Oftentimes in session when I slow my clients down just enough to notice and stay with what’s going on in their body, there is something sitting just below the surface.⁠ Sometimes it’s emotion — tears, grief, anger, pain. Sometimes it’s a memory — stuck and not yet fully processed. And…

The greatest weapon against stress is the ability to choose one thought over another. - William James A lot of therapeutic approaches — from cognitive-behavioral therapy to narrative therapy — employ the same powerful insight: our reality is created by the stories we see it through. When we choose to…

“Just tell me what to do.” It’s something I often find my clients saying without actually — you know — saying. Sometimes it’s a look in their eye, as they long for me to be the one to save them from the uncomfortable silence. Sometimes it’s a subtle frustration or…

“We have become accustomed to dissociation from the body… Cognitive function has been accorded a status separate from other dimensions of our being… Our bodies become foreign, even an embarrassment, a nuisance — alien objects to be tolerated at best, or abused and controlled at worst.” - Marilyn Morgan, Hakomi…

For me it started with the “honors track.” The pressure to succeed never came from my parents — in fact, every time I was offered the option of testing for GATE, signing up for my first set of honors classes, or trying out for the varsity sport, my mom called…

One of my first and favorite book recommendations for career changers is Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. …

Did you know that our body doesn’t do a great job of distinguishing between running from a lion and an urgent email when it comes to responding to stress? So when many of today’s workplace environments make us feel that everything is urgent and important (and at an unconscious level…

It’s raining in California this week. The gentle drumming of raindrops, smell of moist asphalt, and warmth of a candle next to my laptop or steamy cup of tea in my hands… It brings me back to the little delights of being alive. The ones that don’t cost money. That…

One of the biggest things I do as a coach and as a therapist is hold a mirror up for my clients. Mirrors make it possible to see some of the things we can’t from our own limited point of view, and while often many of these reflections tend to…