A Dancing Therapist

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. …

Coming Back to Me

So, a few things have been happening over here in the Okayish corner of the world. The First Big Thing is that a few weeks ago, I got a random email on a Sunday morning from my ex-husband, in which he wrote that he wished we could still talk, and that he is sorry. Yes. …

I(‘m) quit(ting).

I'm quitting my job as a family therapist. Quitting, despite my fiancé still having no job to speak of, after being furloughed since March (the job isn't coming back, is it?). Quitting, despite the comfortable salary, the health benefits, the paid mileage. Quitting, despite this gnawing fear that my family will end up with no …

2020: The Year of Staying In

Hi all. I'm here. Alive. Still sober. Currently surrounded by blankets and pillows, trying to warm myself up from the bones out as Minneapolis braces against this surprising cold snap. There is a lot that could be said about the past seven months since I last wrote on here in July. I'll start with this: …

Sitting with it

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 …

Brain Magic for All Kinds of Pain: the Curable App

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a problem I was having with longstanding pain throughout my body. Most notably, I had been dealing with a searing pain in my shoulder and a general feeling of tightness, tension, and dull aching around my neck, my shoulders, and throughout my back. My therapist suggested I find …

Simple Thoughts on Self-Care

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 …

themes of recovery: observations from two years of sobriety

Today, July 9, 2018, is my "soberversary." It's been two full years since my last drink. 730 days. 17,520 hours. Over a million minutes. Or something like that. I've been chewing on a lot of thoughts about where I am in all this for some time, now. Even still, they feel incomplete. I know there …

On Self-Care…

In this moment I am sitting on a comfy couch, hedgehog in my lap, as a dog barks anxiously outside my doors. I've rented an Airbnb up north for myself and my hedgie for the weekend--just the two of us--as a thank you and congratulations to myself for completing the first year of internships without …

It’s Better to Burn Out… Or Is It? Nah, Not Really.

Well, I'm finally headed back to see my therapist today, for the first time since November. It's a little nerve-wracking. I feel like a dog with my tail between my legs, for no reason at all except that I stopped scheduling appointments with him out of the blue back in November and never sent an …