One day my child came home after practice at 8pm, got ready in a new outfit, and asked if there’s a hose in the backyard. A confusing turn of events, but one that I’m sure parents across America have been experiencing over the last couple months. Teens and adults have been nominated for the water bucket challenge, in a very similar way that occurred years ago for the ALS ice bucket challenge. Hosing my kid down while her friend pours a bucket of water over her head is pretty fun, but often with these challenges, the focus can be the experience more than the cause. I wanted to continue the conversation that this challenge started because it’s very close to the heart of our center. 

In therapy spaces, we often hear or read acronyms that we don’t know or haven’t heard of before. There can be too many to keep track of, such as IFS, EMDR, CBT, and DBT just to name a few. In this post we’ll break down EMDR and learn what it means, what it’s used for, and how it can benefit you as a client. 

The holidays are upon us once again, which can be both an exciting and exhausting time. There can be a lot of pressure to see everyone, find the right gifts, make time for traditions, and see family members a lot more frequently than we normally would. During this time, it can be good for us to remember to take care of ourselves amidst the chaos we’re enduring, and this can look a lot of different ways:

We’re headed into a year that is almost guaranteed to bring political division as we head into an election cycle. Regardless of our own beliefs and stances, we will likely encounter alternate views at work, school, online, and with family. Sometimes these conversations come up when we don’t anticipate it and we can feel trapped. First and foremost, we can grant ourselves the option to gracefully step out of those conversations if it is not the best time to be in them. We can guard our mental state, energy, and time and be good stewards of where and how we spend them. However, if it is a conversation that we feel compelled to step into, here are some ways that we can do this as respectfully and composed as possible. 

Teenage girls face a lot of scrutiny regarding their looks in our society. This can stem from peers, family perspectives, their sports environments, and it can also be connected to their online world through social media and other platforms. These pressures can also impact adolescent males, however this post will speak solely to the experiences of adolescent females given that this demographic is most affected by these expectations.