With the holiday season quickly approaching, many people find themselves spending more time with loved ones. How do we set boundaries with others to make sure we are taking care of ourselves during the holiday season?

For many of us, the holiday season is a stressful time. Whether this arises from family conflict, personal expectations, or budgeting difficulties, you are not alone. Below are some quick tips to help you skate through the stress and settle into the season with ease.

Guided meditation is a practice in which another person guides you with their voice through a meditation that can incorporate calling to one’s mind a descriptive scene that reconnects the listener with feelings like calm, relaxation, positive emotions, and even feelings of power and capability. All you need to try out this practice is a safe space where you can comfortably sit or lay down, a device like a phone, tablet, or computer, and some headphones.

Highly sensitive person, or HSP for short, is often used by psychologists to identify individuals who connect deeply with everything in the world around them. These deep connections occur in daily life, from social situations to physical sensations and may often get an HSP labeled as “shy” or “overly sensitive”.

The cohosts of the Ordinary Unhappiness podcast, Abby Kluchin PhD and Patrick Blanchfield PhD are scholars of psychoanalysis, however they are not clinicians, so they offer a unique perspective on what psychoanalysis is. The following is a condensed summary of the topics touched on in their first episode titled “What is Psychoanalysis?”

School is now underway. Everyone has gotten back into the hectic mornings, piles of homework, and splitting up for everyone’s after school activities and sports. When children are young a routine has always been pushed for a child’s success. But, what happens when that routine leaves no room for friends, family, or relaxation, self-care?

So, you’ve decided that you and your partner might benefit from couples therapy. But what is couples therapy? The goal of couples therapy is to address points of tension and misunderstanding in your relationship and move towards closeness and connection. Sessions will primarily focus on effective communication, clarifying one another’s feelings about each other and the relationship, and creating a foundation for a healthy, sustainable partnership.

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), a brain-body intervention that helps individuals regulate their nervous system and increase their ability to feel safe and connected, has gained much attention in recent years. The intervention is grounded in the Polyvagal Theory, which explains how the autonomic nervous system influences our emotional and physiological responses.

Mental health is an essential aspect of life, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. However, mental health concerns among the LGBTQIA+ community have been a subject of concern for many years. The current social stigma surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity can serve as a source of psychological distress, contributing to increased risks of mental health issues. Therefore, it is crucial to understand and facilitate mental health resources tailored towards the LGBTQIA+ community.

June is a month of new beginnings, and it's the perfect time to start practicing self-care. Self-care is essential for our physical, emotional, and mental well-being. With the busy lifestyles we lead, it's easy to neglect ourselves and focus solely on our work and responsibilities. But taking care of ourselves ensures we can be our best selves in every aspect of our life.

Pride month is a time to celebrate the incredible diversity and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community. Throughout history, this community has faced significant challenges and discrimination, but pride month is a time to come together to celebrate diversity, equality, and love.

Our mental health is a crucial component of our overall well-being, and managing anger effectively plays a pivotal role in maintaining a positive state of mind. Anger is a natural emotion that we all experience from time to time-and it is an emotion we are often not taught how to manage. As a result, it can lead to negative consequences like stress, anxiety, and even depression. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to manage anger in a healthy way and why allowing yourself to feel anger can actually be healthy.

As the end of high school approaches, the excitement of the next chapter is often mixed with anxiety and uncertainty about what lies ahead. Graduating seniors are faced with the daunting task of making decisions about their future, such as choosing a college or trade school, deciding on a career path, and embarking on their own. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the pressure of making the "right" choices at such a young age, but it's important to remember that success is not determined by immediate decisions alone.  

Mental health is an important aspect of our lives that is often overlooked until something goes wrong. Mental health awareness month takes place every year in May, a time when we need to prioritize our mental wellbeing and focus on the issues surrounding mental health.

Mother's Day is a time of the year that can be particularly difficult for some people. While this day is meant to celebrate and honor the love and sacrifice of moms everywhere, not everyone has a maternal figure in their lives, or a healthy relationship with the figure they do have. For those who have lost their mom or do not have a relationship with their mom, this holiday can bring up feelings of grief or pain. However, there are coping strategies and resources available to help make this day easier to manage.

Attachment theory is a psychological framework that describes how humans form and maintain emotional bonds with others, especially in intimate relationships. Developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth in the mid-twentieth century, attachment theory suggests that our early experiences with caregivers influence the way we think, feel, and behave in later relationships.  This was a shift in psychology that brought us to a more holistic way of thinking about relationships and our own mental health.

Collective trauma is a shared emotional reaction to a terrible event. People often feel powerless as a result of these experiences. In a nation as large as ours, it’s uncommon to have the whole country experience trauma at the same time, and yet we’ve had several events like that in the past year.

Goal setting is an important aspect of self-improvement that can help individuals reach their potential and improve their lives. It can be a daunting task to set goals and achieve them, but with the right mindset and approach, it is possible to succeed. In this essay, we will address the importance of goal setting and discuss how to set goals and achieve them.

Trauma informed therapists have a primary focus on you, the client's well-being, and safety. The therapist should have more than a basic understanding of trauma, its effects, and the resulting symptoms. A trauma-informed therapist strives to provide a safe and supportive environment that acknowledges the client's unique experiences and life circumstances.

Springtime transitions have a unique quality that sets them apart from all other seasons. As winter winds down and the long, cold months come to an end, the arrival of spring is eagerly anticipated. For many, the transition from winter to spring is a welcome change. It is a chance to shake off the cold, to shed the layers of winter clothing and step out into the warmer weather. Spring brings with it a sense of renewal, of fresh beginnings and a new season of growth.