Category: General Ideas

Navigating Conflict Successfully Are you comfortable managing conflict in your relationships? Conflict happens! How do we work with it? What happens if we habitually try to avoid it? What skills are important to effectively resolving conflict when it occurs? What happens when conflict is ongoing? How has conflict been modeled for you? One way to start… Read more

Practicing Active Listening What is the impact of active listening? When people feel heard and understood, their defenses lower. When defenses are lowered, space for effective communication is created.  Curious to know more? Read on! Listening to understand… Oftentimes, especially when excited or when navigating conflict, we listen only to plan our next response. While… Read more

Overcoming Setbacks in Life & Relationships How ridiculous would it be if every time a baby fell while learning how to walk we threw our hands up in the air and said, “Well that’s it! I guess they are never going to get it. Might as well stop trying.” What do we do instead? We… Read more

Managing Your Cognitive Distortions The principles from cognitive psychology continue to be a backbone in establishing mental wellness. Our patterns of thinking have a great deal of impact on how we feel.  Have you heard of cognitive distortions? Are you aware of which ones you fall into most easily, and what triggers them? How do… Read more

Addressing Rumination & Overthinking Inside Out 2 recently became the highest grossing animated film … Tell me we’re all anxious without telling me we’re all anxious. …seems like a good time to talk about rumination!  Oftentimes when we are stuck in an anxiety spiral, the overthinking we are engaging in is a frantic grasp for… Read more

Exercising Boundaries with Social Media We love a conversation about boundaries in the context of human relationships, but what about our boundaries in our relationship with social media? Let’s talk about harm reduction. In psychotherapy (specifically addictions counseling), harm reduction is the terminology used to describe an approach to treatment aimed at minimizing the negative… Read more

Dismantling Perfectionism The fear of imperfection is shared by many. In a world where the normative culture reigns supreme and everyone outside is viewed as lesser-than, imperfection is a reasonable enough fear. When we allow it to rule us, however, it severely impacts our mental health and wellbeing.  Treat the fear of imperfection like any… Read more

Understanding & Managing Projections in Relationships It’s one of those terms that has made its way out of the therapy space and into the mainstream, so let’s unpack it! Projection in a nutshell, is a term used to describe the psychological process by which a person displaces their own (usually unwanted) experience onto someone or… Read more

Setting, Receiving & Maintaining Boundaries Boundaries! What are they? What are they not? How do you set them? Who is responsible for reinforcing them? How can you improve your ability to receive and honor boundaries? The concept seems basic enough in theory, but often difficult to apply in practice.  REFLECT ~ What comes up for… Read more