Relationships & Communication, Sophia's Posts
Becky White George
Validation in Romantic Relationships

The importance of validation is something I emphasize with couples as it creates a dynamic based on understanding rather than score-keeping or proving right and wrong. In an emotionally charged conversation, it's common for individuals to focus primarily on their own emotional experience instead of their partner’s. Rather than listening to what the other person is saying, we may be thinking about our own response.

Validation in Romantic Relationships
Atalie's Posts, Relationships & Communication
Becky White George
Flexibility In Friendships

A common struggle for many of my clients in their 20s is navigating friendships. This includes friendship conflicts, growing apart, reassessing the closeness of the friendship, and defining what types of friendships feel fulfilling in which ones feel draining. In these conversations, we explore the importance of flexibility in friendships and why it becomes so much more pertinent during this life stage.

Flexibility In Friendships
Jessica's Posts, Trauma and Mental Health
Becky White George
Intellectualizing Feelings

I have thought through every situation from every possible angle my brain can come up with and analyzed so much of my life and experience that it often feels exhausting. This “self-awareness” can start to feel incredibly frustrating when I have some understanding, yet I still find myself in familiar patterns or generally not feeling better. If this description sounds familiar to you, you might be intellectualizing your feelings vs. actually feeling them.

Intellectualizing Feelings
Kalie's posts, Self Care & Mindfulness
Becky White George
The Animal Within

I recently stumbled upon the concept of animal chronotypes, which can be used to describe our personality traits based on our natural tendencies in social interactions and behavior. While these archetypes are often linked to sleep habits, they’re also super helpful for understanding how we connect with others. Each chronotype has its own unique traits and ways of navigating relationships.

The Animal Within
Jessica's Posts, Therapy: Getting Started
Becky White George
What I Wish Clients Knew

We were discussing a painful experience, and I was once again struck and inspired by their resilience. In this situation, I found a way to express this sentiment in the moment. However, there are many instances where sharing in the moment might not be the most therapeutic response. Even when I don’t vocalize it, I want my clients to know I carry these feelings and this care with me. Reflecting on this, I began to consider all the things I wish my clients knew about me, about the therapeutic relationship, and the process.

What I Wish Clients Knew

covid-19

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Coping with Illness

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Coping with Illness

Flakey pie crust bakes in the oven and the aroma of cheese and tarragon wafts around me as I sit in my kitchen nook at sunset. Since childhood, the veggie pot pie has been one of my favorite dishes. I am instantly comforted whenever I smell it cooking in the oven. When I’m feeling under the weather, I find comfort in nostalgic smells.

I finally got COVID. After being quite cautious during the last 2.5 years of the pandemic, I was frustrated to ultimately get COVID simply from going about my everyday routine. When I get acutely sick, I tend to go through rapid stages of the grief cycle.*

First, I tend to go into an initial denial phase and tell myself, "oh, I am just tired," and then push forward with my responsibilities at home and with my virtual work.

Second, I get angry and think, "Oh, no. I might be sick. How could I let myself get sick at a time like this?!"

And after the anger subsides, the bargaining comes: "If I can get better super quick…like in the next day…I promise I will do more meditation and yoga, improve my sleep and reduce my stress level so that I don't get sick again."

Then comes the depression when the symptoms quicken, as I mope in bed and think, "Life is terrible. I am unhappy. What am I doing with my life? How did I get here? I don't care about anything anymore. I am so unmotivated. Am I depressed? Have I been depressed for months and not realized it? Nothing brings me joy anymore." Walking my dog and smiling with my latte just a few days prior now feel like a distant memory. The depression phase tends to be the longest as I lay in bed, and it feels like I have been this down and having these low thoughts for years.

I must decide during the depression phase to move into acceptance. The decision is to recognize that this pain and discomfort are temporary and that suffering and the depressive state are optional. I start to recall monks who meditate with discomfort and pain in the heat on top of a mountain. The sun will move from the hill, the day will cool, and the sweat will subside. Everything is temporary.

As time passes, I start to move into greater acceptance.

