Welcome to the Blog
From personal essays to practical mental health tips and information, check out our blog section for our latest post. We love a quick, engaging read at Healing Connections Counseling and invite you to join us!
Dealing with Uncertainty by Tapping Inner Strengths
I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store when I asked the woman behind the cash register a question that had been kicking around in my head for weeks. “Is it ever going to be the same? Is it ever going to be like it was?” She shook her head. Her iron-gray...
Overcome Imposter Syndrome by Believing in the Real You
Ever wake up at 4:00 am feeling overwhelmed by some new responsibility at work and think, “I’m a total fraud. And what’s more, if my boss knew how incapable and talentless I really am, I’d be out of a job in five minutes flat? If so, you’re not alone. Imposter Syndrome,...
Self-Care for Caregivers: Reduce Stress & Avoid Burnout
She was dusting in the living room when Heather heard a loud crash followed by a string of curses coming from the bathroom. With the certainty gleaned from years of being a care provider, she knew that her husband Max had fallen in the shower. Panic ate at her insides as...
Illusion of Control: Tips for Reducing Control-Based Anxiety
I’ve always been a control freak. Ever since I was a kid, I had to be in charge. When my brother, sisters, and I played “school,” I was the teacher. If we put on an impromptu play for our parents and the neighbors we managed to drag in, I was the director. When I grew up...
Coping with Holiday Stress, Anxiety, and Seasonal Depression
The holidays are nothing if not complex. As the season begins, we have visions of apple cider-wafted family gatherings where everyone gets along, wandering through a holiday market shopping for the perfect gift, or spending a lazy afternoon sipping hot cocoa before a...
Outside Looking In: Accepting Your Authentic Self and Learning to Belong
Growing up disabled and queer, I spent my entire life feeling like I was on the outside looking in. Whether it was thinking I didn’t fit in or being sure that everybody but me had a date on Saturday night, otherness stuck to me like glue, and it felt as if I’d never shake...
Gaslighting and You: Avoiding Self-Doubt and Learning to Believe in Yourself Again
“I didn’t know I was being gaslit until years after it happened,” Heath told his therapist. “When I used to tell my husband that something he said hurt me, he’d say that it was “just a joke” and that I was “being too sensitive.” “And how did you feel when he said that?”...
Forgiving Me: Making Peace with Past Mistakes and Finding a Way Forward
“I feel so guilty whenever I think about the days just before my husband died,” Susan said, wiping away a tear with the tissue her therapist handed her. “What do you feel guilty about?” “We had a big fight. He wanted to go to Disney World for two weeks, and I said we...
Hard Habits to Break: Creating Strategies for Changing Negative Behaviors
I used to work out three to four times a week. Now, I don’t. I bend over backwards, coming up with irrational reasons not to engage in this behavior despite knowing that regular exercise helps me remain in good health and keeps me looking my best—a circumstance that...
The Money Pit: Strategies for Balancing Finance and a Happy Relationship
The number one thing couples fight about is money. If you’re wondering why, theories abound. But whether one person has a more relaxed attitude towards money matters than the other or a couple disagrees on how their dollars should be spent, their approach to shared finance...
The Worry Wars Part 2: Conquering (Or at Least Surviving) Global Anxiety
Sometimes, it feels like we live in a dystopian world—as if there’s nothing we can depend on. While the pandemic recedes, political views divide us; war rages across the globe, college campuses are hotbeds of unrest, and democracy appears to hang by a thread. No matter...
The Worry Wars: Healthy Options for Neutralizing Anxiety (Part I)
One of the first things I talked to my therapist about was the anxiety I was feeling about my upcoming wedding. I worried that my family and friends wouldn’t make their flights. I worried that they wouldn’t find anything to do in the city. I worried that they wouldn’t have...
Letting It Go: Allowing Forgiveness in to Create a Healthier You
I sat in the quiet of my therapist’s office and wondered if I finally had the strength to let it go. As for forgiveness, that was a pipe dream. I’d been hanging on to the same pain for over a decade, but I couldn’t allow myself to feel the hurt. It was so much easier to...
What was I Made For? Body Image, Positivity, and Neutrality
I listened to Billie Eilish’s Grammy and Academy Award-winning juggernaut, “What Was I Made For?” the other day and thought about body image. As a gay man with a disability, my journey to accepting the way I occupy space in the world has been a long and sometimes painful...
Affirming Me and You
My husband gave me a coffee mug that got me thinking about the importance of affirmation. It’s nothing fancy as coffee mugs go, but the rainbow of words on the outside inevitably gives me a lift. It says, “You are brave, bold, kind, courageous, proud, fierce, strong,...
Why I (Finally) Chose Therapy
I resisted therapy for decades. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have problems, but like a lot of people, I thought I was doing just fine without help. I could always come up with an excuse to avoid being in therapy. I told myself it was because I didn’t have the time or the...