The Therapist Diaries

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  Last week I had one of those low days that seemed to arrive without warning. I woke up feeling heavy, flat, and quietly disappointed in myself. I felt behind in my progress. I felt defeated in my ongoing relationship with Type One Diabetes. I felt lonely while the people I love were busy with their own plans, and irrationally envious of people socializing, even though I didn’t actually want to see anyone. All I wanted to do was stay in bed and cry. And the fact that I wanted to do that made me feel even worse about myself.  How did I handle it? As a clinician, I’d love to tell you I immediately booked an extra therapy session, journaled for 45 minutes, did breathwork, and cognitively reframed my distortions. But this blog is all about being honest about our mental health with ourselves and others, so... the truth? I stayed in my pajamas and watched childhood comfort films back-to-back: Barbie as The Princess and the Paupe...

 Hello and Welcome Back to The Therapist Diaries,  There is nothing I love more than lazy Sundays, and this Sunday might have been the best one ever! But in our house, in order to enjoy a lazy Sunday, you first have to get through two small voices asking, "Can we have pancakes for breakfast?" It's like they hear you open your eyes and come running in to ask before you actually roll out of bed and declare the day started for the day. My boyfriend's children are both under 10 years old, and so pancakes are a very important part of our Sunday morning routine... no matter how tired I might be at 8 o'clock in the morning. As I fumbled out of bed, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I couldn't help but reflect on the bigger lesson tucked inside that pancake request. I was, of course, happy to make them the breakfast they loved, but I had to remind myself that in order to take care of others, I first needed to take care of myself. It’s a simple, almost laughable tr...

  Hello, and welcome back to the Therapist Diaries!  In the last post we talked about how to find the right therapist for you and how to walk away or switch it up if something didn’t feel right. Today, we’re looking at the types of therapy because engaging in the right modality is just as important as finding the right provider. Sometimes clients come to therapy knowing exactly what they want, sometimes they even seek out clinicians especially for that treatment (this is usually the case with something like ART or EMDR) but more often than not, clients come to therapy either expecting nothing but talk therapy or having no clue what to expect at all.  The truth is that therapy is not one-size-fits-all. There are many different approaches, or modalities, each with their own strengths, applications, and quirks. So, I’m going to unpack some of the most well-known therapy modalities by looking at what they are, what they’re best used for, and a few pros and cons of eac...