The Therapist Diaries

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  There's been a lot going on in my life recently. One of my coping skills is journaling but I'm quickly working my way through the pages, and I think my boyfriend feels as though I've been forcing him to read a novel with the amount of chapter length texts that I've been sending him recently. It's brought about a lot of thinking on the topic of support teams and the importance of them. Not a support group that you attend once a week, but a personalized group of people that know what you're going through and can help you when you need it. For the NASCAR fans among us, it's like an emotional pit crew.  A lot of us don't think we're allowed a support team. There's a misconception that they're reserved for "crisis situations” or people who’ve hit absolute rock bottom, but in reality, it’s something we all need. Not because we’re weak, but because we’re human and humans are social beings whos...

Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries,  Well... here we are. The final post in our Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month series. It’s been a meaningful ride... heavy at times, but necessary. We’ve talked about what to look out for in ourselves and the people we love, how to build a safety plan when things feel unsteady, and who tends to be most at risk. My hope is that through this series, you’ve felt a little more informed, a little more seen, and a little more empowered- whether for yourself or someone you care about. For this last entry, I'm getting personal and honest one more time because despite all the awareness, all the conversations, all the resources slowly becoming more available, we’re still not seeing suicide rates drop the way we’d hoped. So today, we’re talking about one of the biggest reasons why: the barriers to treatment. Let’s unpack it. I think as a therapist the topic of barriers to treatment feels really personal to me because I can’t count how m...

Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries, In our last post we explored the heartbreaking reality of youth suicide, uncovering the alarming statistics and the urgent need for early intervention. Today, we’re shifting the focus to another group deeply affected by suicide but too often overlooked in mental health conversations:  men . The numbers are impossible to ignore. In the United States, men die by suicide nearly four times more often than women, according to the CDC. Globally, the World Health Organization reports that approximately 75% of suicides are among men. These statistics paint a stark picture, not because men experience more depression than women, but because  men are less likely to seek help  and more likely to use lethal means when they attempt suicide. The Unique Challenges Men Face While mental health struggles affect everyone, men often face specific social and cultural barriers.  The “Strong and Silent” Expectation  – Fro...

Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries,  Trigger warning: this post discusses suicidal crisis and recovery. If you're feeling unsafe right now, please contact emergency services or your local crisis line. In the U.S., you can call or text 988 ; in other countries, contact your local emergency number or suicide prevention services. In this post we're going to take a bit of a different journey. In the previous Suicide Prevention Month posts we've talked about signs and symptoms and prevention tactics like safety plans and talking to loves ones, not it's time to skip ahead a little bit and talk about how we can help ourselves and others AFTER a crisis.  I’ve sat across from people in my office in the days after a suicidal crisis, and the air always feels different in those moments. The storm has passed, but the quiet that follows is often heavier than the chaos itself. My clients are alive, and that matters more than anything. But they’re also raw, shaky, sometime...

 Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries,  Three weeks into Suicide Prevention Month and it’s time to talk about the things that make us really uncomfortable. All too often, find myself sitting in hospital assessments with teens whose pain is just beneath the surface, hidden in plain sight. I talk to parents who say, “I had no idea it was this bad,” teachers who admit they don’t know how to bring it up, and young people who have quietly decided the world might be better off without them. The truth is, for all the awareness campaigns and hashtags, we’re still not talking about this enough. Not where it matters. Not soon enough. The faces change, but the stories sound familiar. A 15-year-old who’s self-harming in secret because it’s the only way she feels anything. A high-achieving student who tells me he’s exhausted from pretending everything is fine. A college freshman who smiles through panic attacks, too afraid to let her parents know how bad it’s gotten because she ...

 Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries,  In the last post, we talked about the importance of having a safety plan, a personalized, practical roadmap for what to do when things feel overwhelming. One of the key parts of any safety plan is identifying people you can reach out to when you're struggling. It sounds easy enough but actually reaching out? That can be one of the hardest steps of all. Knowing who to talk to is one thing. Figuring out how to talk to them is quite another.  So today, we’re diving into that space between intention and action, the emotional weight of opening up about your mental health, the fear of how others will respond, and how to start conversations that feel daunting, but necessary. Whether you're someone working up the courage to talk about your struggles, or a loved one wondering how to respond with care, this post is for you. There’s a moment that many of us who’ve struggled with mental health know all too well, when the silence be...

Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  As a Crisis Intervention Clinician and Truma Therapist, one of the most meaningful tools I’ve worked on with clients has been the safety plan. September is Suicide Prevention Month, and while awareness campaigns often focus on important statistics and slogans, what I’ve found most impactful in real lives are the small, tangible steps we can take when the world feels too heavy. A safety plan is one of those steps. When I talk about safety plans, I describe them as a kind of personal roadmap. It’s something you create in your own words, for your own life, to guide you through moments of crisis. Because when our emotions are dysregulated and suicidal thoughts show up, clarity often disappears. Memory gets foggy, hope feels far away, and even the simplest choices can feel impossible. A safety plan removes the pressure of having to figure it all out in the middle of that storm. I’ve sat with people who tell me, “I’ll just remember what t...

Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries, Every September, we pause to recognize Suicide Prevention Month, a reminder that conversations about mental health can save lives. This year, I’ve committed to write an eight part blog series on topics around suicide that I (as a trauma therapist) think we need to talk about more. Suicide does not happen in isolation; it often follows a period of deep emotional struggle, where signs may be present. Learning to recognize these signs (in ourselves and others), and knowing when and where to reach out for help is a vital part of prevention. So let’s get talking.  Recognizing the Signs in Ourselves If you’ve ever been on a plane, you’ve heard the phrase “fit your own mask before helping other.” Well sometimes the hardest person to check in on is ourselves. We often downplay our own situations and dismiss our struggles as “just stress” or “a rough patch,” but there are important red flags to be mindful of: Persistent sadness or hopelessnes...

  Hello and welcome back to The Therapist Diaries!   September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time when we are collectively reminded of something that should never leave our hearts: every life matters, every story is still unfolding, and every person deserves the chance to keep writing their journey. This month can feel heavy. It brings awareness to a topic many of us find difficult to sit with, let alone talk about. Suicide is one of the most complex human struggles, it can carry layers of mental health challenges, trauma, societal pressures, isolation, grief, and silence. Yet, at its very core, suicide prevention is about hope. It’s about remembering that no matter how many painful chapters you have endured, your story is not finished. As a therapist, I have seen how powerful it can be when people begin to believe their narrative is worth continuing, even if right now it feels full of hardship. Healing rarely looks like erasing the past or pretending the pain didn’...