Dear Clients and Future Clients,

The past year has been difficult for so many of us. As I return to my once-deserted office, I reflect on a year of shocking trauma, but also human resiliency. I have been priviledged to support courageous activists who were on the front lines of fighting for racial justice. I have held space for people who have lost loved ones to covid-19. I have seen people struggle daily with isolation and a sense of dread, wondering when things would ever get better. In recent weeks, I have seen the first hints of hope, as a new administration begins its work. Despite racial injustice and the threat of domestic terrorism, our democracy remains intact. The fight for justice and equality continues. I am truly humbled by the fact that activists have leaned on me for support. You have taught me so much, and I am committed to continue learning.

My office will soon be a safer place to meet in person, and I am extending this invitation to a handful of clients. As a behavioral healthcare provider in the state of Colorado, I am fortunate to be eligible for a covid-19 vaccine. I received my first dose of the Moderna shot last weekend. As the vaccine does its work and my body builds up antibodies, I am gradually expanding my in-person services.

Masks will still be required in my office for the forseeable future. While the vaccine will eventually provide me with excellent protection against Covid-19, it is still unknown how much this prevents transmission. As I make the transition to more in-person sessions, I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation with the continued need for masks and physical distancing. Clients who are feeling sick, have recently traveled or have been exposed to covid-19 will still need to do Telehealth.

I look forward to seeing you in my office again soon, as we look ahead to what will likely be a much better year.

To my clients and potential clients:

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak and social distancing recommendations of the CDC, I will only be offering TeleHealth sessions for the time being. While I value in-person connection, I value your safety even more. Thank you for your understanding while I do my part to flatten the curve of the epidemic. I hope to resume in-person sessions soon, though I cannot predict the course of the pandemic. I will be following the lead of schools, public venues and places of worship, who are currently shutting down in-person services to curb the spread of the virus. When these places open again, I will consider offering in-person sessions.

My TeleHealth software is convenient, easy to use and HIPAA compliant. While remote therapy has its disadvantages, may people have reported that they appreciate it on cold, snowy days. Those with pets appreciate the animal-assisted therapy that automatically happens when pets jump up in their lap. I’m committed to offering the best quality service possible to help people through a difficult time, and to reduce the impact of isolation on mental health in the community.

There will be another epidemic as a result of the Coronavirus: Depression and anxiety. I encourage everyone to seek counseling during this time, since we are all social beings and nobody is immune to the strain that comes from lack of in-person contact. As a reminder for anyone who loses employment due to layoffs that will result from social distancing requirements and economic downturn: I take Medicaid. If you lose your job or your insurance, get on this website right away and apply: https://coloradopeak.secure.force.com/. I am in network with Medicaid in Denver, Boulder and Larimer county.

For those who have insurance through work, I take Cigna and United. I also offer sliding scale rates to keep therapy affordable.

Stay safe, everyone. This too shall pass.

I am taking a minute to make an announcement of the obvious:  there has been a lot of snow around here lately.

This is a great time to make sure that current and future clients are aware of cancellation policies, and the exception to those policies.

Like most therapists, I have a 24 hour cancellation policy.  That means that clients are billed for the full cost of the session if they no-show at the last minute.

That said, we don’t always know how bad the roads will be UNTIL the last minute, and that’s not your fault.  Your safety is my top priority.  My philosophy is to support what you need for your self-care and nervous system regulation.  We all know that driving in unsafe conditions can be nerve-wracking, and the opposite of therapeutic.

When it’s REALLY bad, I will work from home all day, and announce this to all of my clients as soon as I have made this decision.

That brings us to the topic of remote therapy.  Skype sessions can be relaxing and resourcing.  The comfortable, familiar home environment is a much more conducive to therapy than the icy roads.  While Skype has its advantages, it also has its drawbacks.  Sometimes Skype lags and glitches out. Also, some of the touch interventions that are part of my SE training cannot be applied.

Some people find Skype therapy better than no therapy.  Others would prefer to save their money until we can meet in person again.  As always, I trust you to do what is right for you.   Just let me know and we will figure it out.

Stay safe!

-Bridget

It’s a scary time for the LGBTQIA+ community. The current political turmoil has caused many trans and non-binary individuals to feel unsafe, invalidated and unseen. Any therapist who has been paying attention to the news knows about a recent Supreme Court ruling, involving a certain cakeshop in Lakewood.

It is now acceptable for businesses to turn away queer customers if their religious beliefs indicate that their gender identity or sexual orientation is sinful. Therapists are permitted to do it too. This adds to the level of anxiety that a Queer-identified client will have, when they call us requesting services.

