As the sun begins to shine brighter and Pride celebrations approach in Seattle, it's essential for LGBTQIAP2S+ individuals to prioritize safe binding practices, especially in the scorching summer heat. From personal experience and professional insight as a Queer and Trans Therapist who also binds their chest, I'm here to share some crucial tips to ensure a comfortable and safe Pride celebration.

Integrative Health is an approach that blends traditional medicine and therapies with non-traditional healing practices, that aims to help the whole person comprehensively, as well as address the interconnected facets of well-being, including mind, body, and spirit.

My parent’s entire generation was pretty much a generation of refugees who witnessed the trauma of war firsthand. I don’t think, for many of them, this hypervigilance was ever addressed or resolved. Many have undiagnosed PTSD, depression, anxiety, and a multitude of other mental health issues resulting from wartime experiences and resettlement.

This trauma that is then passed down from generation to generation can manifest through a variety of mechanisms, including unresolved grief, cultural stigma, and familial patterns of behavior.

For second and subsequent generations of Vietnamese Americans, our intergenerational trauma can present itself through cultural disconnection, identity struggles, and inherited psychological wounds. It’s transmitted through family narratives, behaviors, and coping mechanisms, and influences our sense of self, relationships, and worldview. Healing from intergenerational trauma is a complex and multifaceted process that involves self-awareness, self-compassion, and intentional healing practices.

Toxic relationships have a long-lasting impact on your mental and physical health, even after having left the relationship. Your nervous system can often remain in “fight or flight” mode, leading to ongoing physical health issues, exhaustion, chronic muscle tension, and lingering anxiety.

Yoga therapy and somatic practices are an excellent way to unravel the effects of a toxic relationship on your mental and physical health. Healing from a toxic relationship takes time, but with professional support, you can find freedom, become empowered through self-love and self-confidence, and discover what it feels like to experience healthy love.

In the journey of life, one of the most significant quests for adolescents and young adults is to understand who they truly are. This process, known as identity exploration, involves delving deep into one's values, beliefs, interests, and experiences to form a coherent sense of self.

Identity isn't fixed; it evolves over time through various stages of development and life experiences.

Understanding and embracing this concept can profoundly impact the lives of young individuals as they navigate through the complexities of adolescence and emerging adulthood.

I want to start by saying, feeling judged by your therapist is tough. It's like bringing your vulnerable self to a place you hope is safe, only to feel like you're being sized up. That stings, and it's okay to acknowledge that pain. You're not alone in this.

Let's chat about therapists and judgment for a moment….

In our modern society, the emphasis on the mind and intellect often overshadows the importance of the body and emotions. We are encouraged to think, analyze, and communicate primarily through language, leaving little room for nonverbal expression. As a result, we may find ourselves disconnected from our bodies and emotions, leading to unprocessed trauma and emotional blockages. Somatic therapy offers a refreshing alternative, acknowledging the body's innate wisdom and its role in healing, and providing a path to liberation from the constraints of the mind.

In the realm of therapy and personal transformation, there is one fundamental aspect that holds immense power: speaking the truth. As a licensed therapist, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative impact that truth-telling can have on an individual's journey towards healing and self-discovery. In this blog post, we will explore the vital role of truth-telling in the therapeutic process and its ability to unlock inner healing, foster authenticity, and ignite profound personal transformation.

Trauma is a deeply distressing experience that can leave lasting imprints on an individual's mental, emotional, and physical well-being. While trauma is often associated with adverse effects on one's life, it is essential to recognize that some individuals develop coping mechanisms that propel them towards high achievement. In this article, we will explore the relationship between trauma and high achievement, delving into the neurobiology behind trauma and its impact on the flight/fight/freeze response. Additionally, we will identify ten signs that may indicate high achievement is rooted in trauma, and provide ten mindful and embodied strategies to manage the potentially problematic aspects of being a high achiever.

