What is Sand Tray Therapy?

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What is Sand Tray Therapy?

What is sand tray therapy?  Sand tray therapy is a type of therapy where creative expression takes the place of verbal expression. The client and therapist can talk, of course, but talking is not the main focus.  Instead, the client makes a “scene” or “world” in the sand tray using miniatures and figurines.  The client can recreate their own unique, fictitious world, a scene from their life, or an event that happened that’s bothering them. Once the client is finished, the therapist and client can talk about what they created if they want to do some emotional processing of the scene.

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Improve Your Self Confidence With These Two Quick Tips

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Improve Your Self Confidence With These Two Quick Tips

Self-Confidence. Or, folks may use the term self-esteem or self-trust. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines self-confidence as “confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.” Recently, many of my clients have been struggling with this in their professional and personal lives, so I decided to shed some light on it here for anyone who is considering therapy but isn’t quite sure yet.

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How to Break the Cycle of Depression

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How to Break the Cycle of Depression

Often my clients come to me because they are feeling depressed and hoping for a way to feel better.  They often say they’re feeling tired, unmotivated, and are struggling to enjoy things even if they had loved those things before.  They want their energy and their joy back but they just can’t figure out how to make it happen.  It’s difficult to problem solve and make changes if you don’t know what’s causing you to feel this way or how depression works.  One thing that can help in identifying the causes of depression, which ultimately is helpful for problem solving next steps to feeling better, is recognizing that depression maintains itself in a cycle. 

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How Are You?

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How Are You?

You probably ask or are asked a version of this question multiple times a day.  You probably respond with “good” and don’t think twice.

Someone recently asked me what the key to good mental health was – they guessed maybe healthy relationships, good genetics, or perhaps spirituality.  I did have to stop and think for a second but then my answer was “it all starts with your feelings”.  I believe that understanding your emotions is the key to good mental health.

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We Are All Living In Loss and Grief

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We Are All Living In Loss and Grief

As I sit with my clients I often hear “ I feel so heartbroken” or “ I feel out of sorts and I can’t explain it”, and as we talk more it becomes apparent that they are dealing with a loss and then experiencing grief from that loss. Often we think that grief and loss come only from the actual death of someone and forget that we experience all sorts of losses that we then grieve. I would like to look at how we all experience grief and loss in our lives on a regular basis and what that looks like and how we can manage it.

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