Like many kids, I was taught to not talk about my feelings. I classified unpleasant emotions as “bad” and if I was having them, then something must be wrong with me.

As I got older, I began to recognize that suppressing my feelings caused a lot of problems. It fed a persistent need to be self-sufficient, which eventually lead to anxiety, burnout, and health problems. Embarrassment and shame tagged along with anything I had negative feelings about. It was difficult to understand my needs because I was so used to dismissing my internal experiences.

Maybe you’re here because, like me, you were taught to bottle up your feelings and slap on a smile.

When you try to push away or hide from emotions, your brain goes into fight-or-flight. You see everything as a threat and start having intense physical and psychological reactions to stress. You begin to organize your life to avoid discomfort, causing damage to your health, relationships, and well-being.

Therapy is a way out of this cycle.

Emotions, when viewed as part of a collection of available sources of information, are a bit like the weather report. They are important to know, consider, and understand, but they are not necessarily the overriding factor in your life plans.

Therapy is a wonderful place to start changing your relationship with emotions so they have less influence on your life and relationships.

As your therapist, my goal is to provide a place where you feel comfortable talking about anything that’s going on in your life (and in your head) without shame or judgment. I’ll help you see problems in a new light, make better decisions, feel more empowered, and reduce the power of your emotions so they have less control over you.

Life is hard. We all need a little help sometimes.