There are no questions about it, these are anxious and challenging times! We can now add COVID-19, volatile markets, closed borders, mandatory social distancing, skyrocketing unemployment, and an increased risk for illness and death to the stockpile of existential threats that we collectively face daily. Unfortunately, there is a high probability for even more adversity […]

The brain instinctively goes into “autopilot” when faced with emotional turmoil, trauma, pain, fear or anxiety. As a result, our sympathetic nervous system is activated to engage our fight-or-flight stress-response. Cortisol and adrenaline flood the brain to ensure our involuntary bodily functions kick into high gear to get us out of danger. Although this natural […]

Begin slow diaphragmatic breathing for two minutes.  Count of six on the inhale (keep chest still, breath deeply into your belly, fill up the belly like a balloon).  Count of eight on the exhale (slowly constrict and fully empty the belly on the exhale, imagine squeezing all water out of a sponge).   Identify your immediate […]

Self-disclosure moment: Being a therapist, I witness—often hourly—the constant duality of our human experiences.  As a privileged observer into the lives of others, I see our best and most challenging traits exposed: our humility and our arrogance; our self-critic and our self-promoter; our need for attachment and our need for individuation; our cravings and desires to be validated by others versus our self-reliant, […]