With my own experiences coping with mental health difficulties, I am able to speak both from the perspective of a therapist, but also a client.
I have worked as a therapist since 2012 in a variety of settings ranging from homeless services agency to private practice. I have a unique ability to take complex, difficult, and sensitive topics and provide insightful commentary and perspectives. Friends and colleagues have often referred to me as a “master reframer” when offering different ways to look at difficult situations.
I also offer business coaching and courses to other therapists in private practice with a focus on balance, self care, and financial sustainability. As a myself, I have first hand experience navigating money mindset, self employment challenges, imposter syndrome, and more. I own/admin a Facebook group of over 7K therapist entrepreneurs (and growing daily), and an email list approaching 3k subscribers as of March 2024, where I share articles I have been featured in.
As a mother of twins (one of whom is neurodiverse), I am able and willing to speak on the realities and difficulties of motherhood including my experience with postpartum rage.
Topics areas I am well versed in include: anxiety, depression, perfectionism, people pleasing, boundary setting, breaking generational patterns, work-life balance, financial therapy, money anxiety, relationships, communication, marriage, coping strategies, guilt, shame, imposter syndrome, and more.
Create a triage box. When clutter gets out of hand, walk around your home and put everything that’s out of place into a “triage box.” Then walk around again and put everything away. “This eliminates the feeling of walking in circles putting one thing away at a time,” says Audrey Schoen, a licensed marriage and family therapist. “Your home immediately looks cleaner just by putting the items in the box. And emptying the box leaves you with a very gratifying feeling of accomplishment. When things are really busy, my triage box just sits and collects clutter throughout the week, and I empty it once it’s full, maybe two or three times a week.”
You can think of it this way: Motivation gets us started, and discipline makes it happen. For example, “I can be motivated to compete in a powerlifting meet, but discipline is going to be what keeps me showing up to the workouts day in and day out to get there,” explains Audrey Schoen, a licensed therapist and the founder of Balanced Private Practice in Granite Bay, California.
Some tasks need plenty of setup, and we often don't factor those steps in when we estimate how long it'll take to complete them. Licensed therapist Audrey Schoen notices this situation happens frequently with counseling clients. "I find many people underestimate the preparation and organizing time involved in tasks. While someone might be able to accurately gauge how much time completing the task takes, there is little consideration of the prep, set up, or organizational work required," Audrey says.
Audrey Schoen, a marriage and family therapist in Granite Bay, Calif., loves communicating via voice message. When she meets someone new and exchanges contact info, she sends them an audio message instead of firing off a text. And when she feels lonely, she reaches out to friends in the same way—or replays old voice messages that she saved. “I love receiving voice messages, and I love sending them,” she says. “They feel so much more personal,” and are an especially fun way to keep in touch with friends who live far away.
There are, of course, other potential factors, including expectations. It's not uncommon, for instance, for people to "attribute the problems in a relationship to the other person," Audrey Schoen, LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist, tells Bustle. "They believe that if they could just find the right person, the relationship would be easy and there would be few conflicts."
The trouble is, this puts all the blame on the other person, which means you'll never end up addressing the role you play in a relationship, which then results in the same patterns cropping up again. And when they do, it can come as quite the shock, Schoen says, especially since the honeymoon phase can lull you into a false sense of security.