Your feelings map is in your hands.

Pushing Feelings Away

A common coping mechanism when confronted with challenging emotions is the tendency to push them away. This is often seen as a defense mechanism, a way to avoid discomfort. However, it's essential to realize that suppressing your feelings does not make them disappear.

Instead, they tend to fester beneath the surface, causing more significant pain over time. It’s possible to behave harshly without appreciating why because what sets you off are denied feelings. You can push feelings out of your awareness but not out of your psyche.

Overcoming eating disorders includes love, smiles and encouragement.

Smiles of encouragement are essential in building self-respect, self-worth and self-confidence. Eating disorder thinking sets up a cascade of self-doubts, insecurities and anxieties. You feel worthless despite what others may say to support you.

You know in your heart that you have tricked others into believing you are competent, confident and have value. You need compliments, so you know your false facade of worth is intact while you feel worthless to yourself.

Anxiety is challenged by calm, wisdom, strength and focus.

Anxiety, whether it comes rarely, or is ever-present or seems to loom on the edge of your experience ready to strike, is a full body and emotional experience. When you are In it you want out of it. That desire to get immediate relief can leave people in a desperate situation where they will reach for food, alcohol, drugs, isolate at home and under the covers, emotional venting on others and even violence.

In my psychotherapy practice, my first goal is to gain trust so that the individual can have an anxiety attack in my presence. Knowing I can bear it helps the person know it’s bearable. She knows she can talk through it, think while it’s happening, and not act out. The first requirement in coping with anxiety and then relieving it is to be able to bear it while it’s happening.

Once that is achieved, we can unravel causes and triggers. We can develop the insight, strength and stamina to face and resolve the issues that cause our anxiety reaction.

Psychotherapy benefits include a powerful journey towards healing and mental wellness. Seeking help and support from this process is a sign of strength, not weakness. The benefits of psychotherapy can be yours at any age as long as you are willing and capable of doing the work.

Here I explore with you the transformative power of psychotherapy, highlighting its potential to provide relief from spiraling thought processes, negative self-talk, and deep-rooted issues like eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

Understanding Psychotherapy

Effective psychotherapy is a collaborative process between an empathic psychotherapist therapist and an individual seeking help. Its aim is to provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Through this exploration, individuals can gain insight, develop coping strategies, and improve their mental and emotional well-being.

Betrayal can strike us fast and hard, a blow to gut and soul

Betrayal as a lens to look at eating disorders, PTSD, self-doubt and anxiety

Betrayal is a vast concept we may think of in limited terms. Betrayal causes such intense emotional and psychological pain the mind reels. Thinking moves to self-doubt and unworthiness.  “If I were valuable and worthy I would never have been betrayed.” Betrayal can plunge you into a sense of abandonment at your most vulnerable times. You can be anxious, bewildered and unable to think clearly about your situation.

Your identity blooms like a flower. Patience, fortitude, maybe a prickly defense, time and attention: you’ll bloom.

Finding one's true identity is a deeply personal and introspective journey that can take time and self-reflection. Here are seven steps you can take to explore and discover your true identity:

1.          Self-reflection: Take the time to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and values. Ask yourself meaningful questions about who you are, what matters to you, and what brings you joy and fulfillment. Consider your strengths, passions, and aspirations.

Anxiety and Stress during a Pandemic

We are not living in ordinary times. Anxiety grows. Our reasonable adaptations for stress may not serve us well when stressors comes every day and sometimes ever hour. We suffer emotionally when the stability of our economics, our politics, our relationships, our health, our physical safety and the safety of those we love is continually threatened. Finding balance and reasonableness can be difficult or impossible. 

The pandemic as well as a turbulent political landscape ,compelled  individuals around the world  to adopt five fundamental strategies for coping with near overwhelming challenges.

1.COVID Caution: Embracing Physical Distancing and Mask-Wearing
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated an unparalleled level of caution in our daily lives. Physical distancing and mask-wearing have become the norm, serving as crucial shields against the virus's relentless spread. These measures not only safeguard our health but also demonstrate our commitment to the collective well-being of society.