Parenting is the most challenging and most rewarding role there is. Okay, so I am biased. I have been helping well-intentioned, loving, yet struggling parents for many years, and I am a parent myself. While your role as parent will change over the course of your child’s life, parenting is a forever thing. It is vulnerable. It requires dedication and authority, as well as flexibility and self-reflection. Incorporating essential parenting principles early on will impact the relationship that you maintain with your child across their lifetime, and the lessons they learn will impact who and how they are as human citizens.
Who goes to therapy?
What kind of people attend therapy? At its root, this is a stigma-related question. Many people have received messages from society that devalue the very foundation of therapy or stigmatize those who engage in therapy, like: “don’t talk about your feelings”, “suck it up”, “don’t be vulnerable”, “vulnerability is weakness”, “it’s weird to share intimate details about yourself”, “save money or spend it on things- not talking”, “therapy is for crazy people”, etc. If you are asking yourself who attends therapy, then I would encourage you to ponder, why am I asking, what messages have I gotten about therapy and why does it matter to me?
The Power of Your Thoughts
Are you or have you ever felt lonely, overwhelmed or hopeless? Many people can answer yes to at least one of these at some point in their lives, but what about when the feeling becomes chronic and overwhelming? What about when the feeling expands to unwantedness, unworthiness or both? What about when the external loneliness turns into internal loneliness and it seems worry or sorrow has cast a shadow over your core self? No amount of band aids or bootstrapping will make these intense feelings or intrusive thoughts disappear. And no, it is not your fault that you can’t “just get over it”.
Top 3 Social Message Myths to Toss out of 2019
Okay, so 2019 is finally here and a bunch of people around you have made resolutions; some grandiose and some a bit more practical. Maybe you did too, or maybe you aren’t too sure about this resolution thing this year. That’s okay. Whether you resolve in a grandiose or practical way, or not at all- these top 3 social message myths are changes that you can toss out of 2019 and are guaranteed to benefit from!
I know from working with children, teens and adults, that these social message myths impact so many people- and while they may show up for different people in different ways, these social message myths do not discriminate- they are alive and well- permeating our culture, and they need to be tossed!
So, let’s just jump right in.