New Year, Same You: A Guide for Healthy Resolutions

New Year, Same You: A Guide for Healthy Resolutions

The new year is a clean slate, a chance to set intentions and try new ways of caring for yourself, your body, your aspirations, your relationships, your career… And yet, we’re all familiar with that feeling of shame and disappointment when we fall short of our resolutions. Self-compassion often takes a backseat to the goal we’re trying to achieve, and before we know it, we’ve failed to keep up with the rigorous diet and exercise routine, or trying to stay sober, and we’re deep in shame about it.

Now that we’re several days into 2024, it’s a good time to check in and make sure the goals we’re setting feel attainable. If you’re looking for guidance on how to meet this new year with hope for improving our lives in meaningful and lasting ways, here are a few therapy-based tips.

Managing Loneliness During the Holidays: Four Tips from a Therapist

Managing Loneliness During the Holidays: Four Tips from a Therapist

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? The holidays are meant to be a time of connection and joy, but sometimes they can be a time of disconnection, grief, and isolation, especially if you have recently suffered a loss.

Here are a few tips on how to care for yourself this holiday season...

Attachment Styles: What They Mean and How They Can Help in Your Relationships

Attachment Styles: What They Mean and How They Can Help in Your Relationships

Have you ever wondered what your life right now would be like if your childhood relationships with your parents or caregivers had been different? Have you ever reflected on a conflict with a partner or friend, and felt intuitively that if your bond with your parent or caregiver had been healthier when you were a kid, perhaps it would be easier for you to communicate as an adult? Maybe you’re not used to stating your needs clearly because your needs as a child were a burden. Maybe it’s hard for you to get through an uncomfortable conversation with your partner without arguing, because arguing was the predominant way your family communicated. Or maybe you often feel anxious in your relationships, and that anxiety has been with you since childhood?

If any of these experiences resonate, attachment-based therapy might help you.

5 Therapy Tips for Connecting with Your Family This Holiday Season

5 Therapy Tips for Connecting with Your Family This Holiday Season

With the holidays just around the corner, it’s normal to feel anxious about making plans with your family, especially if you have a history of conflict. Holidays might have been more fun when you were a kid when you could just play with your siblings and cousins, eat delicious food, and tune out the adult conversation. But now that you’re an adult with your own values and opinions, family togetherness during the holidays might feel more stressful, with lots of potential for disagreement and friction. Roast turkey with a side of resentment, anyone? 🙃

We can’t control how other people in our families act, but we have the agency to make healthier choices that help us navigate complex family dynamics. Here are five tips for connecting with family this holiday season. 

What is Emotionally Focused Therapy?

What is Emotionally Focused Therapy?

Maybe you’re familiar with this scenario: you and your partner (or parent, sibling, or friend) are both home after a long day at work, eating dinner together, when the conversation veers off-course into an argument. It could be about family plans for the holidays, or money, or household tasks that need to get done, but the fight feels too familiar. You’ve had this same fight before, even if it was technically about a different issue, and you and your loved one have reverted to the same feelings and reactions. You feel stuck. Why would something as innocuous as a family holiday gathering or a sink full of dishes trigger such intense feelings? Why can't you seem to react differently whenever the topic comes up? Something has to change, but you don’t know how to make it happen. 

Feeling stuck in your emotions and relational patterns is common, and it’s exactly the kind of issue that Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is designed to help.