Veronica Guerrero-Quan, M.S., LPA-Independent Practice Have you ever wondered if your experience of anxiety is within the normal range? At what point is the chest pain, racing thoughts, overthinking, sleep difficulties, or feeling on edge too significant? Is this just part of the human experience? Is your experience “too much”? What is anxiety? Let’s start by defining anxiety. Anxiety can feel very similar to fear, although they are not entirely the same. Fear is what we expe

Veronica Guerrero-Quan, LPA-Independent Practice Ever wondered if you are struggling with social anxiety? Or if you are simply shy? I’m a psychotherapist who struggled with social anxiety from elementary school through the third year of college (give or take). So please give me the honor of breaking this down for you! Enjoy! What is social anxiety? Social anxiety, as defined by the diagnostic manual for mental disorders (DSM-5-TR), is described as a “marked fear or anxiety ab

Morgan Brown, M.S. In February, there is a struggle that many of us face: The death of our New Year’s resolutions. We started strong during the first week of January…or maybe the first day? And things quickly went downhill. The excitement faded, energy dwindled, and the habits and changes that you craved for yourself suddenly don’t feel worth it anymore. This is something that so many of us go through every year, but how do we change that this year?  The first step is to ackn

Morgan Flores, M.S. So many things change in life when a new baby is on the way! For a mother, starting at conception, you begin to make room (figuratively and physically, lol) for the new baby and all the needs they will come with. A change in diet, rearranging the house, buying diapers, shifting to having more parent friends in the same stage of life, changing your routines, possibly moving homes, maybe getting new vehicles, and all the things!    One major consideration fo

Amanda Stanley, Ph.D. Disclaimer: this is not a dad-hating blog- there are plenty of great dads out there (who "dad" in their own way). But this one is to celebrate moms, who just won’t stop momming. Many of my therapy patients with children will often hear me say “moms are always momming” no matter how old their children get. Adult child has a tough day at work? Mom wants to be there. Young child sick? Mom to the rescue. Child has a great accomplishment? Enter celebratory mo

Morgan Brown, M.S. Let’s say you have a child that is, for all intents and purposes, a loose cannon. They are constantly having temper tantrums about who knows what. They are always yelling and crying about seemingly insignificant changes to their schedule. They have a nighttime routine that takes 20 minutes to get through because they must know if the door is locked, the windows are locked, the car is locked, the refrigerator door is closed, the lights are turned off (but no

Amanda Stanley, Ph.D. Grounding is a technique used in mental health to help people come into the present moment with their senses. Mindfulness is described as being in the present moment, whereas grounding is used to get to the present moment. These terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and that is ok- there’s no quiz here! When we worry, we are focused about something that has happened in the past or thinking about something in the future . Grounding helps us stop this