Treja entered the coffee shop with great excitement. It had been such a long time since she had made time for a social life. She was finally grabbing a few minutes to meet with her new friend, Sonya. They had met a few weeks back at her cousin’s birthday party and had met almost weekly since. Today is their first time meeting for lunch, a fantastic way to break up her monotonous day!

Arriving spot on at twelve noon as they had agreed, Treja chided herself for nearly being late. Expectantly, she scanned the room to see if Sonya was…

Pressing down hard on my suitcase, I am scarcely able to finish zipping it before I hear the car horn signal time to go. As if watching myself from the upper corner of the ceiling, I watch myself walk out the door, leaving behind everything and everyone I know, off to a land I have barely set foot in, with little money and nothing resembling a real plan. Bound for India, all my earthly possessions occupy two check-in bags and a carry-on. The story I tell myself is that I am brave and headed for adventure.

If that day was…

As I lay there on the floor, drained of every last ounce of energy, mind blank, I somehow knew the right thing to do. It was time to leave the land I had come to think of as home and return to the US. As the days and weeks followed that fateful day, the knowing became stronger and the assurance deeper. Looking back now, over nine years post my departure from India, the decision has indeed proven to be the right one. There were no facts, nothing I could have pointed to that could have explained my decision, especially in…

Survivor to Thriver: blogs are written for those who have a history of trauma, battle shame, deal with self-destructive and/or unhelpful behaviors, or grapple with relationship issues, check out these writings.

Boundaries are an important part of life. They help us see where we end and others begin. They define and protect us. They let good things in and keep trouble away. In a way, they are like a fence around someone’s house or property. Sound pretty good, don’t they? Think about every person you care about. Would you want them to have boundaries and to keep them safe?

What about you?

Many people struggle with their own boundaries. In fact, as you read the first sentence of this article, you may have noticed a knot forming in your stomach at…

The Effects of Pre-Existing Vulnerability Factors

Treja entered the coffee shop with great excitement. It had been such a long time since she had made time for a social life. She was finally grabbing a few minutes to meet with her new friend, Sonya. They had met a few weeks back at her cousin’s birthday party and had met almost weekly since. Today is their first time meeting for lunch, a fantastic way to break up her monotonous day!

Arriving spot on at twelve noon as they had agreed, Treja chided herself for nearly being late. Expectantly, she scanned the room to see if Sonya was…

I sit at my desk, transfixed. On the screen before me, in all its grandeur, is my weekly schedule.

How did I do this again?

Search as I may, I find little breathing room, little margin. Closing the calendar, lest tears of frustration begin to fall, I half-heartedly move my cursor over to my “To do” sticky note. It is a reasonable length, but the core of my being knows there are things missing from the list. Things that will pop into my mind as I try to drift off into the sleep I so desperately need in order to…

I walk toward my office door wondering how I will finagle the key out from the load filling my arms and hijacking my hands. With only a few minutes to unload the materials from my last session and reload with what is needed for the next, I fight both hunger and the urge to find a bathroom, not so much for its intended use, but for the excuse to get away for a minute.

With some interesting acrobatics, I make my way into my office, noting the blinking red light on the phone, usually indicating an emergency of some kind…

You know how it is — you start the day with the best of intentions for self-care, making wise and healthy choices, and dutifully adding checkmarks to your do-do list. Then, life happens. Things get muddled quickly — especially in these days where little-to-no work-life balance exists for many sudden stay-at-homers. Before you know it, before you even leave your bed sometimes, all your plans go out the door and you find yourself plodding around in the quagmire that is our chaotic twenty-first century pandemic lives.

What’s a person to do?

Well, there are a million things — but today…