Blog

How to Grieve Well: An Encouraging Guide to Navigating Loss and Finding Healing

By Melissa Divaris Thompson, LMFT

Grief is a natural response to losing someone or something that is important to us. The process can be overwhelming, and our emotions can be intense and varied. However, understanding our feelings and taking care of ourselves as we grieve can help us heal and move forward.  1. Accepting Your Feelings and Understanding Grief A. Embrace Your Emotions Grieving is a highly individual experience, and there is no right or…

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How Does Therapy Work?

By Melissa Divaris Thompson, LMFT

Therapy is a widely recognized tool for improving mental health, but many people are still unsure about what happens during a therapy session. Media portrayals and misconceptions about therapy can contribute to this uncertainty, leading potential clients to feel apprehensive about seeking help. In this blog, we will explore the truth behind therapy, debunk common myths, and provide insight into how therapy works to improve mental health and well-being. Understanding…

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The Social Appeal of a New Year

By Somer Saleh, LMFT

When it comes to our behaviors, as much as we’d like to think we’re adaptable, we are creatures of habit. But every year, as December comes upon us, amidst the holiday shopping and family planning, we reflect on our journey so far and reflect on ways to improve our lives. Amidst the seasonal shifts in weather, daylight saving time, and holidays, we jump into more change. Whether it’s in our…

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Reclaiming Yourself During a Pandemic

By Somer Saleh, LMFT

From socially distancing and working from home to living in a post-pandemic world with masks, constant testing, and a new world order. I think I can speak for the majority when I say that am not the only one feeling a sense of not being in control.  With the state of our affairs feeling so uncertain and unbalanced during a nationwide pandemic, how do we regain our sense of self…

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Why creating a routine can be helpful during coronavirus

By Elena Covo, LMFT

The coronavirus outbreak is a global issue that is causing a lot of concerns for humans everywhere in the world. It is disrupting our lives, our economy, our finances, our social and family circles, as well as our physical and mental health. Our daily habits have changed, our life looks different, and everything happened so quickly, which is anxiety provoking. You might be working from home at this point, or…

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How vulnerability can help you enhance your relationship.

By Elena Covo, LMFT

Being vulnerable in a romantic relationship. Throughout my experience working in France and now in the United States, I have observed partners going from regularly fighting and talking about breaking up to being close to one another and having a strong and secure attachment bond. So, what has helped them go from a stage of defensiveness and verbal attacks to a more peaceful lifestyle? I have noticed that couples that…

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New Year, New You! – 3 Ways to Find Your Authentic Voice in 2019

By Melissa Divaris Thompson, LMFT

To find your authentic voice, be an explorer. How so? Have you ever been to a new city and felt an undeniable vibe? Like the atmosphere was alive, breathing a certain feeling into your lungs. Some cities that come to mind are New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Nashville, San Francisco, etc. Unmentioned, of course, the hundreds of quaint little towns scattered across the map. What do they all have…

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How Overthinking a New Relationship Can Undermine Your Connection

By Melissa Divaris Thompson, LMFT

The start of a fresh romance has its own unique learning curve. If you’re like most people, you may be tempted to analyze every little move. Yet, overthinking a new relationship can actually damage the authentic connection between you. Despite the intense and immediate connection that romance novels depict, usually that initial connection is fairly sensitive. In other words, it requires a bit of nurturing. Think of your new emotional…

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5 Easy Ways to Build Your Self-Confidence—Starting Now

By Melissa Divaris Thompson, LMFT

Many things in life can impact your self-confidence. Think back to events in your childhood. Perhaps your parents divorced, you relocated to a new neighborhood or school, or you struggled with a physical illness or disability. In adulthood, you may have experienced a difficult relationship, dealt with a toxic work environment, or trudged through financial losses. Life has a way of twisting and turning in unexpected ways. Often, these experiences…

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Why Self-Care Is More Than a Day at the Spa

By Melissa Divaris Thompson, LMFT

Despite the term “self-care” taking on a rather fluffy meaning nowadays, it’s far more empowering than most people believe. And self-care is more than a day at the spa. Yes, daily self-care goes far beyond sweating out stress in a sauna or taking a mud bath. Somewhere along the lines, self-care has gotten a luxurious connotation assigned to it. As if taking care of yourself was optional. It’s vital to…

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How Psychotherapy Can Help

If you live in New York City, like I do, you know that most people speak openly about seeing their therapist. The stigma of shame is lifted when you live in a place that accepts psychotherapy as an acceptable form of asking for help. In New York, there are therapists on most corners. When we enter therapy, it does not mean that we are crazy or can’t function on our…

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What is MamaYoga? An interview with Kate Loewengart

I had kept meaning to check out Kate Loewengart’s class at Rivertown Mamas for mom and baby. Since I have had my son, I find scheduling to be a bit challenging. One day, however, the stars aligned and I was able to attend. Kate offers a wonderful selection of different classes, whether you are pregnant or have a newborn, or even an active toddler. The class I was able to…

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To Bless the Space Between Us – Poetry

John O’Donohue To Bless the Space Between Us May this be a morning of innocent beginning, When the gift within you slips clear Of the sticky web of the personal With its hurt and its hauntings, And fixed fortress corners, A morning when you become a pure vessel For what wants to ascend from silence, May your imagination know The grace of perfect danger, To reach beyond imitation, And the…

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Anxiety; 5 Tips to Staying Calm

Anxiety. Even the name can make some people anxious. It can hit us like a ton of bricks or slowly creep in. Either way, struggling with anxiety can be exhausting and well anxiety producing. Here are some tips to help you through the anxiety. I have written about anxiety before and tips to help soothe it but here are some more. 1. Anxiety comes in waves. We may notice feeling…

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Parenting Article: When Multiple Children Have Big Feelings

This article was written on the Hand in Hand Parenting website and I thought one worth sharing. Just having one child, it’s sometimes hard to know how to navigate feelings, big or small. Here is a really good article on how to handle multiple children’s feelings. http://www.handinhandparenting.org/article/connecting-chaos-multiple-children-big-feelings/ Connecting Through Chaos: what to do when siblings have big feelings at once What parent hasn’t wished she could clone herself into an…

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A Letter to a New Mom

“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” —Jill Churchill I share this personal piece of writing in hopes that it speaks to others who are having a hard time having a new baby at home. In hopes that it reminds a new mom out there that this time of sleep deprivation and hard feelings change and shift. Having a new…

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5 Tips to Trusting Your Intuition

“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” Alan Alda Over the years, clients have come into session asking me, what is the difference between my intuition and fear? I can hear and feel a gut feeling, but I am not sure if it’s truly my intuition. How do I…

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The Art of Surrender

Surrender is not defeat. Surrender is not giving up. Surrender is ‘allowing’ in the moment. Each day, and more specifically each moment, we have an opportunity to practice the art of surrendering. Whether we are late for an appointment, waiting for a train, or feeling overwhelmed by life, we have a choice. We hit a fork in the road. We can either choose to follow that impulse of frustration, aggravation,…

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Motherhood; you know you are a mother when…

As I journeyed into motherhood, I felt quite overwhelmed. The day I became pregnant and the moment I gave birth, I was changed forever. Even though I was so much the same, something in me was so different. My new journey had just begun. As I stood in line at the coffee shop one morning, deeply sleep deprived, I reached for my purse and a mum mum fell out. I…

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How Psychotherapy Can Help

Snowdrops – Louise Gluck Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know what despair is; then winter should have meaning for you. I did not expect to survive earth suppressing me. I didn’t expect to waken again, to feel in damp earth my body able to respond again, remembering after so long how to open again in the cold light of earliest spring- afraid, yes, but among…

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