Ode to My Clients: The Greatest Ones You Never Knew
It's weird, this life as a Licensed Professional Counselor, because a giant chunk of my vocation involves work I never get to tell you about. I'm sure you know that HIPPA laws keep me from talking about them. Even if a pastor or friend were to refer someone...
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It’s Almost Here!
******Update to this post: It's here. Order now! After five years of research and writing, my book is almost ready. The topic is postraumatic growth (This is NOT the cover) The book has been written, edited multiple times, a cover has been created, and the interior...
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Trauma and the Las Vegas Shootings
Trauma is in my wheelhouse. I grew up with trauma. I buried trauma. I finally learned how to deal with trauma when I became a Licensed Professional Counselor at age 37. For 15 years I have researched trauma, written about it, counseled clients, attended seminars,...
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One Rule For Life Vacations Can Teach You
Whenever me and my husband take group tours to Europe we make such fabulous memories. Planning these trips, and then taking them, makes each day after our vacation richer. But one thing we’ve learned about our trips is that a lot of things are going to go wrong. ...
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Prince Harry Speaks About Mental Health on Mod World Podcast
I'm excited about this new podcast Mod World. In Episode 1 Prince Harry speaks to the Telegraph's Bryony Gordon for the first episode of her new podcast, Mad World, where she interviews guests about their mental health experiences. The half-hour conversation provides...
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EMDR For Sexual Abuse Survivors
Yesterday an acquaintance on social media sent me a private message. She had a question about a type of trauma treatment called EMDR. If you don't know what EMDR is, check out this video. It looks woo-woo, but it is actually a powerful tool that many therapists use....
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The Shocking Way Childhood Trauma Affects Your Physical Health
You may remember in my book Renewed: Finding Your Inner Happy in an Overwhelmed World where I talked about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE), which shows a scientific link between many types of childhood adversities and the adult onset of physical and...
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Help! My Depressed Friend Leans On Me Too Much
I'm in a social/friendly Facebook group where people randomly share situations in which they are needing advice from others. Here is one I saw and how I responded: I need some friendship advice. I’m in a difficult situation with one of my friends — he struggles with...
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Emotional Bubble Wrap Strategies for Living in a Bumpy World
When I was 37, with middleschool children at home, I went to graduate school to study counseling. If you had met me then you would have seen a perfectionistic, seemingly happy young women. But in reality, I hid a lot of shame and massive amounts of unprocessed trauma....
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Anxiety – A Primer
I'm a Licensed Professional Counselor, Author, and Teacher at a local university. My tagline is "help for hurting people." Last week I sent out an email asking my subscribers what they wanted me to write more about. Two popular topics were grief and anxiety. So here's...
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