Ask a Therapist

The holiday season is typically known as an exciting, joyful, and jolly time. However, holidays also involve excessive planning, shopping for gifts, traveling, and more, all while completing daily responsibilities. The heightened emotions and extra responsibilities make many people experience more stress than usual during this time.

Self-sabotage occurs when we intentionally harm our health and well-being by undermining personal ideals and aspirations or when we harm ourselves physically, intellectually, or emotionally. It originates from "bad thoughts" and is "insidious, profound, and universal".

If at times you have experienced frustration or conflict in relationships, whether at home or at work, the source can often be traced to communication that needs improvement. Find out how to start reversing these patterns and achieving more of what you and those around you would really enjoy.

Brie Scolaro, LMSW discusses how to use the Life Compass to clarify your goals and take action.

Coming out can occur at any time, in any place. Coming out can be exhilarating, terrifying, confusing, and joyful all at the same time. So when is the right time to come out?

Procrastination is often thought of as a time management problem, but recent research is suggesting that procrastination is actually more of an emotion management problem. This blog post discusses how you can increase productivity by accepting these feelings and implementing strategies to lessen their intensity.

Habit building is the key to effectuating positive change. The actions you practice every day are what build your reality. Building new habits doesn’t have to be an unpleasant experience, there are things you can do to make the process easier, and dare I say even semi enjoyable. If you want to make adjustments to live a healthier life, you’ve come to the right place. Here are 5 steps that will help you take your first right actions and build healthy habits. Happy habit building!

Your relationship with food is one you’ll have, day in and day out, for the rest of your lives together, so let’s begin to explore how to make it work.

We live in a society where “I am burned out” is the norm. Life is fast-paced and it’s about hustle and bustle at any cost. It is so easy for us to go after wealth without even reflecting on the negative impact on our wellness.

My clients come to me with a myriad of issues – relationship struggles; work stress; impulsive behavior; or feelings of anxiety, depression, or anger. For some of them, I begin to wonder over the course of our work together whether their presenting problems are really symptoms of a larger pattern of emotion dysregulation.

Just as each child is a unique individual, every child’s journey toward emotional maturity and mental wellness is a road of its own. The development of self-esteem, a sense of self-control, and coping skills for difficult situations can be a more challenging process for some children than others, support from a mental health practitioner can be helpful on this path.

Training your mindset to see life through a positive lens is similar to developing new muscle. When building muscle, it takes time and perseverance for the muscle to strengthen, but eventually that growth can become a cornerstone of strength and something that you can really count on. Experiencing the world more positively also requires effort, but, if you pay attention to your thoughts, you can change your perspective, especially if you have developed a negative thinking pattern.

Similar to “self-care,” the term “boundaries” has been popping up all over social media feeds. But, what do boundaries actually mean? Personal boundaries can be thought of like rules you set to manage stress, anxiety, and other emotions, and/or your physical space.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD), sometimes referred to as emotionally unstable personality disorder, is a mental health condition that impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others, which can cause problems with how you function in your everyday life. Many people with this disorder get better over time with treatment and can learn to live satisfying lives. But how do you know if you have borderline personality disorder?

So, what is this “rapport” thing, anyway? And how can you determine whether your prospective therapist and you will establish a good rapport? Lucky for you, psychotherapy research has answers. Literally thousands of studies have been conducted on the qualities that lead to better or worse therapeutic relationships, and outcomes in therapy.

While the occasional bad mood or disagreement doesn’t mean someone is toxic, a pattern of toxic behavior in a relationship can be more problematic. So how do we know when we’re in a toxic relationship or dealing with a toxic person and what can we do about it?

If you’re feeling anxious about returning to “normal” life, leaving lockdown, heading back to the office, dating, hanging out with friends, or anything else that was part of pre-pandemic life, you’re not alone—and your feelings are totally valid. Here is some insight from our community of practitioners about reopening anxiety, who might be impacted, and how we can cope.

If you want to use your breath to calm down, you have to breathe correctly. Breathing exercises can help. I love breathing exercises because they're easy to learn and you can do them anytime, anywhere. It can be really helpful to have a go-to that you practice so you're ready to use it when the anxiety hits. There are a ton of different techniques to pick from, but these are my 3 favorites. Give them a try and see which one you like best!

The abundance of opinions, fads, and other elements of diet culture can be highly detrimental to one's self-esteem. I know because I have dealt with the feelings and pain myself. We want to love ourselves and it’s helpful to have some tools and tips to get us there.

Are you constantly battling negative thoughts? Would you like to feel more positive? It is possible to shift your negative thinking and mood with a simple process backed by science, which will help you feel good! There are small changes you can make so you feel good about yourself and achieve an overall sense of wellbeing.

When I’m particularly overwhelmed or drowning in negative emotions, I close my eyes, take a deep breath and remind myself that life is like an ocean. Like the ocean, life is a vast, mysterious, unpredictable force much bigger than any one person. Sometimes it’s beautiful and freeing and joyous. Other times, it’s terrifying and rough and unrelenting. Yet, life is in constant motion, forever moving and changing.

As wonderful as looking on the bright side twenty-four hours a day might sound, toxic positivity is actually detrimental to our mental health. While hope and positivity are important, like everything else, there must be a balance. Here is some insight from our community of practitioners about toxic positivity, its impact on our mental health, and what we can do instead.

Getting an official diagnosis after struggling with symptoms and navigating points of care can be a bittersweet experience. Many people take four key steps to process their diagnosis and integrate this understanding into their lives: get answers, connect with like people, listen to your diagnosis, and customize your recovery.

Why are widespread conspiracies flourishing right now? Of all times! This article was written as a quick guide on helping you understand how human minds deal with uncertainty, which I hope will help you feel more grounded.