Telling someone what is going on can be tricky. Say too much or too little and you are not likely to get what you need. Here’s a strategy for breaking down good communication into three steps; Situation, Emotion, Action.

Breaking down what happened, how it felt, and what you are going to do next about it in three steps; Situation, Emotion, Action. Well that happened. Now what are you going to do about it?

Too often people think they have to give their “Best Effort” every day to be productive, worthy, or even lovable. Unfortunately, this mindset is a quick road to burnout and backsliding. Learn how to be Good Enough to reach your goals in a sustainable, healthy way.

Intellectualizing is a cognitive distortion which helps you avoid emotional pain by spending all of your brain juice attempting to use logic and reason. Avoiding uncomfortable sensations too often can keep you from being in the moment and disrupt your ability to get through difficult experiences. Learning how to identify and respond attentively to difficult sensations is a practical life skill we all need.

You know you want to do something different, but with so many choices how do you know what to focus on? Learning how to identify goals that matter to you can help you grow into the person you want to be.

It can be maddening when your partner says they remember an event in a way you do not. This difference can spark an entirely new conflict that leaves the original conflict unresolved. Learning how to not get caught on “what really happened” can lead couples to learn how to acknowledge and actually resolve conflicts in the relationship.

A bid is any attempt to connect to another person. How we respond to these bids can significantly influence the quality of our relationships.

Procrastivity is procrastinating on a more important task by looking productive doing some other task. Have you ever decided to deep clean your kitchen when what you really need to do is finish a project with an impending deadline? You may have experienced productive procrastination, also known as procrastivity.

Anger is a perfectly valid on its own. However, it is rarely all by itself. Often anger can hide what else is going on beneath the surface.

Attachment Theory can give you insight into how some people seem to form trusting relationships easily while others struggle to connect.

We all have the right to be treated with fairness and respect. Knowing our personal rights can make it easier to know our edges.

Diagnoses are a quick way to throw a label on ourselves. It can help or hurt us to get latched on to them.

Karpman's Drama Triangle is a way to visualize unhealthy communication patterns. Learn how to see the drama so you can escape it.

Dissociation is the word we have to describe the sensation of being out of touch with your environment and/or yourself. It can be scary.

An ACE score represents the number of Adverse Childhood Experiences before turning 18. Our ACEs can affect us later in life in many ways.

This is a fictional short story to demonstrate how easily cognitive distortions can get in the way.

Cognitive distortions are thoughts that have made an error in analyzing a situation. Unfortunately, they sound like the 'truth.'

This was it. How it all happens. The beginning of the end. A fictional story to expand on a post about Startle Responses.

A startle response happens when your body triggers the nervous system to kick on and rescue you from a perceived threat.

Making goals SMART makes them much easier to achieve. A fictional short story to demonstrate how a SMART goal can be helpful.