Contrary to popular belief, stress is good for you. But like red wine and dark chocolate, only in moderation. A moderate amount of stress can motivate you, give you energy, help you run a race, or gift you with laser-like focus for a challenging task. Heart rate and breath rate automatically increase to pump oxygen-saturated…

During the past three years of journeying through a global pandemic, I’ve had lots of opportunities to process the idea of what it means to be a resiliency-informed trauma therapist. And I have come to believe that being resiliency informed is a more expansive task than simply being trauma-informed. A scene from the movie Inside…

“Listen. People start to heal the moment they feel heard.” —Cheryl Richardson Listening. It is one of my favorite meditative practices. I can sit outside for hours listening with a smile to the vibrant, and sometimes vitriolic, communication of the birds of my neighborhood. I cherish quiet moments sitting with closed eyes and open ears,…

The Collaborative Problem Solving approach of Stuart Ablon and Ross Greene is a profound paradigm shift in working with children who struggle behaviorally. When we believe that kids “choose” to misbehave, “choose” to get in trouble, or “choose” to fail in school, we are coming from what I believe to be a flawed perspective. In…

As a mindfulness educator, I find it thrilling that many hours out of my day I get to sit and just notice things. As I practice with my students and clients, I get to sense the air on my skin, feel the support of the couch cradling my body, notice the variety of sounds in…

“Kids, what do you say?” It’s the most frequently asked question of all parents (maybe second only to, “Exactly what were you thinking?”) And the answer is inevitably the forgotten words, “Thank you.” It’s simply too easy to forget, to slip through life without making room for a gratitude pause. To take the ice cream…