Recently I was serving as a volunteer when a situation arose that made me uncomfortable and when I expressed this, it led to push back by an organizer. Not how I’d like it to go. I hope that people can be curious about my sharing something I don’t like, this is a sign for me of safety and trust. We don’t need to agree, but let’s let everyone be heard and respected.

Recently I was truly HUMBLED by a loved one pointing out a shortcoming of mine. It’s a particularly tender one that goes deep into some of the mal-adaptive patterns I learned by having hypercritical, negative, narcissistic parents. I was caught by surprise getting this feedback, and it took me a moment to take it in and let the humility register. I’m FAR from perfect and I work on myself consistently. And I still have pitfalls that are hard to hear or see.

4 physical ways to be with your anger without being consumed by it.

An often misunderstood part of trauma resolution is learning to lean into PLEASURE.

I love pop music. I love to get lost in a lyrical world. I love a good earworm that sticks with me for days or weeks or months or more. I want to be taken by music, let life become more digestible through song. A popular joke was that there was no song of the summer for 2025, another reminder of culture not quite tipping into a movement like we had with Brat Summer 2024 (I miss those days.) Summer 2025 came with its own musical vibe, including my favorite sad girl summer bop with Addison Rae’s “Headphones On” which took me by surprise in an incredibly enjoyable way.

Somatic means “of the body”--our soma is our body. So, somatic therapy is therapy that works through the body. When things happen to us, pleasant or unpleasant, they are processed and stored in the body. When I think of my dog, a smile comes to my face, I feel a softening in my chest, I get an upward motion zing of delight through my core all the way to the top of my head. When I think of the dog that bit me, my nose crunches up in what feels like disgust, I feel the part of my hand that was bit open, with a tender memory of the pain. I don’t like staying with that memory, I can feel my desire to turn away.The two dogs are just thoughts but I experience the feelings associated with each dog in my body.