This Therapist's Therapy

  Today is the last part of this series on Finding Yourself, Your Confidence, and Your Purpose.  I hope you're feeling a little excited about this week's topic.  This is the fun, yet kind of scary part.  So let's talk about finding your purpose. You discovered your values, what's important to you.  You determined the meaning and maybe the origin of your values, what really makes you, "you".  You discerned your barriers, what's gotten in the way of living out your values and who you were meant to be.  And you decided the next steps, the things you committed to doing to make a positive difference in your life.  In doing these things, you were able to figure out how to live authentically and congruent with your beliefs and values, which enables you to have a confidence in yourself that you may have never experienced before.   So, I'm wondering if, while doing all this work, you began to see a theme bubble up?  Were there ideas or feelings that came up acr

  Welcome back!  How'd it go in doing that bit of self-exploration last week?  I hope it gave you some insight about yourself.  Now we'll use that to draw from, to begin discovering the barriers to living out your values and what your next steps are. Step #3:  Discern the Barriers Now that you've discovered your values and determined what's important to you and why, it's time to take a hard look at yourself and discern your barriers.  These are often barriers that you've put up because of fear of failure, fear of rejection, or fear of being hurt.  But in order to find your confidence, you need to confront the barriers and knock them down one by one.  Take your time and be honest. So let's revisit the list. Family Relationships - What has stopped you or currently stops you from having the type of family relationships you really want?  How have you contributed to these barriers?   Marriage/Intimate Relationships - What issues are you facing in your marriage or

Do you feel like you aren't quite sure who you are or what your purpose is?  Do you feel unheard, unappreciated, or under-valued? Or do you feel like you don't fit in?  Do you worry about what other people think of you? Chances are that you’ve been battling these feelings for so long, you’ve come to believe them yourself. There are patterns in place that you can't seem to break.  But you want to be YOU. If you’re ready to change those beliefs, break those patterns, learn to value yourself, and take control of your own life, keep reading.   You're going to begin to discover who you were really meant to be. And you're going to take the first steps toward being comfortable and confident with who you are. Step #1:  Discover Your Values Values are the things in life that you feel are most important.  While one person might value their family relationships above all else, another person might value their career.  Everyone's values are different, and there's no &qu

 Today is Word Mental Health Day, and boy, isn't 2020 a year that we could all use some mental health awareness?!  I'm finding that now, 7 months into this crazy pandemic, that folks' mental health is finally, really starting to take a hit.  After 7 months of being mostly cooped up at home, unable to go out much, unable to socialize with your friends and family, in person, and being stuck in front of a screen all day, we're beginning to experience some significant depression.  Not to mention, if you live anywhere on the West Coast, you've also had to deal with wildfires, smoke, and poor air quality. You deserve to be your whole self, every day.  Not just World Mental Health Day. Since 8th grade I have wanted to be.....known I would be....a therapist.  One of my greatest passions is to help people figure out just how to be their "whole self".   Sometimes this means helping you uncover and work through the experiences in your past that are causing roadblocks

I've been thinking a lot about gratitude lately.  I realize I tend to talk about it a lot with my clients, recommending it as a way to improve their mood.  I also realize that I try to practice it regularly, in my own life.  Gratitude is defined as "the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness."  There are a few things that come to mind when I think about gratitude.  First, I think about what a simple, inexpensive, yet profound gesture or attitude it is.  It doesn't usually cost but a minute or two of our time and can with done with no money.  So, why is it so hard to come by?  Why do people have such a hard time being grateful or showing gratitude?  Why is it so hard to appreciate something or someone?  Is it because we're now in a society, or age, in which so much is just expected.  Nothing seems sacred anymore.  It seems like people just think that they deserve anything and EVERYTHING they want or ask for.  And becaus