Category Archives: Uncategorized

I wholeheartedly believe that tending to our well-being and cultivating resilience will lead to a happier life. However, “happiness” is not the goal. Sounds incongruent, doesn’t it? I know. Stick with me. If the measure of our success is only whether or not we feel happy, we are going to feel like failures fairly often.Continue reading “Happiness Is Not The Goal”

Ten years ago, I was out of graduate school and beginning a career in counseling. I was eager to put to use my newly honed skills working with families and children who had experienced trauma. Ten years ago, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit 16 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, devastating the entire island and killingContinue reading “Haiti Earthquake 10 Years Later: Lessons of Resilience”

Earlier this year I was honored to be asked to join the board of SARA, the Sexual Assault Resource Agency here in Charlottesville, VA. As a board member, donor, survivor and as someone who has worked with survivors of sexual assault and trauma, I know the positive impact of SARA. SARA partners with the communityContinue reading “Why I Support the Sexual Assault Resource Agency”

It is hard to come up with a new and enticing way to introduce the importance of sleep. It feels a bit like telling someone to eat more vegetables. There isn’t a whole lot of new ground to cover. Everyone already knows the basics. Sleep, good. Veggies, good. People quickly respond with a “Yeah, yeah.Continue reading “No Sleep ‘Till…?”

Negative Nelly. Eeore. Danny Downer. We’ve all been that person before. Faced with a challenge, change or, sometimes, just a glum Wednesday, we find ourselves tumbling down a rabbit hole of negative or distorted thought patterns. Unchallenged, over time, those thought patterns can become habit. Telling yourself (or someone else) to snap out of itContinue reading “How to Disrupt Negative Thoughts”

This week is Mental Illness Awareness Week. Too often, the phrase mental illness conjures up the most stereotyped caricatures. The realities are much different. One in five adults will experience a mental illness each year. One in 25 adults will experience a serious mental illness each year. Knowing this, how do we embrace the labelsContinue reading “Beyond the Label of Mental Illness”

“Owning your story.” It is a phrase often repeated by life coaches, consultants, and therapists like myself. It is a fundamental ingredient of what it takes to live an authentic life. But what does it really mean? What is our “story?” We each have a running list of things that we believe, understand, have hadContinue reading “Owning Your Story Is Not Owing Your Story”