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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Boosting Creativity

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Boosting Creativity

Do you ever find yourself lacking motivation or feeling as if you’re just going about your days in auto-mode? I know I definitely do, and increasingly so these past couple of years!

Throughout the past two years many of us have unwittingly found ourselves in an ongoing state of existing vs. living. Existing is a state of numbness, operating on perpetual autopilot and clinging onto any semblance of routine and normalcy. Living, as a contrast, is the state of total engagement with life, feeling the broad spectrum of emotions, and being open to creative potential. The experience of existing can lead to a life devoid of creative expression, or what we might call writer’s block, creative slowdown, or lack of inspiration.

If you feel that you are suffering a creative block, the good news is that creative potential exists within you. Engaging with it is the key to unlocking hope and purpose—the two elements needed to awaken us from existing and elevate us into living. Here are a few ways to tap into your why and, by doing so, boost your creativity:

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Split Ambivalence

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Split Ambivalence

“Splitting the ambivalence” describes the phenomenon that occurs when two people become so polarized in their stances that they are unable to step out of their positions. This occurs in relationships of all forms, but for this conversation I’m going to focus on romantic relationships. As Esther Perel describes it, “people come in with a story that is either/or” and the story becomes ‘I want one thing and my partner wants the opposite’. When one person adamantly says they want one thing, and the other passionately says no, it feels like one partner has 0% doubt and the other is 100% doubtful. Rather than meeting in the middle, one partner takes on one half of the perspective, which polarizes and puts the other half on their partner. I know this can all be a bit confusing in generalities, so here’s an example of how it can play out in couples therapy.

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Starting a Business

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Starting a Business

“While there can be no question that the last two years have harmed us, it’s also encouraged us to rethink how, where, and why we work.” - Rha Goddess

As Rha Goddess so aptly points out, the last two years have led many of us to question the hows, wheres, and whys of our work. I have seen clients leave their jobs to start new jobs, leave their jobs even when they don’t have new jobs, and leave their jobs because they have a bigger “why” that’s calling to them. A lot of times this bigger “why” is connected to a deep sense of purpose and calling, a desire to remove themselves from the traditional 9-5, and create a relationship with work that honors their values and energy cycles.

As a business owner I find it so exciting to work with clients who are exploring the idea of starting their own business. I have learned a lot over the years from my own experience as a business owner. I have put in time, energy, and resources towards learning how to run a business (and still have so much to learn). I have educated myself with books, professional coaches, masterminds, and courses to learn about business, money psychology, and leadership. Through my own experiences and a good lot of trial and error, I’m sharing with you my 10 fundamental tips for starting your own business, whether it’s a side hustle or your true calling.

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Therapy: An Investment In Yourself

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Therapy: An Investment In Yourself

Take a moment to consider something you spend money on, and what it brings into your life. Does that thing or experience fill you with joy? Does it make your life easier? Does it make you feel safer? Is it important to someone you love and you like to see them happy?

Now consider that the quality of our primary relationships with our loved ones is one of the key determinants of life satisfaction and happiness. Learning ways to communicate, set healthy boundaries, and identify and express vulnerable feelings is vital to the health of our long-term relationships. Your family of origin may not have modeled safety or the productive sharing of feelings. You may have learned that self-preservation meant taking care of others, but never learned to care for yourself. Or you may have learned that taking care of others is the only way to feel worthy of love.

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The Post-Holiday Blues

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The Post-Holiday Blues

January is the Monday of the year. The holidays are over, it feels like there’s nothing to look forward to, you’ve returned from your travels (or moved from the couch to your desk), your kids are back at school, and you’ve started back up at work. The weather is bleak and there is less daylight (though I can hear everyone outside of Los Angeles rolling their eyes at me); life returns to normal, yet for many of us we don’t feel normal at all. We expect to start the new year feeling well rested, calmer and more grounded, and ready to make all of the changes in our lives that will make us a new and improved person. This all sounds wonderful, albeit unrealistic. If you’re struggling with adjusting to 2022, here are some ways to combat the post-holiday blues

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7 Tips for Better Sleep

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7 Tips for Better Sleep

Sleep is one of the highest forms of self-care, situated right at the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Many of us logically understand the significant impact of sleep on mental health, physical health, and overall well-being. However, sleep tends to be one of the first needs that gets sacrificed when we become increasingly busy.

I’m here to offer you several useful tips on how to maximize your sleep, but more importantly to urge you to look at sleep as a priority. Sure — self-care in the form of bubble baths, facemasks, and all the other small rituals to nurture yourself is healing — but a deep night’s sleep is ESSENTIAL.

This is because while we sleep, we recharge our bodies and minds, consolidate memories and information, increase our immune function to stay healthy, and increase our abilities to be alert and productive during the day.

Many people struggle with initial insomnia or sleep-onset insomnia, which is characterized as a difficulty in falling asleep and is often linked with anxiety.

I’ve listed some tools and techniques below, along with an evening wind-down meditation of mine, in order to support you in cultivating consistent sleep that is relaxing, rejuvenating, and restorative.

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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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ADHD Symptoms in Women

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ADHD Symptoms in Women

Women with ADHD are often overlooked, misdiagnosed, or undiagnosed all together. After working with Kaitlin* over the past year, I have been able to witness the long-term effects of this oversight and the journey it can take to receive an accurate diagnosis. Kaitlin has lived the majority of her life with various mental health symptoms that never quite fit into any one diagnosis. She has spent years testing out various medications and treatment methods with only limited success. This year, at age 34, she received an ADHD diagnosis and finally felt everything click into place. As I celebrated this feeling of relief and progress with Kaitlin, I started thinking more seriously about why and how this diagnosis took so long to figure out. Looking at my own caseload, I realized that almost all of my female clients with ADHD or ADD were diagnosed later in life. This pattern within my client base is representative of the current statistics regarding ADHD: 50-75% of women with ADHD go completely undiagnosed. Using Kaitlin as my inspiration, I started learning more about what has been missing in ADHD research and diagnosis and what is finally improving now. Here’s what I’ve been learning:

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Mindfulness 101

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Mindfulness 101

Developing a mindfulness practice can feel impossible when operating in a society that determines our identities through how much we do rather than emphasizes the experience to simply be, but there are many ways to integrate mindfulness practices into your daily life, even amongst the never-ending demands.


Mindfulness techniques come in two forms: formal and informal.

Formal mindfulness techniques are those that are practiced in a specific setting with a distinct intention and method, such as meditation. Informal mindfulness techniques can be accessed at any point throughout your day, such as focusing on flavors as you eat or observing the breath as you drive.

Whether you have time to integrate formal mindfulness techniques into your daily regimen or just want to dip your toes into informal practices, here are some techniques you can start exploring today! I encourage you to experiment with different approaches, and to pick and choose the ones that interest you most as you begin your journey!

 

Start With You. Today.