Most therapists I know are not homophobic or trans-phobic. In fact, many of them have great empathy for individuals who are marginalized. They may have even marched for their rights, or called their elected officials on their behalf. Yet, as someone who has networked and consulted with many clinicians in the community, I know numerous well-meaning clinicians who refer queer clients, not because of any negative attitudes toward these people, but because they are not a specialist.

These clinicians are usually very committed to working within their scope of practice. Such a commitment is admirable. It may seem radical that I am about to challenge it, but here I go:  I am envisioning and hoping for a paradigm shift, in which queer competency stops being a “specialty” and becomes part of basic clinical training.  We’re not there yet, but you can help me get the ball rolling.

Consider this:  Queer clients are not a “specialty”, they are a population, just as People of Color or People with Disabilities are a population. LGBTQIA “issues” are not a condition to be treated. Therefore, there is no specific protocol to treat them. The techniques that you already have will work, as long as your good intentions are backed up by an awareness of power, privilege and social justice issues that arise in counseling.

If you are a cisgender, heterosexual therapist who is committed to understanding how your privilege affects the counseling relationship, and holding the space when transference arises due to that privilege, you can see these clients, if they feel comfortable seeing you. If you lack experience, there is plenty of consultation available, and it is well worth the cost of getting a little extra training so that you can see these clients who have difficulty accessing services.

Therapists are often the “gatekeepers”, who must provide a mental health evaluation for a trans client to receive hormones or surgery. A trans person who cannot receive that evaluation sometimes cannot receive the medical treatment that they need. If there isn’t a therapist who is a “specialist” nearby, then this becomes a barrier to medical transition.

Ouch, right?

Fortunately, Denver has a number of queer-identified and queer-affirming clinicians who can help. Many queer clients seek out therapists who also identify as queer. If you are not part of that community, it may be that you rarely get calls from clients who are.

But sometimes you will. Perhaps there is a trans client who wants Somatic therapy, and there are no queer-identified somatic experiencing practitioners in the local directory. You might find a lesbian couple who has heard wonderful things about emotionally focused couples therapy, and you are the only therapist in their neighborhood who is trained in that method. You have the opportunity, not just to help these individuals, but to be a true ally. Your mission, (I hope you choose to accept it) is to educate yourself, so they don’t have to educate you. Educating yourself is part of your job description. If you are like me, you already read countless clinical books and spend a lot of money on workshops. Next time you go over your budget for all those CEUs that you have to get anyway, add some queer-competency to your agenda.

Here’s your “to do” list:

– Find a trans specialist and get some consultation on how to write a WPATH letter. Go ahead. Google it. I’ll wait. There you go.

– Call a local LGBTQIA support organization and find out when they are offering workshops for clinicians. May of these organizations will do it for cheap or even free, because this population is so sorely underserved.

– Take an anti-oppression training. Show up with curiosity and humility. Fully engage with it, and let yourself be challenged.

– Read books written by queer authors, where they describe their experience in their own words. There are very few clinical textbooks for therapists who want to work with this population. You are going to learn most of what you need to learn from hearing the stories of queer people in their own voices.

Even after you have done these things, you still might not want to call yourself a “specialist”. Be honest with LGBTQIA clients who call about how much experience you do, or do not, have working with people like them. Be respectful. Don’t forget to ask their pronouns, and tell them yours. If they decide not to see you, don’t take it personally. But please, consider making your practice a safer place for queer clients to land, if they DO want to see you. These are difficult times. You have the opportunity to be on the rights side of history, and do a world of good.

It’s OK not to be happy.

This may seem like a stereotypical thing for a therapist to say.  We seem to always be telling people that all of their feelings are valid and that it’s OK to cry.  There is often an assumption connected with this sentiment, though:  It’s OK to not be happy, for a limited amount of time. It’s OK to cry and “get it out of your system”.  Whether therapists mean to say this or not, clients often hear it that way.  Many people place expectations on themselves that there is some sort of “goal” or “end game”, where they will eventually transcend these painful feelings.

It’s true that therapy can help people feel better.  As clients progress in therapy, they  learn to sit with challenging emotions without being overwhelmed. Eventually, the emotions pass over and through, and something else takes their place.  This is where healing occurs.  Depression and anxiety often arise when we resist or hold onto an emotion. This leaves us “stuck” in that emotion, which just makes us feel worse.

