Category: Practice

It is easy to identify a physical boundary. Just take a look at the fence around your yard. You know the line of demarcation that designates where your property ends, and your neighbors yard begins. The area in your responsibility is clear. You have to tend to your yard, and you get to decide what to do with it. Your neighbor’s yard is not your responsibility. It can be much more difficult to identify where you end and someone else begins.

Boundary issues come up in all sorts of ways in relationships, parenting, work and if you are close to someone caught in addiction. If you struggle with saying “No” you may need to assess your boundaries. If you get caught up in family dynamics that leave you feeling drained and like you don’t have a control, it may be helpful to learn about setting boundaries with loved ones. If your job invades all areas of day or night, perhaps for your health and well-being it may be beneficial to “put up a ...

People have various expectations for counseling. Sometimes they expect that after a couple of sessions their problems will be solved. Other times, they refuse to start counseling because they have been told to “suck it up” and “deal with it” when thinking about their struggles in life.

Even though counseling has been more widely accepted, we often still imagine it as it is on TV. You come in, lay down on a couch, and start talking about your problems. Meanwhile, the therapist sits there with clipboard in hand, nodding their head, and asking "how do you feel about that”? I often think of that scene from Freaky Friday where Anna has switched places with her mother, who is a shrink, and when she goes to mom’s work in her place, Anna is only supposed to ask, “And how does that make you feel?”. Now, don’t get me wrong, therapists DO ask that question…but that is not all we ask.

There are ...

Welcome to the blog, and Happy Spring!  March has been a busy month for me.  In addition to my work as a counselor, I work as a teaching artist for a few different theatre groups.  In the past four weeks, all three of my groups made it to and through their performances (and did amazing jobs!).  If you’re familiar with the theatre, you know that the process of putting on a play or musical takes significant time and effort.  Getting to present what you’ve been working on to an audience is the exciting culmination of a huge amount of creativity and hard work.  Depending on the nature of the project, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to rehearse and mount a production.  I’ve been participating in theatre, in one form or another, for just about my whole life, and being part of an opening night is still one of the best feelings I know!  But a successful opening night never happens without one essent ...