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.

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.

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.

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.

Join Dezryelle Arcieri, LMFT, 200YTT in this mindfulness practice to manage difficult emotions, pain, and self-judgments. This Body Scan meditation is an opportunity to be in the present moment, regardless of what is showing up or how it feels. Try it out and see if it will be useful for you.

Navigating the healthcare system can be an extremely vulnerable and sensitive process. The LGBTQIA2S+ communities have been disproportionately affected by healthcare discrimination and have a history of health oppression. For many trans, queer, and non-conforming individuals, being educated about their healthcare needs is a necessity and self-advocacy can help us to get the care we need and deserve from a system set up against us. Self-advocacy is when you speak for yourself, understand your rights, and ask for what you need. LGBTQ self-advocacy requires self-awareness, assertiveness, and preparation.

Anxiety can serve as a way to keep us safe, as it signals alarm bells to our body that help us avoid or get out of life-threatening situations. The feeling of anxiety can also serve as a tool that helps motivate us to accomplish things that we care about in life. For some of us though, our body regularly rings those anxiety alarms in situations that aren’t necessarily life-threatening throughout the day. Therefore, it makes sense that we find ourselves googling “How to get rid of my anxiety” or have started therapy with the initial hopes of saying goodbye to anxiety altogether. However, since the feeling of anxiety is a part of this whole human experience thing we are all embarking on, what if we gave ourselves a break from working so darn hard to get rid of anxiety, and instead focused on how we could relate to the feeling of anxiety in a different way?

For most of the United States, winter is truly here. For the Pacific Northwest where Satya Wellness Collective is located, this means months of dark, gloom, and rain. The clock has changed. The temperature has dropped. The darkness falls way too early, making us feel that it’s midnight when it’s only just 6:00 pm. Whether you are a lover of winter, a sun child, or somewhere in between, we can all be affected by the changes in temperature, sunlight, and energy that winter brings. Some of you might have a harder time waking up and getting out of the warmth and comfort of your bed, some of you might pine for your favorite outdoor activities, some of you might not feel motivated to work or cook, some of you may even have Seasonal Affective Disorder or experience a spike in your symptoms of depression. 

Some people struggle with perfectionism as an adult because of the high standards that were expected of them as a child. This could have been in the area of academics, sports, music, or anything that a child could achieve greatness in, but we also see this in the behavior of children who were in highly stressful situations and/or traumatized by their caregivers. A child that is being emotionally, verbally, physically, sexually abused or neglected may learn to use perfectionistic behaviors as a means for safety by controlling their environment as much as they can.

Mental health is a challenging, yet an important public health issue. A major goal of public health is to identify barriers that individuals and communities face in living healthy, fulfilling lives. One such barrier is mental health challenges related to depression, anxiety, trauma, stress, burnout, culture, and more. People struggling with unaddressed mental health needs often find day-to-day activities, such as spending time with friends, going to school or work, doing their favorite hobbies, or following up with medical appointments, much more challenging. This can lead to additional distress and even worse health outcomes. In the field of public health, prevention and early intervention are vital to successfully addressing the health needs of individuals and communities.

During the COVID19 Pandemic, we have all had moments over the past few months where we have felt lost, purposeless, aimless, or at least frustrated at the new limitations impacting our lives. Most of us are staring at the same walls and same people everyday, making it difficult to find creativity and motivation. I have seen varied reactions to the pandemic, from anger, to distress, to listlessness and, worst of all, hopelessness, as well as difficulty getting out of bed, going to work (even just remotely), eating food, socializing with people you love, or engaging in self-care.