November, 2018 - Humble Warrior Therapy

In her poem “The Summer Day“, Mary Oliver asks the question: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Wild and precious. That life is…and it’s also messy and complicated and imperfect and heartbreakingly beautiful. The problem is, our minds get in the way. Our minds are

Let’s get real. Let’s own our human experience – not just the shiny, glittery parts of it, or the aspects that we (or others) deem to be “positive” or “good” or brag-worthy. Not just the flattering photos on Facebook or Instagram, the snapshots and brief words that make our lives appear easy and perfect (whatever that means) and

Social anxiety disorder, also known as “SAD”, is a common psychological diagnosis centered on a fear of negative evaluation by others. Social anxiety is not about shyness or introversion, or even a dislike of people of social situations; rather, social anxiety occurs when a person is afraid of being judged by others, because of embarrassing behaviors that

The Buddha said many things on our minds and thinking, including “rule your mind or it will rule you” and “nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.” He taught that all suffering stems from the mind and that through practices such as mindfulness, meditation and yoga, we can learn to relate differently to our thoughts (also

Various theories on stress and the stress response exist. From a psychological perspective, stress is directly related to perception (good news for those in Buddhist psychotherapy!). Lazarus and Folkman’s “Cognitive Appraisal Theory” (1984) highlights the role of perception in regard to stress, demonstrating that stress is a result of two appraisals. In the first or primary appraisal, an

The dictionary defines holistic as “characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole”. When referring to holistic medicine, the definition is as follows: “characterized by the treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the physical symptoms of

So many of us live our lives in fear. We’re afraid of failure, of being vulnerable (and risking rejection), afraid of not fitting in, of messing up, of letting ourselves and others down. We’re afraid to stay stuck and just as afraid to get well; afraid of depression and equally afraid of happiness; we fear pain and distress, ridicule and blame and

As a therapist, I have the honor of becoming someone’s “secret holder”. I get to peek into other people’s minds and hearts and I am always so humbled by this offering. Each client gives me the gift of witnessing Truth – of seeing the human condition in its purest, most raw form. My clients are

I recently watched an episode of “Portlandia” in which Fred and Carrie, discussing all of the political/environmental/social justice issues one can be concerned about, decide to just “give up”. While the video is obviously a spoof and meant to be tongue-in-cheek, as a Buddhist psychotherapist, I couldn’t agree more with their plea to unburden their minds and let

One of the most uncomfortable emotions for so many of us is anger. According to Buddhist Psychologist Tara Brach, anger can be viewed as a “wise discriminator“. As with all feelings, anger is an indicator – it lets us know that we need to protect ourselves from a possible threat. The problem is, anger is one