Creative Counseling

Therapists spend much of their professional lives helping others navigate stress, recognize unhealthy patterns, and make room for their needs. Yet maintaining those same practices in our own lives can be difficult. Between sessions, documentation, supervision, and personal responsibilities, there may be little space left to consider how we are actually doing. Self-care can easily become something we recommend more consistently than we practice. Caring for ourselves requires p

I spend a lot of time encouraging other people to pay attention to themselves. To notice when they are overwhelmed, honor their limits, and make room for rest. This week, I was reminded that knowing these things and practicing them are two different things. Earlier this week, I ended up in the emergency room with severe dehydration after a month of moving too fast. I also experienced a serious panic attack. I was with people who had never witnessed me having an active panic a

When we ask clients about coping, we may hear about exercise, journaling, breathing techniques, or support from others. It is also worth asking about music. A client may have relied on songs for comfort, expression, connection, or companionship long before entering therapy, without ever describing that relationship as a coping resource. For someone who grew up with frequent moves, financial insecurity, or family disruption, music may have offered something familiar. For anoth

As a kid, I didn’t have much, but we always had music. We moved a lot growing up in an Army family. There were periods when we didn’t have a couch or a bed, but my dad always had stereo equipment. Looking back, that detail says a lot about the place music held in our lives. Even when we were still getting settled and the house was missing furniture, there was something to listen to. When you move often, you spend a lot of time adjusting. Different homes, different schools, di

A client says she needs to stop answering work emails at night, but each evening she reaches for her phone. Another feels overwhelmed by extra assignments yet continues to say yes. Someone else rehearses a conversation with a supervisor for weeks without having it. These clients may already know they need boundaries. The work in counseling is understanding what makes those boundaries difficult to establish and maintain. For a therapist, it helps to approach the pattern with c

You answer an email after dinner because it will “only take a minute.” You agree to another assignment even though your calendar is already full. A coworker needs to vent, and you listen despite having a deadline of your own. Each moment may seem small, but together they can leave you feeling that your time belongs to everyone else. Setting boundaries at work begins with recognizing what you need to do your job while also caring for yourself. You can be committed, dependable,

As fall arrives, clients may begin describing subtle changes before they identify depression: “I’m tired all the time,” “I haven’t wanted to see anyone,” or “Everything feels harder lately.” These statements offer an opportunity to explore a possible seasonal pattern and begin planning before functioning declines further. A useful opening is, “What do you notice about your mood and routines as the days get shorter?” Follow with curiosity about previous fall and winter experie

Fall brings cooler mornings, changing leaves, and earlier sunsets. For some people, it also brings a familiar heaviness. Getting out of bed feels harder, plans become easier to cancel, and activities that once felt enjoyable start to feel like work. If you recognize this shift in yourself, you deserve support—not pressure to simply push through. Seasonal affective disorder, often called seasonal depression or SAD, is depression that follows a recurring seasonal pattern. The m

Most clinicians explain confidentiality during intake. The client reviews the forms, we describe the limits, and the session moves on. But the meaning of confidentiality becomes real later: when a parent asks what their teen disclosed, a partner wants an update, a client describes a possible safety concern, or a subpoena arrives. In those moments, the task is more than recalling an exception. We have to identify what information is protected, what the situation actually requi

It takes trust to tell someone about the parts of your life you may not have shared with anyone else. You might talk about a relationship, a painful memory, a fear, or a thought you are still trying to understand. Knowing what happens to that information can make it easier to begin. Confidentiality means your therapist protects the information you share in counseling. Your therapist does not ordinarily tell a partner, parent, employer, or friend what you said simply because t