Our definitions of “happy” need to be reexamined.  Recently, I ran across a humorous but poignant comic, which sheds some light on the issue.   I know that The Oatmeal is not a exactly scholarly source of information, but I do believe this comic is worth reading, especially for many people who struggle with  mental illness.

The comic paints a vulnerable portrait of someone who experiences ongoing anger and anxiety, and throws themselves utterly into their work.  They spend 12 hours per day on their comic, and when they stop, they run for miles until every part of their body aches.  This is someone who admits that they do not feel the cheery positivity that most of us think about when we imagine “happy”.  What they do feel is curiosity, ecstasy and a passionate drive to create.

When discussing this comic with friends who have chronic mental health conditions, I heard several people say “yes, that’s me!  I’m so happy someone is writing about this!”  We tend to box happiness into a neurotypical model where we maintain a consistent state of calm and positivity.   This simply isn’t they way emotions work.  Our restrictive definitions of happiness not only disempower people with anxiety, depression or PTSD, they also give all of us an unrealistic set of expectations, and ultimately set us up to fail.

While I don’t advocate that people adopt author’s work habits or exercise routine, there is beauty in this person’s passion, and their vulnerable choice to create something beautiful in a world where anxiety and anger are a day to day reality.  In this world, there is a lot to be anxious and angry about.  There are also a lot of reasons to feel awe, reverence and love.

Sometimes, an intense emotion is an appropriate response to an intense experience, especially in our current global situation.   This does not mean that we will feel that emotion forever, nor does it mean that something terrible will happen because of that emotion.  It may be that we will just have a day or an hour or a minute where we feel…unhappy.  Until we don’t.  And then the sun rises, the tea kettle whistles and the cats rub their heads against our legs, reminding us that our love matters to them.  Then there is joy, and we get to drink that up.  It’s OK to cry over small joys, just as it is Ok to cry over great tragedies.

Be curious.  Busy yourself with what matters most.  Create something.  Let contentment arise naturally and wash over you.  It can’t be forced, but it can be enjoyed when it comes.   It is OK to be happy with our perfectly unhappy states.

Be honest with yourself, do you have it?

You know what I’m talking about.

For some of us, summer is a time of excitement and celebration.  Many people thrive on travel plans, family visits and 9 p.m. sunsets.  They enjoy the heat.  For people without body image issues or gender dysphoria, swimsuit season is no problem.  For the able-bodied, the expectation of increased physical activity means fun, fun times.

For many of us, however, at least some of the above events are causes of stress.  When that stress goes unaddressed, it can lead to depression.  One difficult part of summer can be the perceived expectation of happiness.  If we aren’t “happy”, we might get the sense that other people are wondering what is wrong with us.

It helps some people to know that they are not alone.   There has been a lot written about Seasonal Affective Disorder, and there are lots of effective coping strategies to get through the dark time of the year.  Summer depression is rarer (about 10% of people with SAD get it in the summer), and there isn’t as much information published about it.  It’s real, though, and often doesn’t manifest the same way as winter depression.

Summer has a high-energy quality, and it is sometimes difficult to get grounded.  Anxiety can run high as we find our schedules booked up with vacations.  Vacations are great, but planning them takes a lot of emotional energy.  There can be a lot of pressure on us to make the vacation go well.  If we do not make our summer plans in a mindful, self-loving way, we can end up taking care of everyone while neglecting our own needs.

I have also found that people in relationships sometimes struggle in the summer.  With partners traveling, our relational insecurities may be heightened.  If we are traveling WITH partners, latent tensions in our relationships can become worse.  I see more breakups in the summer than at any other time of year, which is probably the most common reason that people give me setting up their first summertime session.

Another issue that does not get discussed is how expensive summer actually is.   Many people love to travel, but the financial burden of travel is rarely discussed. One of my offices is in Boulder, where people are struggling to pay the increasingly high rent costs.  For them, travel may be out of the question.  Unfortunately, people in this situation often stay home with feelings of inadequacy or throw themselves into debt to keep up with their more affluent friends.

If you are struggling with the “summertime sadness”, self-care becomes all the more important. There is a great article with some tips on how to take care of your mental health:  http://www.webmd.com/depression/summer-depression.

