I’ve noticed a recent trend in culture towards the co-opting of mindfulness for the for-profit beast of the “wellness” industry. Social media and advertising increasingly paint the picture of mental wellness (particularly for women) as an idealized version of ourselves that stays neutral, calm, and unrattled by the loud emotional experiences around us (with, of…
In response to often being lectured at instead of listened to, struggling teens may use apathy and resistance to gain a sense of empowerment. While we adults usually labels these as “problem” behaviors, they aren’t necessarily a bad thing! Resistance through either defiance (overt resistance) or apathy (subversive resistance) is actually one way a…
I got to go to a Patreon Bootcamp in Seattle this week, where I was really inspired to help my fans and followers know about all the things I am imagining creating, and inviting you along on the journey to making them happen. My Patreon patrons are making it possible for me to imagine how…
My favorite part of dogsitting is getting to know the pup well enough to capture their personality in a doodle. I’ve always been a dog lover, but when I downsized and moved to Seattle and a 12′ x 17′ studio apartment, I had to leave my dog behind (with friends who had lots of space…
This one’s for all the interns starting this month. My internship-assigned mentor gave me a bulleted list of things that HAVE to get discussed in a first therapy session (left side of the page), and some talking points to bring up if the conversation is difficult to keep flowing (right side of the page). Naturally,…
Healthy adults are independent AND dependent. Most of us have anxiety as we shift between what we fear is dependency on one side and isolation on the other. Health isn’t overcoming the temptation towards either, but instead it’s learning to thrive in the tension between them. This week I have had several conversations around loneliness…
Hey everyone, I’m excited to show you an early and very rough first draft of the new project that I’m working on- and share with you how you can get your hands on a copy before anyone else! It’s a project sort of working with the popularity of bullet journaling, adult coloring books, and graphic…
When I took the class on family therapy in grad school, I fell in love with the visual language of genograms. Since making this genogram chart at the start of that course, it has been one of my most shared sketch notes across multiple platforms. Scroll to the bottom of this post to purchase a…
Research papers are one of the most time-consuming parts of school. When I went back to school after 10 years as an entrepreneur, both my time and my patience for agonizing through writing research papers was limited. Since I’ve been back in school, I’ve developed a method / “hack,” inspired by the creativity and necessity…
In last week’s post I introduced readers to a concept called a “visual vocabulary”. In this installment of this series on developing a psychology-related visual vocabulary, I will be showing you how I doodle one of the staples of my psychology visual vocabulary: a mother and child. Mother and child, or parent and child, relationships are a…
Travel journalling is HARD. Every time I try to keep a regular journal on the road I give up- it’s way too much effort. Bullet Journalling, though, has been a perfect companion to travel. Most of us take lots of photos when we travel, but I created this layout to record the experiences and memories…
One of the best parts about bullets journaling is that your bullet journal can take whatever shape you need it to. As you become comfortable your bullet journal, you’ll probably find that your journal begins to look nothing like the complex and artistic spreads posted on social media (in fact, minimalist bullet journaling is an…
Preparing for print a selection of my psychology sketchnotes for my Patreon subscribers each month has been a fun experiment as I sort through sketchnotes old and new and learn the in’s and out’s of the best way to convert doodled sketchnotes to print-ready worksheets. This month I included in the PDFs this page of…
The truth is, the majority of people who are “artists” have a limited ability to reach into their visual memory and draw an object. Instead, we rely on using models, still lifes, photos, or even Google image search to base our art on. When it comes to sketchnotes, bullet journalling, and classroom doodles, these resources…
This is a continuously updated post about art therapy* prompts and activities for groups. To my knowledge, these are new ideas not otherwise published or included in manuals. These are appropriate for art groups in all sorts of contexts- from therapeutic groups to artists’ meetups and “paint and sip” style get-togethers. Adapt the prompt and your…
Memorization can be frustrating but is sometimes necessary. As much as I want my education to be a process of digesting and integrating new learning, sometimes it’s essential to simply memorize a list of facts, dates, or names. In this post, I’ll be showing you how I use multiple memorization techniques based on intersecting…
I began bullet journalling while in school for my masters in Counseling Psychology. In one of the bullet journaling forums I followed, a visitor posted about possible ways to track triggers and got zero responses- so I set out to take what I’d learned in grad school about trauma, mindfulness, and the value of self-advocacy…
