Mental Health and Me

You second-guess every decision. You struggle to know if your feelings are valid. You wonder if you can even trust your own mind. If trauma has made you doubt yourself, you’re not alone. One of the deepest wounds trauma leaves behind is self-distrust. Maybe you ignored your gut feeling once and something bad happened. Maybe someone you trusted betrayed you, leaving you unsure of your own judgment. Maybe you were taught that your thoughts, feelings, and instincts weren’t relia

If your chest tightens when someone starts quoting Scripture... If a worship song makes your stomach drop... If the word “obedience” makes your shoulders tense... That’s not weakness. It's your nervous system doing what it was trained to do: protect you. Noticing those sensations in the first place, the tight chest, the dropped stomach, the tensed shoulders, is called interoception, your body's internal signal that it's still on guard. This isn't about overreaction. It's abou

You keep telling yourself it wasn't that bad, or others had it worse. If that's true, why can't you shake this feeling? This ache? The wondering if you'll ever feel "normal." Maybe you watch some of the many documentaries on Netflix about cults and spiritual abuse and you feel confused. Something resonates deep within even though you never lived their lives. Or maybe weren't even a part of that particular religion. If this leaves you feeling confused, let's take a look at wh

If you've been to therapy before and left feeling the same, or worse, you've probably asked yourself some version of this: Is something wrong with me? Maybe you talked for months and nothing shifted. Maybe you could articulate your pain clearly and still couldn't stop doing the thing you were trying to stop. Maybe you liked your therapist fine and still felt stuck. Therapy not working isn't the same as you being beyond help. There's usually a reason why therapy didn't work,

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has become one of the most trusted and effective trauma therapies available today. As the gold standard for trauma treatment, many people are curious about whether they can get the benefits of EMDR without seeing a therapist. The short answer? Yes and no. You can practice elements of EMDR on your own, but the deepest trauma healing happens with the guidance of a trained EMDR therapist. Read on to learn about how self-admin

You tell yourself it's just to take the edge off. Maybe it's a drink to unwind, a pill to fall asleep, or hours of scrolling and zoning out. You're not addicted. You're just trying to get through the day. But somewhere underneath that, you wonder: is this actually helping? Or is it covering something you haven't been willing to look at yet? Self-medicating is more common than most people realize, and it rarely starts as a problem. It starts as a solution. What Is Self-Medicat

Faith was supposed to feel like home. For a lot of people who grew up in high-control religious environments, it didn't. Or it did, until it didn't. Until the questions got too loud, the rules got too heavy, or the cost of staying became higher than the cost of leaving. If you've left a high-control faith and still feel the weight of it in your body, your relationships, and the way you talk to yourself, that is not weakness. That is religious trauma. And it is real. What Reli

You don’t feel much anymore. Not sadness. Not joy. Not even anger. Just a dull sense of going through the motions. Life feels muted, like you are watching it happen rather than living it. Even when good things occur, it’s hard to connect emotionally. You want to care—but it feels like something inside you has shut down. This isn’t a character flaw. It isn’t you being broken. This is emotional numbness , and it is a protective response your nervous system created to help you s

You wake up already tired. Conversations feel like too much. You’re just trying to get through the day, but even the things that once brought you joy now feel like a chore. You are not being lazy. You are not weak. You are emotionally exhausted. Emotional exhaustion happens when your mind and body are stretched too thin for too long. If you’ve been feeling depleted, burned out, or disconnected, you’re not alone. And more importantly, you don’t have to live this way forever. L

Many people come to therapy not knowing what to expect. Relief can happen pretty quickly, and it’s also common to feel exhausted, emotionally drained, and even a little confused about why healing feels so demanding. Trauma-focused therapy can feel challenging, and often that's actually a sign that deep healing is happening. For many people, this exhaustion shows up when a nervous system that has been stuck in protection mode or survival mode begins to finally relax. If you fe

You want to trust. To feel safe with someone. To believe that love can be consistent, secure, and lasting. But no matter how much you try, something inside holds back. Maybe you feel like you always have to stay alert. Maybe you keep people at a distance before they have the chance to leave you. Maybe a part of you believes that trust is dangerous, because in your past, trusting meant getting hurt. If childhood trauma has made it hard to trust in relationships, you are not a

Do you constantly worry that the people you care about will leave?Do you feel anxious in even healthy relationships, overanalyze texts, or try to be “perfect” so no one pulls away? You’re not alone. More importantly, you’re not broken. The fear of abandonment is a common but painful experience rooted in past emotional wounds. While it can feel overwhelming, healing is absolutely possible. Whether you’re navigating romantic relationships, friendships, or attachment trauma fro

Most people who come to me curious about ketamine-assisted psychotherapy have the same question underneath whatever they're actually asking. They want to know if it works. Not in a clinical trial sense. In a my-life-has-been-this-way-for-a-long-time-and-I-want-something-to-actually-change sense. The answer is that ketamine alone probably won't get you there. What it does is create conditions that make therapeutic work more possible. That distinction matters more than most peo

Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy can be life-changing — but only when it’s held within a safe, intentional space. In this post, I break down what it really means to create a “container” for healing (no, not the Tupperware kind), and why your mindset and environment matter as much as the medicine itself. Whether you're new to psychedelic therapy or just craving something more grounded and human in your healing work, this one's for you.

You fall for someone who seems promising. At first, they’re engaged, interested, and giving you just enough to feel hopeful. But then—slowly or suddenly—they pull away. Maybe they avoid deep conversations. Maybe they send mixed signals, keeping you guessing. Maybe they disappear when things get too close emotionally or physically. And somehow, this pattern keeps repeating. If you keep attracting emotionally unavailable people, it’s not because you’re unworthy of love. It’s o

If you're trying to decide between IFS and EMDR for trauma therapy, you're asking the right question at the wrong level. The real question isn't which one to choose. It's what your nervous system needs first. IFS vs EMDR comes down to this: both treat trauma, but they treat it through different doors. IFS meets the parts of you that formed to survive what happened. EMDR meets the memory that's still stuck. Understanding how each one works, and how they can work together, chan

Addiction isn’t just about substances. It’s not just about alcohol, pills, or compulsive behaviors. It’s about why you turn to them in the first place. Because addiction doesn’t start with a drink or a pill.It starts with pain. Maybe you’re trying to escape something. Maybe you’re trying to fill an emptiness inside. Maybe you just want relief from emotions that feel too heavy to carry. If you’ve tried to quit before but keep falling back into the same patterns, it’s not bec

Some Christian women—or those who’ve moved away from the faith they once held so dearly—find that things start to feel clearer when perspectives start to shift and they see the world through new eyes. Clear, yes. But also painful. Grieving. Sometimes gut-wrenching. Millennials and Gen X especially grew up during a time when the church was obsessed with sexual purity. But let’s be honest: it was an obsession aimed almost entirely at girls and women. We were told it was our res

If you have ever looked for a therapist and filtered by "in-network," you already know how short that list can feel. And if you have ever wondered why so many experienced therapists do not take insurance, the answer is not indifference to cost. It is something closer to the opposite. Insurance-based therapy is built around a particular model: identify a diagnosis, authorize a limited number of sessions, and measure improvement within a narrow window. That model works reasonab

Have you ever woken up one day and realized the life you built, piece by piece, with the best intention, was actually built around everyone else but you? This is a story about faith, marriage, identity, and grief. It’s about what happens when the roles we’re handed by religion and culture leave no room for who we actually are. It’s about untangling decades of conditioning and finding your way back to yourself. If you’ve ever felt like you lost parts of you trying to “do it ri