To these tips, I would add the following with regards to sleep:

• If sleep is difficult, try soft music, nature sounds or progressive relaxation exercises before bed.  Try a few different things until you find out what works best for you.
• Turn your phone and computer off at least one hour before sleep.  Your brain will interpret screens as daylight, and think that the sun still hasn’t set.  This will keep you up, especially if you read/watch something stimulating.
• If you do take in media, avoid violent or suspenseful movies. Even if you love them, keep in mind that they put your nervous system on high alert. Your autonomic nervous system does not know the difference between real violence and movie violence.
•  If news or politics evokes a strong emotional reaction in you, limit your exposure to such things to one hour per day (And not before bed!).

As far as vacations are concerned, here are a few more tips: 

• Respect your limitations and boundaries around time, energy and money. If an expensive vacation is too much, try a relaxing “staycation”, spending time with friends and family at home.
• Make a list of things to do in town that are inexpensive, or even free.  Research museums, nearby parks and wildlife preserves.   There are several lists online for summer fun on a budget,  Here is one to get you started:  http://www.colorado-for-free.com/.
• Getting some exercise and time outside will be helpful, but only push your body as far is it can go!   Don’t compare yourself to your athletic friends, especially if you struggle with a chronic illness.   Your body knows what it needs to stay as healthy as it can, and you know your body more than anyone else.

And with regards to relationships:

• Discuss your needs and boundaries with loved ones BEFORE situations become emotionally tense.
• If you have difficulty getting words out, try journaling about these things before talking about them in person.  Sometimes, just writing these things out for yourself is a huge step in the right direction.
• If you have a therapist, bring your journal to the session and talk about what you wrote.   Your therapist can help you work on assertiveness skills.

Above all, remember that the feelings which arise for you during summer are valid.  Beating yourself up will only make things worse.  Surround yourself with support and work as many calming activities into your schedule as possible.

Are we approaching Fall already?  It’s hard to believe that so much of the year has gone by. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year.  As the busy summer winds down, people seem to settle into themselves.  There is a quietude that comes with the darker evenings, and an invitation for personal reflection.

I’m happy to be offering two trauma-informed workshops this fall, for self-care and personal growth:

Honoring Your Boundaries, Honoring Yourself:  

When we think of setting boundaries, we often have a limited understanding of what that actually means.   Having healthy boundaries does not just mean “being assertive” or saying “no” when necessary (though obviously, these things are important).  Boundaries are a felt sense of our personhood, an understanding of where we end and where others begin.  They are not just a wall that keeps things out, they are a protective shield that holds what we cherish.  We could all stand to learn more about how we can hold and cherish ourselves.

Participants have said that our boundary workshops are be fun, educational, nurturing, vulnerable and sometimes a bit silly.   Come alone or bring a partner if you wish to explore this subject with someone you love.

This workshop will be co-facilitated with the amazing Masako Suzuki, who has facilitated numerous support groups and workshops with me over the past two years.  We are excited to be offering this workshop to the community again.

Date:  Saturday, November 5th

Time:  10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Location:  Wash Park Counseling, 1711 S Pearl St
Denver, Colorado 80210

Fee:  $60.00

Space is limited.  Register now:  www.blasiuscounseling.com/workshops.

Creating Healing Ritual (At the WINGS Conference) 

Do you do rituals for yourself?   You probably do.   Many of us are familiar with ritual as part of an organized religion, but that is only one vehicle through which the power of ritual can be experienced.  We do ritual through small, comforting acts that awaken the senses and connect us to what is truly important.

When we perform these acts intentionally, and place them in the context of symbolism that is meaningful for us, ritual can be a meaningful resource and spiritual practice that can guide us in our recovery from trauma and grief.  We can use it to consciously mark major life transitions as we embrace the birth of a new Self.  This workshop will be part discussion and part experiential work, with a collaborative, peer-led ritual focused on supporting each other and healing our community.

This workshop will be one of many 90 minute presentations offered for survivors of sexual abuse and the service providers who support them.  Please stay tuned for updates as we continue to organize the event.

Date:  October 8th.

Time:  2:45-4:15 p.m.

Location:  7150 E Montview Blvd, Denver, CO 80220

Fee:  Check the WINGS website for details on how to register.  If you are a WINGS group member, scholarships may be available.

Trauma work isn’t glamorous.  When therapists start to learn new techniques, we often get very excited about them.  We see our favorite teachers do impressive demos in front of the class, and can’t wait to do the work ourselves.  What we forget is that our day-to-day work rarely resembles the demos.  Demos are done with students who are excited for the opportunity to experience the work of a faculty member who has already impressed them (after all, they’ve invested a lot of money in paying for the class).  For real clients, trust and rapport are not a given.  They must be earned.  They can be easily lost.  If they are lost, they take time to repair, and sometimes the most healing thing we can offer to clients is humility.

