Dina Borisova: Struggling with mental health in one’s college years is widely recognized as an understandable aspect of college life, often viewed as a normative experience rather than an exception. Despite its normalization, many students experience difficulties at levels that are clinically concerning. This post explores healthy coping strategies to effectively manage stress, maintain balance, and support academic success.

Lily Dean: If you watched television in the mid-2000s, you probably remember the mantra. Before every game, Coach Eric Taylor would look at his high school football team and deliver six words that became a cultural touchstone: "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose." We tend to think of winning and losing in very rigid terms. But Coach Taylor's philosophy points to something different…

Brooke Levy: Things can look worse before they look better. The uncomfortable part isn’t a sign it’s failing. It’s just what adjusting looks like. Most of us assume we’d recognize a healthy environment if we were in one. That ease would feel like ease. That safety would feel like safety. That our bodies would send some kind of clear signal when something was right. But the nervous system doesn’t work that way.

Amanda LaMela: Maybe you’ve noticed a shift during your Monday team meeting or at the coffee shop at 8:49 a.m. The faces are a little blanker than they used to be. Lighthearted small talk has been replaced by doomscrolling and distracted stares. You might find yourself asking, “Why does the work feel heavier even though my job title is technically the same?” This post explores what researchers are calling an “emotional recession” and why human connection matters now more than ever.

Sydney Kowalski: As adults, much of our lives becomes centered on what needs to get done. We spend so much time thinking about work, productivity, and what comes next, and so little time doing things that bring us enjoyment. Not to say adults never have fun anymore, but many of us become so focused on obligations that we slowly drift away from hobbies and activities we once loved. Play can help adults cope with stress, reconnect with themselves, foster creativity, and build meaningful connections with others. 

Adham Moustafa: A friend asks you about the outfit they're wearing. It looks good and everyone already confirmed it. Yet your friend hesitates on their choice, and you recognize the discomfort the outfit may cause them throughout the day. What happens when someone is brave enough to name that discomfort? 

Dina Borisova: Trauma coping often includes avoidance patterns that initially help people function, stay productive, or distance themselves from overwhelming emotions. While these strategies can feel adaptive in the short term, they may also keep trauma responses active by preventing deeper processing and integration over time. This post explores the research behind this and how healing can begin.

Wes Higgins: People with ADHD can struggle with close relationships because closeness without structure can turn messy fast. What keeps a relationship steady is not just how open you are. It’s also how well you manage limits. Without boundaries, intensity can run the show. This post explores the importance of boundaries, why they feel difficult to hold, and how therapy can help.

Lily Dean: If you have ever played a sport, watched a sport, or even just seen a Gatorade commercial, you know the script. The ultimate athletic virtue has been mental toughness for years and years. The harder you push, the more success you will find, or at least that is what the culture has told us. Most of us have internalized that message far beyond the field or the court. This post explores the healthier alternative that sustains people longer both in sport and in life.

Amanda LaMela: You deleted the text thread. You even told your friends, “No, seriously, I’m done.” Then two weeks later, something happened… An on-again, off-again relationship is not just one breakup followed by one thoughtful reunion. For many people, it becomes a repeated cycle of conflict, distance, reunion, and relief, followed by another rupture.

Brooke Levy: Most of the time taking care of a houseplant looks something like this: You find a pot that fits your space, you water it on whatever schedule works for you, you put it somewhere with decent light. You want it to grow. You're just not necessarily thinking about what it needs to grow fully. You're thinking about what fits the shelf. What you can manage. And the plant adapts. It grows to within the limits of its conditions.

Adham Moustafa: Everyone loves the person who is always smiling. They are the first to notice you walked in, the one who makes everyone laugh, the one who gets things done. It becomes easy to assume they are fine. But does anyone ever stop to question what motivates that? 

Amanda LaMela: Not all breakups are created equal. Some are painful but understandable. You grieve, you reflect, and eventually you integrate the experience. However, some breakups feel destabilizing in ways that are hard to describe. This blog post explores different breakup behaviors and why certain endings are uniquely destabilizing.

Dani Saliani: After appearing on a new podcast episode about the same subject, this post continues to explore the health benefits of two of our most spontaneous emotional responses: laughter and crying. Both offer similar health effects in terms of releasing cortisol and other stress hormones, but they offer different approaches to emotional processing. 

Brooke Levy: Somatic Experiencing (SE) is structured around restoring a sense of safety, control, and regulation in the body. But what does that actually look like in a therapy session? This post will break down how SE is typically practiced and why it’s so different from approaches that rely on retelling or reprocessing trauma through words alone.