Here are five tips that helped me move forward from depression to acceptance to coping with acute illness, and eventually renewed joy:

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Post Covid Stress

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Post Covid Stress

I miss how I experienced my life Before The Pandemic or “BTP”. These days, my concept of time sometimes revolves around BTP and life After The Pandemic, or “ATP.”

I miss those long embracing hugs when first seeing a family member. I miss leaning in toward a friend at a coffee shop table and looking into their eyes as they share a story. I miss physical intimacy without the fear of getting sick. I miss signing up for workout classes at a local studio, sweating next to a workout friend, and feeling that shared sense of energetic community, without the fear that someone’s sweat will drip onto me and spread the virus.

BTP life used to feel balanced, joyful, harmonic, and expansive, whereas life ATP feels imbalanced, blah, chaotic, and cautiously small. It takes daily intentional effort to bring myself into balance and feel joy, harmony, and expansiveness.

As I write this, I am aware that I may be experiencing some of the symptoms of what mental health professionals are calling post-COVID stress or languishing. Some people have returned to a new normal and to the activities and routines they did BTP, including returning to work in person, hanging out often with friends and family, going to restaurants and events, attending workout classes, and traveling. Others, including myself, may continue to live a cautious lifestyle that looks noticeably different from BTP. Even if you have externally returned to BTP daily activities, you may relate inwardly to some of these post-COVID stress disorder symptoms.

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Coping with Grief

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Coping with Grief

“And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.”- Maya Angelou


These lines from the poem “When Great Trees Fall” by Maya Angelou were read to me in session by a client as she prepared for her first Thanksgiving without her husband. Though this client has been feeling the immense weight of her grief daily and even hourly, the thought of the imminent holiday season has been bringing up new and intense emotions. The experience of managing grief comes up every year in therapy sessions, but this year the grieving feels even more pervasive as so many of us have lost family members throughout the pandemic. In some way, we are all grieving the loss of unmet expectations and hopes from the past 21 months.

For many, the end of the year holidays signifies a time of togetherness, happiness, and celebration. For those of us that are grieving, these feelings are muddled together with pain, loneliness, longing, resentment, and a myriad of other emotions. Creating space for all of these jumbled emotions can feel overwhelming. Here are some coping skills to keep in mind this holiday season for anyone experiencing grief in any form.

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Surviving the COVID Holidays

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Surviving the COVID Holidays

The trauma and grief of this time is real and it has and will continue to have myriad affects on all of us. I know that our collective mental health is suffering. I feel for you and I am right there with you. My heart goes out to you. I am doing what I can to help my clients work with their suffering, to accept themselves and their heartbreak and to have their own pain be a seed of compassion for others in pain. I am also doing what I can to take care of myself, to slow down, get quiet, and feel my feelings. My heart goes out to anyone who is unable to see their families during this time, for any variety of reasons.

Some good news is that there are plenty of resources out there to help you get through this difficult time. Our Associate Therapist, Jessica Leader, wrote a blog post about Coping Skills and Self-Care Tips For Getting Through This Holiday Season. Here are some key tips that she recommends for coping during this painful time. Read on and get the full scoop on Jessica’s tips for getting through this COVID holiday season

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Getting Unstuck + News!

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Getting Unstuck + News!

Root to Rise Therapy has a new therapist offering weekend and evening appointments as well as sliding scale and reduced rates. We also changed our business name. Plus some tips for getting “unstuck” and dealing with burnout!

I ran some reports recently and learned that I had 97 client sessions this month—about 24 therapy sessions a week. Why am I sharing that with you? It means that I have the privilege of understanding close-up and in real-time how people are surviving, what common threads are coming up, what has been helpful and what hasn't been.

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COVID-19 Sucks + Resources

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COVID-19 Sucks + Resources

Read on for more insights and resources about what people are going through right now, insights from the edge, and more resources to get through the suck.

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COVID-19 Therapy

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COVID-19 Therapy

Read on for tips on making Virtual Therapy work, additional resources, and whats coming up in therapy right now.

I am so privileged to have a window into the lives of my clients during the pandemic, to get firsthand accounts of how people are affected by COVID-19, how they are coping, what’s been helpful for them, and see the world through their eyes, with new perspectives.

 

Start With You. Today.