Our kids practice setting boundaries with us from a young age, to assert themselves through stages of growing independence, and also to learn what limits will be respected based on how we react. These transition times can be scary for parents, as we struggle with feelings of inadequacy,  loss or rejection. But when we handle...Continue Reading

Feeling overwhelmed by pressure to be more pandemic-productive? You're not alone. Longer isolation has meant more time spent on social media and more blurring of home/work life boundaries, resulting in mounting pressure to be ever more performative and compounding stressors in an already challenging time. Dr. Zhen Xu shares strategies for now, for how to...Continue Reading

Some attention to how we eat and where our food comes from can have positive effects on our physical and mental health. Cross that optimal level of stress, however, and preoccupation with the quality of food can start to feel all-consuming. Continue Reading

You’ve been building up to going to therapy for a while. It feels scary, and you’re apprehensive at first but the first couple of sessions go OK; your therapist seems to understand you and it feels good. But then, over the next couple of sessions, you start to get the feeling that they don’t really...Continue Reading

In recent months most of us have experienced an unprecedented amount of upheaval, and although it has happened that a client shares something that I have personally experienced, it is the first time that we have gone through such experiences “together”. Surprisingly, part of what has allowed me to get through these trying times is...Continue Reading

We are all going to slip into self-critical talk at times in the coming weeks or months; the challenge is to catch yourself doing it and see if you can practice compassionate self-talk some of the time; that, in and of itself, is an important thing that we can model for our children.Continue Reading