Trauma and Mental Health, Helene's Posts
Becky White George
Identifying Trauma

When we talk about “trauma,” we’re talking about an emotional or psychological response to a distressing event or experience. It’s not necessarily the event itself that’s traumatic but rather the way it impacts a person’s sense of safety, stability, or identity. Trauma often leaves people feeling overwhelmed, helpless, or disconnected from themselves or others.

Identifying Trauma
Relationships & Communication, Kalie's posts
Becky White George
Nurturing Friendships

I often use Gottman’s Sound Marital House as a framework to help couples build strong, healthy relationships. This theory breaks down into several key components that can enhance connection and resilience. One skill that stands out to me is Shared Fondness and Admiration, which involves openly expressing appreciation and respect for your partner (or friend).

Nurturing Friendships
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
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Get Organized!

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Get Organized!

With some simple systems, tracking, and practices, you can free yourself up from the 80% of work that takes up most of your time and creates the least results, so that you can focus on the 20% of your work that creates the greatest impact! Freeing up your mind to do what it does best-- like being creative & dreaming big-- creates a profound impact on your well-being and the well-being of those around you.

Over the years I have developed some simple organization and tracking systems that keep me grounded and help me focus on the 20% that gets me 80% of my results. Creating organization systems to keep track of appointments, tasks, to-dos, ideas, and thoughts throughout the day, in addition to visions and dreams for my life, has helped me get grounded, and create more space for the things that really matter while spending less time on things that aren’t a priority.

Read on to learn more about how to get organized, track your moods and cycles, and free up your time and energy to focus on what really matters.

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Starting a Morning Routine

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Starting a Morning Routine

…..At least, this is how mornings felt for me for a long time. The harshness of your morning can set you up for the rest of your day to be difficult. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed gets you started in a place of stress, and you are bound to feel irritable, tense and unfocused as you move through your day.

So what's the antidote to entering your day in battle mode? When I started learning more about the concept of a morning routine, my relationship to mornings changed. Mornings became a time for moving slowly, self-reflection, centering, and getting grounded. When you take a few minutes to set yourself up for a morning routine, it can influence the entire rest of your day in a positive way. When you enter your day feeling spacious, grounded, and in touch with yourself, you can move through the day with a whole new energy of patience, compassion, focus, and creativity.

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Getting the Most out of Therapy

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Getting the Most out of Therapy

How to Make the Most Out of Your Time in Therapy

So you’ve finally taken the leap and decided to commit to therapy. Congratulations! You’ve had your consultation calls, made your choice of therapist, and filled out your intake paperwork. You sit across from the therapist on the couch, or open up your computer screen and hope the camera is angled in a way where your sweatpants are hidden. Given the investment of time and money, and your high hopes for a successful therapy experience, you may want to know, “How can I get the absolute most out of my therapy session?”


Here are 5 tips to make the most out of your time in therapy:

Associate Therapist

Associate Therapist

In your search for the right therapist, you may have come across the term Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, the acronym AMFT, or the term Pre-Licensed Therapist. Perhaps you wondered what that means. You may have wondered if they are qualified or experienced enough to help you with your concerns. Maybe you’re just not sure if they can handle the complexities of your situation, but you don’t want to offend anyone by asking.

It is totally reasonable for you to wonder about these things, and any therapist’s office should welcome your questions. We’re happy to share with you that not only can associate therapists be a good fit for your needs, there are some distinct benefits to working with an associate therapist. We’ve broken them down for you here.

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Mental Health Support

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Mental Health Support

As someone with limited athletic ability and no cable subscription, sports, in particular tennis and gymnastics, have never been a big part of my life. This year, however, Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles changed that. Their bravery in bringing mental health into the dialogue highlighted the incongruence between how we may assume someone is feeling and their internal world. This year, I cared about sports.

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Therapy: What to Expect

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Therapy: What to Expect

Are you considering starting therapy but you feel intimidated or unclear on what actually happens in the first session? Do you wonder if there is some way to prepare? Starting therapy can be daunting and lots of people aren’t totally sure what even happens in therapy. In this post we will give you the inside scoop on what your first therapy session will be like.

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How to Find a Therapist

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How to Find a Therapist

Finding the right therapist can feel daunting and overwhelming, but it is an important step in starting therapy. Therapy is a powerful tool for gaining awareness into why we are the way we are, and why we do the things we do. Through gaining insight, we are then able to change certain behaviors or thinking patterns that do not serve us, as well as learn to accept the things that we cannot change. In order to do this work, we need to be willing to step into more vulnerable spaces and get in touch with emotions that might feel uncomfortable. So finding someone that you feel comfortable with is of the utmost importance-you need to feel safe to explore more vulnerable or triggering topics.

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11 Tips for Online Dating

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11 Tips for Online Dating

From no-shows to no sparks, off-putting behaviors, ghosting and heartbreak, online dating can be a fraught experience. But you can use the tips below to make some thoughtful tweaks, and it can become a wonderful way to meet new people, and maybe even “The One!” As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I have witnessed hundreds of clients explore online dating who have had experiences ranging from “this was the worst date of my life” all the way to “I’ve finally met my person.”

Not only am I privy to these tales of woe and love as a therapist, I also did quite a bit of online dating myself before I met my husband.

Over many years as a therapist, I have learned some excellent strategies for making dating online a safe, fun, and fruitful experience. Make sure to read through to the end for my most important tip of all!

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Trouble Sleeping? Read This

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Trouble Sleeping? Read This

Trouble Sleeping? Try this now.

My ultimate tip for insomnia and sleep trouble:

Along my insomniac journey, I have discovered one single intervention that always does help me get to sleep. This is one that you may not expect. There are many approaches to treating insomnia out there but my discovery is about as simple as it gets. I have used this tool countless times, both in my pre-bedtime routine as well as during my middle of the night wake-ups, and it's the only one that consistently gets the job done. The best part about it is that it has no side effects, no lingering fatigue in the morning, no brain fog, and it's completely free!


The tool I’m talking about is called the Bedtime Braindump.

 

Start With You. Today.