Blog
Help for grieving
I’m relatively new to big losses and understanding the journey of grief, but each time I experience it, I learn a little something. If you or someone you know is experiencing grief and loss, you might benefit from receiving or offering some of these suggestions and recognizing what NOT to do as well.
Help for self exploration
Our own Jordan Bonner is now officially a published author! As with all great therapists, Jordan has a heart for truly helping to cultivate change within her clients. But that’s not easy! Changing patterns is hard work and takes lots of intention.
Why is meditation so hard?
I always share with my clients who are new to meditation practice: meditation is simply concentration. We tend to attach all sorts of extra feelings, expectations and assumptions on top of that. When we naturally find it difficult to meditate in a certain way, we just say that we ‘can’t meditate.’
Why do I feel burnt out?
Would you say that you have any reserves in your tank? Or are you just coasting from one weekend to the next? Feeling ‘burnt out’ is pretty much the norm. How can we extend the relief that we find in play/rest/downtime?
How to Interrupt the Pattern on Repetitive Arguments
You know what types of arguments or disagreements you and your partner have on a regular basis. You can almost see the storm brewing a mile away once it starts to play out (again), but it seems inevitable. It can leave you both feeling shutdown and hopeless. What do you do when your ingrained ‘differences in perspective’ lead to an all out thrown down fight? And even more so: what can you do when that argument is on repeat in your relationship?
First Therapy Experience
Therapy usually does not look like a scheduled, perfect list of things to check off. It changes and swerves, and you may leave feeling better one day, confused the next, relieved the next, resentful the next, empowered the next. All of it is a win. It’s all progress. It’s all healing. Just keep coming. Just keep talking. You’re doing great. And you’re being rooted on the whole way.
Common Issues Couples Fight Over Series: Part 5
It seems like every one of the posts in this series (Things Couples Fight Over) keeps coming back to one thing: our culture. Roles and responsibilities of a husband and wife are drastically shifted from what they were 100 years ago. While many of these changes are obviously positive and every couple is different, some cultural expectations put unnecessary subconscious pressure on us. We should not be looking to our culture as a healthy model for what marriage should look like. If the world was doing it right, there would be far more happy longterm marriages.
Self Care vs. Selfishness
How do we take care of ourselves if we continue to believe that choosing to make ourselves a priority is selfish? Let us help clear up some things. Usually when sharing the importance of choosing to invest in yourself, a comment response is “but isn’t that selfish?” This has us looking at what TRUE self-care is. Culture teaches us that it’s face masks and fancy vacations, when really, it’s anything that is life-giving to you.
How to prepare for autumn
Like it or hate it, fall and winter are coming to western Pennsylvania. Though I personally love this time of year and what’s to come, I recognize that it can feel difficult for many people. Seasonal depression tends to coincide with the ever decreasing daytime. Cold weather often causes people to spend more time indoors, resulting in feelings of isolation or boredom. Still others simply have negative connotations in relation to cold, hibernation time or the holiday season.
Common Issues Couples Fight Over Series: Part 4
Intimacy and/or sex are almost always included in the top 3 things couples fight about the most. Perhaps this is because we were never really taught how to navigate such delicate matters…intimacy is, afterall, a very intimate topic to talk discuss!
Over the years, many couples tend to for get about the importance of intimacy and take it for granted. As life gets in the way of dating, intimacy is not prioritized and becomes non-existent. This is how once loving, married couples turn into roommates who are coexisting.