In my personal work, I’ve seen several some highly skilled instructors as therapists, after being impressed by their demos.  I found out that even they don’t work with clients the way they work with demo students.  The vehicle for healing isn’t the technique.  It’s the relationship.  If we try to force our techniques before trust is established, we can do more harm than good.

Targeting the trauma material is only a small part of trauma work.  A big part of the work, in my experience, is helping someone get in touch with their sense of agency.  Sometimes this starts by simply listening, and allowing oneself to become fascinated with a client’s world.  People often find themselves identifying with their trauma, and through that restrictive identification, they disconnect from the full experience of who they are.  They forget the subtle nuances of how they engage with the world…their attractions, their aversions, the subtle pleasures that they dismiss because they know they are fleeting.  Yet, it is these momentary flashes of non-sexual, non-addictive pleasures that wake people up.  They create flashes of brilliance, in which the nervous system says “Oh look!  I’m capable of being aware of the world and experiencing something other than suffering!  Maybe there are moments of safety, and I don’t have to be afraid all the time.”

This is a slow process.  When I talk about people being “afraid all the time”, I’m not exaggerating.  This is how some clients actually experience their world.  A huge part of trauma work is meeting them there, while holding the awareness that they don’t have to be afraid forever.  Everyone has internal resources.  Sometimes, though, forcing someone to be aware of something positive in their experience can seem dismissive, if phrased the wrong way.  There IS something positive in their experience, but focusing on what seems non-threatening means letting their guard down.   If they are recovering from a situation where their guard had to constantly be up, why should they trust a feeling of safety?

This is why we must let ourselves be genuinely interested in our clients’ worlds.  It opens us up to sharing in their joy. It reinforces the idea that their joy, comfort and safety matter to us, not in some abstract and theoretical sense, but on a personal level.  This is personal work.  We cannot create a healing relationship if it isn’t a real, human relationship.

The capacity to experience something pleasurable is like a muscle that can atrophy.  When we are recovering from a physical injury, we may need months of physical therapy before our muscles work the way we want them to.  The same is true of psychotherapy. New neural pathways do not get built over night, but we must hold implicit faith in our clients’ ability to heal themselves.  Eventually, they will start to have the same faith in themselves.  When people learn to attune to pleasurable moments, they start to create more of them in their lives.  They start to set boundaries with others, because they attune to their own signals that people are starting to make them uncomfortable.  Relationships improve, and support systems widen.  Eventually, slowly but surely, the therapist becomes a lot less important…which means that therapy is working.

This is the bulk of the work.  Trauma therapy is often a long rambling paragraph of conversations, punctuated by the sessions where the trauma material is targeted directly.  Nobody wants to read a story where every sentence ends with an exclamation point.  The statements lose their meaning, and people become frustrated with the story.

The story is simply about two people, coming together and believing that life is worth living.  We are here to help clients live the life they want to live, no more and no less.  Once we let go of the idea that therapy is “trauma work”, we start to become better as trauma-informed therapists.

I’m a somatic psychotherapist, so the following post may seem surprising.  I don’t believe that people should be “in their body” all the time.

This is not to say that bodily awareness is not important for healing.  Indeed, it is one of the most powerful vehicles for healing that I have ever witnessed.  At the same time, I do not believe it is possible, or even healthy, to constantly force ourselves into the body.

Therapists in the last 20 years have become much more educated about dissociation, a natural process that allows us to disconnect from sensation and awareness of the surrounding world. It can take many forms.  Someone experiencing dissociation may feel that they are in a fog.  They might feel that they are watching life like a movie, rather than actively participating.  In some cases, they can feel a loss of identity, as though they are not a real person.  “Multiple personalities” may develop, and a person may switch between personality states to deal with triggering situations.

Dissociation helps us survive an actual or perceived threat to life. It takes us out of the direct experience, and offers a release from pain.  I’ll offer an example below.  It’s a popular nature video often shown during beginning-level SE trainings.  If any SEPs are reading this, they will probably recognize it as something they have seen many times:

For a wild prey animal, dissociation is nothing short of a blessing.  If the predator perceives an animal as dead, they may leave it alone, allowing the animal to escape.  Even if the animal does not escape, at least their death is painless.  For humans, dissociation has the same effect.

People who have experienced trauma often pathologize the freeze response.  “I should have done something, but I just froze”.  They discount the wisdom of their nervous system, which allowed them to survive the experience and may have also protected them from disruptive trauma memories that would have seemed overwhelming later on.

