Category: Family

I was talking with my daughter recently and she shared with me that she is teaching my granddaughter about setting and respecting physical space limits.  My daughter didn’t use those specific words, but it is essentially what she was referring to.  It reminded me of the importance of setting clear boundaries with others and the important responsibility of keeping and respecting boundaries of others and of ourselves.  It is good to recognize that we all have limitations and recognizing that and putting healthy boundaries up helps us to thrive.

My granddaughter is learning about a physical boundary, but there are other areas we may want to consider when thinking of boundaries.  Areas that I have learned to value and protect with boundaries include financial, time, energy, and emotional boundaries.  These can change as our circumstances change, but it is good to know what boundary I need or want to be in place for the c ...

Spaghetti and Hurt Feelings

I am a pretty clumsy person. Like a keep-an-eye-on-me-around-closed-sliding-glass-doors, probably-should-never-eat-spaghetti-without-a-full-apron-on kind of person. Suffice it to say, my childhood nickname lauded my propensity to accumulate minor bumps and scrapes through incredible feats of un-coordination. I won’t tell you how old I was when I nearly broke my glasses walking into the corner of a doorway instead of through the doorway - although, to be perfectly clear, it was part of the transparent wall of a racquetball court…and that was the problem: it was perfectly clear.

Anyway, as my luck would have it, I’m also a pretty relationally-clumsy person. At times I completely miss that I have caused emotional discomfort or harm. I put my foot in my mouth routinely enough that I< ...

What it is about the holiday season that brings with it some of the most complex emotions? Beginning as early as November, we hear Christmas music on the radio, blithely heralding in the season, and the smell of confections permeate the air, and yet what isn’t to love about yuletide? With all the messages
of good cheer and “to all a good night,” and “God bless us everyone,” it can be confusing when we can’t access holly jolly feelings.
It’s less confusing for therapists on the other side of these conversations.
As you process mixed feelings about the holidays, it can be helpful to keep some of the following in mind. Holidays represent a great deal more than celebration and fun. They represent a change in the season, the passage of time, tradition and ritual, as well as opportunities for relational conflict. These can all significantly impact our mental health for a number of reasons:
Rituals in December represent another ...