Your mental health matters. Here's our guide on how to make therapy affordable.

Mother’s Day can be tough. It can be a day of connection, longing, love, or grief, depending on your reality. For some, Mother’s Day might be both positive and painful. This is a nod to those for which Mother’s Day is complicated.

Anxiety is one of the main reasons people seek therapy and we believe anxiety is normal to experience throughout life. Since COVID, we have seen a dramatic increase in folks feeling anxious- and for good reason!

Grief is a universal experience. We all will, at some point in our lives, experience a devastating life event and lose someone or something who matters to us. That is part of what it means to be human: love and loss. Grief is the very normal expression of loss.

“Humans are wired for connection.” We’ve all heard it before, and for good reason. People who feel strongly connected to others have lower rates of depression and anxiety than those who don’t. Strong social connection can impact our self-esteem and increase our ability to feel empathy toward others. Connectedness can literally even strengthen the immune system! But somewhere along the line, our cultural understanding of human connection became conflated with romantic connection.

It happens like clockwork. Every January, the cries of “New Year, new you!” begin. The targeted ads to lose weight or change your body start increasing. Conversations begin revolving around “lifestyle changes.” Things you are pretty sure are diets get disguised as wellness. It’s exhausting. Being a human with a body in our culture is just plain exhausting.

One thing that doesn’t typically mix is parties and the whole “sober” thing. Our social culture is set up to glorify happy hours, dinner and drinks, or spending time with friends around a few cocktails and beers. Unfortunately, as someone who no longer drinks or uses substances, this isn’t really an option for me anymore. So, how do you manage to survive family dinners, friend get togethers, and office parties, and festive celebrations?