come up after a loss. I wrote this book from twoContinue reading “Book announcement!”
Making sense of perfectionism
It was a typical session in my therapist’s office circa 2014. The topic? My deep sense of shame and the feeling that nothing I did was good enough. “It’s not that I’m a perfectionist. It’s just that everything I do and everything I say has to be perfect.” My therapist gave me a wry look.Continue reading “Making sense of perfectionism”
Self-harm information and resources
Self-harm is when someone injures themselves on purpose without suicidal intent. People may turn to self-harm because they are trying to cope with overwhelming feelings, emotional numbness, or traumatic memories. Secrecy and shame around self injury can make it difficult to get support. This post has links to articles and resources for people who self-harmContinue reading “Self-harm information and resources”
Anxiety information and resources
This page has links to articles from popular news sources on the topic of anxiety. Psychotherapists, journalists, and experts on anxiety provide information and coping tips. I have included links to information for parents of anxious children. Anxious adults Surviving Anxiety, by Scott Stossel. The Atlantic, January/February 2014Scott Stossel writes about his experience with anxiety.Continue reading “Anxiety information and resources”
What is play therapy and how does it work?
It may seem obvious that psychotherapy with children relies on play, art, and movement. Falling back on that old therapy cliché How does that make you feel? just doesn’t cut it for kids—or most adults! But what does it look like? And how does it work?
Every parent was a child once
As parents, we are affected by how we were parented and by the events of our childhood. Did we get what we needed? How were we disciplined? What were the behavioral expectations? Were they realistic?
Cloudy skies inside: Checking in with your emotional weather
This morning I lay in bed, too early to be awake. I felt my internal weather pattern shift and move—a roiling of clouds and keening winds. I didn’t try to make sense of these sensations, though they were informative. Something is stirring me up.
Even therapists get the blues
I feel depleted. Perhaps it is the time of year, the sticky hangover of Halloween chocolate combined with autumn’s shorter days, or the way the school year feels serious now, entrenched at almost two months in. The end of year holidays await, little twinkles of light on the horizon, but as I write it is just another Thursday, an interstitial moment, neither the beginning nor end of anything.