What Does Emotional Intelligence Mean? Part 1

emotional

Children experience the same emotions as adults. They can feel everything from happiness to sadness to anger to nervousness to even stress. However unlike adults, many children do not understand how to effectively deal with the range of emotions they experience. Just like other life skills parents pass onto their … Read More

Athletes: Listening To Your Body

athletes

Beep, Beep, Beep. I sleepily rolled over and looked at my alarm. The clock showed 6:15a.m. on Saturday morning. I lay in bed for a moment and had an internal debate. Should I put on my running shoes and get my 8 miles in? Deep down, my body ached; it … Read More

How to Negotiate Where to Spend the Holidays as a Newly Married Couple

holidays

Wondering where to spend the holidays as a newly married couple? As the song goes, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go.” The question this year is, “To which Grandmother’s house to go?” One discussion I encourage pre-marriage and newly married couples to have, especially this … Read More

Am I An Addict?

addict

Am I an addict? Labels, diagnosis, and prognosis: we are obsessed with putting labels on people and putting them in neat little categories. Society likes to know what the diagnosis is and what the prognosis will be. Many times I hear, “I use and abuse drugs and alcohol, but I … Read More

The Lions’ Den: A Survivalist Guide To Holidays

survivalist

Why do you need to be a survivalist during the holidays? We love to be with our family, but we hate the conflict. We can’t stay away and have to brace ourselves before walking into holiday family gatherings. It can feel like entering a lions’ den. Walking through the lions’ … Read More

Self Care During Election Season

election

It is Election Season and it is a wonderful privilege to be able to vote and participate in deciding what our government will look like over the next four years. However, I think we can all agree that this election season has been very stressful, regardless of where you stand politically. It can … Read More

Self-care is Not Selfish!

self-care

Self-care is not selfish or self-indulgent. We cannot nurture others from a dry well. We need to take care of our own needs first, then we can give from our surplus, our abundance. ~ Jennifer Louden I’ve found myself having the conversation about self-care with several clients lately. Many of … Read More

Contempt – Relationship Poison

contempt

Dr. John Gottman has researched couples for over 40 years. One of the things that he is known for is being able to predict which couples would make it and which would fail with a 94% accuracy rate. Predicting individual behaviors and outcomes is tricky business with a very low … Read More

Our Schools & The Mental Health Crisis

schools

Our schools are experiencing a mental health crisis. In any given year, up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder. What can we do to identify these students within our schools and connect them to the resources they need? In … Read More

How to Make Stress Your Friend – Part 2

stress

In the second part of this blog series, we are going to discover the positive side effects that occur by having confidence in your body’s ability to handle stress. Harvard University conducted a study where participants were told before going through a social stress test about the possible signs that their body … Read More