I also want to name that dissociation isn’t just a trauma thing.  People without PTSD use dissociation all the time.  Have you ever been lost in a book, so absorbed in the story that you disconnect from the external world?  Have you ever been in a deep state of meditative trance which allowed you to connect with spiritual allies?  Throughout history, daydreams and fantasies have inspired us.  For trauma survivors, a character from myth, religion or even science fiction may become a healing archetype that serves as a resource for recovery.  In many ways, one might say that dissociative states are sacred, in that they help us access the healing wisdom of our own psyche.

Now, I am not saying that we should walk around in fantasy land all the time.  If somebody loses their ability to come out of dissociation, then this needs to be addressed.  What I am essentially saying is this:  The goal of therapy is not to eradicate or pathologize specific states of consciousness.  The goal is to support resiliency, so that somebody can have access to the state that is appropriate in the moment.

If you notice yourself dissociating today, be curious about it.  Rather than berating yourself for the dissociation, ask yourself this:  Was it adaptive for the given situation?  If not, you may want to explore ways to bring yourself back to the present moment.  Here are some things to try:

• Look around the room and name five yellow things (or green, or purple.  Pick a favorite color).  This will instantly focus your attention on the external environment and help you become present.
• Take a walk.  Be mindful of your feet on the ground.  Notice where your attention is drawn in the natural world.  If you feel drawn to a specific object, like a rock or a pine cone, pick it up and notice the texture in your hands.
• Carry favorite sensory objects in your pocket or purse.  These might be smooth rocks, stress balls or soft fabric.  Some eclectic shoppes carry rocks printed with positive messages.  If you find one you like, consider getting it for yourself.
• Eat small amounts of a favorite food or beverage.  One cup of tea or a square of dark chocolate can awaken the senses instantly.  Notice how your body reacts to that small act of self-care.  You may notice some feeling of relaxation or relief.
• Make sure you are comfortable.  You are less likely to be in your body if your clothes don’t fit, or you are experiencing dehydration.  Try having a glass of water or putting on sweat pants.  You will be surprised how quickly you feel better.

Now, if you decide that your dissociation is adaptive, then don’t be afraid to let yourself enjoy it.  Notice how you feel as you emerge from that restful state, and thank yourself.

It’s gardening time again.

There are still remnants of last week’s blizzard.   I remember how quiet everything was.  I’ll admit, I did very few sessions.  Existing clients cancelled to stay safely indoors, and nobody new booked an appointment.   I don’t know if it’s the same for other therapists, but I have  noticed that I get few (if any) calls during a storm.  I wonder if people go into hibernation mode, and then emerge as the weather warms, reaching out for support when their system feels ready to receive it.

It’s a natural cycle, like the freeze and thaw of the snow.  Everything happens in its own time.  At no point are we separate from it.

Right now, I’m noticing how green the yard is.  The grass is always the greenest at this time of year.  The spring snow always revitalizes and renews what has been dormant.  As predicted, the phone is ringing again.

We need not fear our internal cycles that mirror the cycles of nature.  At times, we must honor our impulse to cocoon ourselves in our own comfortable world.  We must also honor the times in our lives when we feel more open.  This means trusting our intuition when we know, on some deep level, that openness is safe…that the sun is warming, and that the snow will soon be gone.

We know when it is time to get a new job, and when it’s time to stay with our old one.  We know when it’s time to seek out a new partner, and when it’s time to focus more on ourselves.  All of our wisdom is within, and observation of the natural world can teach us so much about ourselves. We can also look to myths and archetypes to understand the perennial truth of human resiliency.   Some of us celebrate Easter, and some of us do not.  Regardless of our spiritual orientation, there is something deeply awe-inspiring about these stories of resurrection, which we have told ourselves over and over again throughout the ages.

I hope you are taking time, today, to be kind to yourself, knowing that you have weathered many storms.  You are fully deserving of the new life you create for yourself.

If you have time, this week, you may wish to take a walk and observe how nature is transforming.  In my garden today, I noticed many living worms underneath the dead leaves, preparing the soil for new growth.  I interfered with them as little as possible.  In the same way, we need not interfere with our own natural inclinations.  Healing happens on its own time. Sometimes, we need only slow down and observe our natural patterns to understand that there is actually nothing wrong with any of us.

Whether you’ve called a therapist or not, you are already healing. Your impulse to reach out is a natural process of growth, like a plant slowly rising above the snow.

Hold yourself in gentle awareness, and know that you are doing fine.