Category: Therapy

Many of us with addictions and mental health issues have a tendency to resist our pain rather than accept it. We have developed such a resistance over the years, often unconsciously, that we are giving our painful thoughts and emotions even more power over us. When we can learn to accept them, we are able […]

Many of us with addictions and mental health issues find ourselves in codependent relationships, and we often are emotionally dependent on the other people in our lives. We base our emotions and moods on other people’s and are emotionally susceptible to their changing feelings. As part of our recovery, we can choose to develop our […]

Many of us live in cities without much regular access to the natural world. This separation from nature is known to contribute to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues and is sometimes referred to as Nature Deficit Disorder. Spending time in nature, even in small amounts, can be wonderfully beneficial to our healing and […]

Coming to accept ourselves is a process, and it takes time, practice and patience. We’ve grown so accustomed to hating parts of ourselves, wishing certain things about us were different, feeling ashamed of certain things about ourselves. When we’re in recovery, we’re actively working to process our addictions and mental health issues, all of our […]

When we are most anxious, we tend to let our thoughts run out of control, often without realizing it. We believe that we don’t have control over our minds and that we are powerless over them. We create beliefs around this powerlessness which actually work against us, but we can work to consciously direct our […]

One of the worst things we can do for ourselves is suppress our emotions. When we don’t allow our emotions to flow in healthy ways, we create blockages within us that can cause us tremendous amounts of pain. Our emotions are a significant part of who we are, and when we don’t allow ourselves to […]

When we are struggling with our addictions and mental health issues, we very often aren’t tapped into our inner strength to guide us. We feel powerless in dealing with our challenges. Along our path to recovery, however, we find sources of strength that help us to believe in ourselves and our recovery, that remind us […]

Our beliefs are the thought patterns that we choose to give our energy to, that over time become instilled in us. Our limiting beliefs about ourselves are the beliefs that disempower us, that hold us back, that chip away at our self-worth and self-esteem. We form our identities around these beliefs. We stop believing in […]

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE get help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). Living with suicidal thoughts, ideation and urges is one of the hardest, most painful things we’ll experience in dealing with our addictions, depression and other mental health issues. For many of us, […]

Many of us struggling with addictions are afraid to get help. Wherever we are in the timeline of our stories, the fear of getting help often holds us back from recovery. For many of us, we have become complicit and comfortable in our addictions. We’re afraid of being pushed out of our comfort zones. Sometimes […]