I dance in my office sometimes, with the window shades drawn, the door closed, and the music down low. I dance to electronic music with absurd lyrics, pop beats and ridiculous riffs. I dance in ways I wouldn't show to my friends or family, awfully silly and over-the-top, arms flailing and legs in the air. … Continue reading A Dancing Therapist
For me, recovery goes beyond alcohol & substances. For me, recovery expands into the relationship i have with my body and my eating. Having had an eating disorder when I was in high school, the urge to skip back into unhealthy patterns and thought cycles is strong at times. For me, recovery is an active … Continue reading Recovery, for me
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a one-on-one session with a new client of mine. This client came to therapy on her own volition to seek help with her depression, anxiety, isolation, and substance use issues. During this session, she became tearful as she spoke, and I could feel the pain emanating from … Continue reading Sitting with it
I have been feeling...disconnected from my sobriety lately. It's becoming more and more difficult for me to connect the current events of my life to being sober. It's true, much of what I have now wouldn't be in my life were I not sober. I probably wouldn't be dating my boyfriend. I wouldn't be living … Continue reading Feeling Disconnected from Sobriety
About a month and a half ago, I wrote a post about how I was nearly certain my relationship was going to end because of my boyfriend's need and desire to move back home to Indiana to be closer to his son (we're in Minnesota). I got frantic for a few weeks, wracked with anxiety … Continue reading Nothing Stays the Same, and That’s OK
I'm here,still sober & kickin' on this quiet October 1st. It's getting chilly up here in the North, though we're due to have an unseasonably warm burst of air midweek. I can't say I'm ready for winter to make her impending return. My last year of school is in full swing. I am settled in … Continue reading Simple Thoughts on Self-Care
tw: talk about eating disorders. One thing I haven't spent a lot of time exploring in this space of mine is the fact that during my 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade years of high school, I suffered quietly with an eating disorder. I don't know exactly how it'd be diagnosed today, but I think the closest … Continue reading Recovery is Lifelong
As we get sober and start down the path of recovery, we grow and often transform into a person we thought we'd never be, and as we grow we carry with us our most painful reminders of where we've been.
This coming Monday is the first day of my last year of school. I start my internship on Monday, and with that comes the return to the whirlwind of learning, stretching, bending, breaking, and re-making myself again. I will be interning with the county this time around, at their mental health clinic/partial hospitalization program. I … Continue reading Work, Sleep, and Other Ridiculous Things
Ever since Friday, I've been enveloped in this strange blanket of tender, complicated emotions. With my own bittersweet memories of pain and loss washing over me in waves, coupled with the tragic loss of a favorite musician to an all-too-predictable (and all-too-preventable) suicide, I've been taken over by some force of tragic optimism. I spent … Continue reading Make Tiny Changes
okayishness 