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Finding Your Safety Amongst the Chaos

Polarized Friends and Family It’s been a rough week for many people.  So much of the country is singing praises of how excited they are about the election results.  Yet, many others are living in fear and have begun to isolate themselves in a state of depression about the loss of hope. It’s a wild […]

T Shirt with Bold Imperfect Action written on it

Uncertainty, Risk and Emotional Exposure

There’s Comfort in Staying Small I remember years ago listening to a podcast with Brené Brown that discussed the fact that when you are bold and speak your authentic story, that it’s not always rosey and it doesn’t always feel heroic.  In fact, I recall her talking about how she would read all the comments […]

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Comparative Suffering

Why I Held Off On a Blog There is a term known as Comparative Suffering that essentially means that we often hold off on sharing our own trials when we compare our suffering to that of others.  I had wanted to share my struggle with a challenging business situation I encountered, but then after I […]

I’m Not Flashy

Vegas It’s been 8 years since I have been to Las Vegas.  A lot has changed over the years structurally, but the one thing that you can always count on is the Flashiness of the Vegas Scene. I’m not a typical Vegas lover, as I hate to lose money… so I don’t gamble, I can’t […]

Gina's mountain bike accident August 2023

The Body Keeps Score

Trauma and The Body Bessel van der Kolk wrote a book in 2014 called The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and the Body in the Healing of Trauma. The book quickly became a famous must-read for therapists working with trauma.  It helped to explain that trauma is not only mental, emotional and neurological, but […]

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When Preverbal Experiences Drive Your Current Behaviors

But I Just Want To Work on My Anger? Often someone will come to therapy and they state something like “I want to control my anger that shows up in my interactions with my boss, co-worker, or even partner.  I go from 0-100 in seconds and don’t know how to control myself.”  They will usually […]

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The Power of Intensives

It’s Intimate and Powerful I recently had the opportunity to provide an EMDR intensive over 3 days.  There is something very intimate and magical about the intensive model for both myself as the therapist and for the client. In my last intensive, we spent 4 hours on Friday, 6.5 hours on Saturday and another 3 […]

The word anxiety drawn on a tablet with the stylus resting next to it.

Uncertainty…The Anxious Person’s Nemesis

The World of Uncertainty Well here we are in a very interesting place in history.  Our current president has withdrawn from the 2024 election and endorsed V.P. Kamala Harris as the candidate for the Democratic ticket. The secret service director Kimberly Cheatle just resigned after the questionable handling of the security at a rally where […]

Rediscovering a Playful Spirit

Remembering Childhood I have some very vivid memories of playful and fun times as a child.  We would stay out all day playing with the neighborhood kids riding bikes, playing ball, hide and seek and creating forts and clubs.  Back then, I didn’t have a care in the world.  I didn’t have any responsibility for […]

Gina and her husband in front of their camper van

Camping is My Happy Place

Rest and Gratitude One of the things that has always amazed me about camping is that while there I am not on any schedule, and I can sleep later, sit and drink coffee longer, and embrace the little things that I would miss on a regular basis. This past week we went to Three Island […]