We all experienced shame to different degrees. Those painful moments of feeling exposed or rejected and all you want is to disappear. While it is a common experience, it is rarely acknowledged in our culture. If you are struggling with shame, feeling unworthy, or uncomfortable with who you are - you are not alone. You may be trying to avoid it because of its discomfort, but the longer you avoid it, the heavier it becomes.

The good news is it is possible to release shame from your body as you learn to skillfully navigate and move through feelings of shame. Shame does not need to determine how you express yourself or prevent you from showing up authentically and fully in your life.

While not all religious institutions have explicit perfectionism as the standard, “high demand” religions – religious institutions that have very specific expectations, tasks, spiritual disciplines, and “paths” for their congregants to follow – hold congregants to standards which do not allow for deviation in belief, sexuality, gender identity, or personal preferences. Additionally, many religious institutions have standards for following spiritual disciplines and avoiding “sinning,” as well as a wide variety of consequences for behavior that are considered “sinful.” These consequences can be anything from required steps to confess and be forgiven, to public shaming, to excommunication/shunning from the community. This can lead others into taking steps to avoid “messing up” or at least to never share those “mess ups” with anyone in the religious community.

We often think grieving occurs after the loss and death of someone we love. However, we experience grief in multiple aspects of our lives, not just in death. When our experiences of grief are not understood or spoken about by society or those around us, this leads to what is called disenfranchised grief.

The relationship between nutrition and mental health is tied more closely than you may have previously thought. Acknowledging and addressing mental health has been more widely advocated in the past few years (thankfully!), but there has not been much emphasis on the interdependency between nutrition and mental health.

While it may be generally known that our mental health closely influences the types of food we want to eat, whether we want to eat at all, and how much we eat, what is often overlooked is how food affects our mood and general wellbeing.

Luckily, more and more research is demonstrating that the food we eat has a direct impact on our mental health.

Life can often feel full of detours, roadblocks, and outdated signs. With so many different pressures in life… financial pressure, pressure to feel accepted by others, pressure for recognition, pressure to be productive… we often feel underprepared, uncertain, and disconnected from our personal mission or purpose. There are so many things directing us every which way, which at times can cause us to lose sight of where we were going in the first place. It can feel like the GPS is blurting out directions seemingly at random, leaving you to feel directionless, lost and aimless.

We all have younger “parts” within us. As we grow and develop, our younger selves don’t disappear along the journey. As adults, when we feel triggered and can’t understand why, it’s likely stemming from childhood wounding. We replay responses to experiences from childhood in unconscious ways. Often acting or reacting from a place of unconscious wounding. Our bodies and our inner child is replaying ways to seek safety.

Codependency is a term used to describe an imbalanced relationship dynamic in which one becomes overly dependent on their loved one to meet their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. While this type of relationship is NOT mutually beneficial, it’s important to note that each partner plays an important role in this dynamic.

This is a month dedicated to erasing stigma around mental illness and cultivating safe spaces to discuss suicide. As mental health professionals and specialists in the area of suicide prevention and crisis response, this topic is very important to us and the work that we do in the community.

Try this brief breathing exercise to find deep relaxation and balance in your body and mind.

The ancient practice of yoga has long been associated with vibrant health and wellness. The word yoga itself means “to unite” or “to bring together,” connecting the mind, body, and spirit into one integrated whole. And while it has historically been viewed exclusively as a form of exercise, our ideas about what yoga is beyond a physical practice have evolved over the past twenty years. Returning to its spiritual roots as mindfulness meditation, yoga, and other body-based somatic practices are becoming routine interventions used in the treatment of mental health disorders, in both psychiatric treatment centers and in private therapy sessions.

Imagine you are in a tranquil and beautiful location outside of your typical busy or chaotic environment. One where there is someone to help guide you in addressing an element of mental health and wellbeing that you are struggling to tend to in your day-to-day life. Imagine that you get to join with others who are also looking to take care of themselves and who you can learn with, empathize with, and encourage in one another’s wellness journey. A wellness retreat provides a space for all these things and much more.