Mental health

All of us have some resiliency to cope with challenges. When we encounter difficult experiences that take us past the range of our ability to tolerate, the ways we tend to respond fall into one of two categories: those of us who get agitated, and those of us who shut down.

Emotional regulation refers to our ability to stay present, engaged, and able to listen and learn despite challenges. My rainbow of emotional regulation is a social-emotional learning resource that can help teach this concept in the classroom, in counseling sessions, or at home.

Pop-culture “wellness” often pathologizes desire. We are promised that if we can ignore physical hunger, meet our own needs emotionally, and keep our sexual desire …

It’s normal to feel upset, anxious, or extremely uncomfortable when we encounter difficult content. Having a strong reaction to information that is generally considered troubling …

Asking if someone is suicidal won’t give them ideas, but it may help them feel less alone. A 2014 meta-analysis (that’s a study that gathers …

The best time to do good crisis work is when you (or your client, child, partner, friend, etc) aren’t currently in crisis. Take some time …

Traditional DBT helps develop emotion regulation and impulse control in people who struggle in these areas, but Radically Open (RO) DBT is an adaptation of …

Most of us are more than a little concerned about the mental health of the kiddos that we care about during this pandemic. The natural …

Trauma and trauma recovery look different for everyone, but generally, there’s a deep, hardened core and a bunch of squishy stuff, all held together by …

Our lives have changed significantly in the past few weeks as COVID-19 has spread around the globe and into our communities. In the space of …

A flowchart for getting to sleep. We all know how elusive sleep can be, but quality sleep is essential for physical and mental health. When …

Why Mindfulness? In a culture where life is often lived digitally, mindfulness matters. While our brains are increasingly adept at sensing fake news or deciphering …

Dismantling mental health triggers often involves a little detective work. Although awareness of “being triggered” can be very obvious, for many people, figuring out specific …

The nature of crisis is that it’s (1) overwhelming, and (2) inevitable. Whether you are a clinician in the helping professions or a person in …

To follow my post earlier this week on developing (new) coping skills rather than attempting to just desert our old ones, here are a few …

If you’ve avoided recovery because giving up the only-ways-you-know-to-survive feels overwhelming, know that the goal of good therapy is not “stopping certain behaviors” – it’s …

Most of us know one or two help rejecting complainers. It can be tempting to get frustrated, give up, or get “even,” but when we …

Numbers, timers, scales, and bell curves are not the measure of health- they are external authorities sold to us as measures of goodness, permission, and …