Emotions ebb and flow. We can grow to be curious about them and learn what they mean, how they help us get to know ourselves and connect with others.

Anticipation can bring excitement as well as anxiety, depending on the experience. With so much uncertainty, you might feel afraid of what comes next and keep thinking about the worst-case scenario.

Anxiety is a full body experience, often creating chest tightness, racing thoughts, and headaches. Anxiety requires a holistic approach, addressing mind, body, and soul. I utilize a variety of tools to help you understand the roots of your anxiety’s cause and your specific response. Equipped with new insight, we can add skills to accept reality and mitigate stress symptoms. Anxiety is a necessary mechanism in the body to protect us from harm. We can learn how to regulate that system for your benefit.

This isn’t what you expected. Disappointment can hit like a ton of bricks and even develop into resentment. We need to understand what the expectations were and learn how to accept the reality of the situation. Easier said than done but it’s necessary to move forward and it’s possible. Our work together can help you remove the weight of disappointment and regain clarity about what you want and need so you can pursue it without fear. How brave to take the risk for what we want in life, even without guarantees!

Why did this happen? How did this happen? Sometimes we don’t have answers to explain our pain. It can keep you up at night, spinning on other outcomes or possible explanations. This can feel maddening. We can sort through those thoughts together and find ways to process them towards growth, peace, or sometimes just acceptance.

All change involves loss of what was, and even if we are on to better things, we often find ourselves grieving what we once had. There are many non-death losses experienced in life that we may not even feel the right to grieve. Grief often comes from a place of love and hope. How can we restore hope while honoring what we no longer have? How do we make room for the grief we feel while creating a beautiful future?

You’ve lost the sense of control you thought you had over the situation and now you start to wonder if you can handle these changes. You question everything you’ve ever accomplished and if you’re “good enough” to handle what’s happening. Self-doubt can make it hard to make decisions, even small ones, but you can rediscover a sense of being grounded within yourself.

Guilt often indicates we failed to fulfill some responsibility or live by our values. Sometimes we feel guilt when we take on other people’s emotions. Guilt requires us to sort through its contributing factors so we can understand what it’s trying to teach you.

How frustrating that we are going through one of the craziest times in our lives and the laundry and dishes still need to be done! During the emotional storm of life changes, you might feel so overwhelmed by daily tasks that it’s hard to stay organized and you fall behind on everything. In addition to understanding and exploring what has you overwhelmed, we can look to executive functioning tools to help you regain your sense of competence to navigate the storm.

Sadness can be so heavy and so big that it feels like it blocks the sun. Our days feel long and we often feel low energy and low motivation at the same time. Sadness is often a feeling we hate to feel because it doesn’t have a “solution.” We might ignore it or distract ourselves because we are sick of crying. That can work temporarily, but eventually you will feel relief to acknowledge your sadness, and our collaboration will help you find ways to move through it. Sadness can make us feel isolated, but remember, you don’t have to carry this alone.

Life changes often bring many emotions at once and we cannot overlook our joy! Sometimes we’ve been through so much that it’s hard to trust that joy will stay. Life is a winding road, but wouldn’t it be great to embrace joy when we have it and trust that it will return again? We can teach ourselves to look for glimmers of hope in the everyday and we can permit ourselves to feel joy, or even create it, alongside other emotions that may feel more uncomfortable or unpleasant!

Sometimes you can’t describe what you’re feeling in one word. Sometimes many words, images, colors, or even sounds can better convey what you’re experiencing. That is okay and welcome here.

Together, we can find the words to understand what you feel and how to communicate your needs to people in your life.