When I started my practice, I wanted a phrase that said something true about how I work. “Think Positive” was everywhere, on mugs and posters and in every self-help book. It never sat right with me, and it still doesn’t. So I built my approach around a different idea: think possible.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article suggesting that therapists often encourage their clients to cut off relationships with family. Having worked in this field for thirty years, I’ve long known this to be true.
A few days ago, I accompanied someone during an intake for mental health treatment. It wasn’t the experience I was expecting.
You believe you’ve found everything in life. You’ve worked hard, established yourself, met all the criteria for ‘success’ and have the things most people spend a lifetime chasing.
Anxiety is a big thing for most people. Unlike fatigue or a low mood, it creates its own unique kind of discomfort, affecting you in ways that other difficulties don’t. Anxiety plagues you, it disrupts sleep patterns, it’s not something you can distract yourself from with your favorite TV series or Netflix.
So, what can you actually do, right now, to calm it down?
Everywhere we look, there seems to be something new to fear. Anxiety and instability are on the rise.
People ask, will AI take my job? What kind of world are my kids growing up in? What does the future hold for them, and for us? When will the wars stop? Why are we so divided?
I remember standing in a store when my daughter was a toddler, smiling at t-shirts that said “girl power” and “throw like a girl.” With only one child at the time, a daughter, I didn’t give it a second thought.
A few years later, I found myself in that same store with my son too. And I noticed something I hadn’t before, that there was nothing like that for him. No shirts, no slogans,and no celebration of boys. That small observation prompted a question I’ve been sitting with ever since.
We are almost in February, and if your New Year’s resolutions are beginning to fade, you’re not alone.
We even have a name for it, ‘Quitter’s Day’, the day when many of us have already given up on our well-meant promises. This year, it fell on 9th January. So, if you’re still hanging in there, that’s a reason to celebrate.
The one thing we can be certain of in life is that change is inevitable, but not always welcome. When I speak with new clients, significant change is almost always happening in their lives. It’s often the reason they connect with me.
We all have that one friend who seems effortlessly decisive, the one who makes choices without hours of agonizing over whether they made the right decision. I’m sure you know the type. I have a friend like that, a real superstar who constantly inspires me. But when I visited her recently, she looked tired. When I asked how she was, she admitted she hadn’t been sleeping well. She’d spent the previous night reflecting on her life choices, especially those she regretted or might do differently, given the chance again.
