The neurochemistry of addiction can best be summed up in one sentence: “Your brain, highjacked by drugs, shuts down, and needs rebalanced.” Sounds simple, right? Well, let’s take a look at each section of that sentence to get the full story. Part 1: “Your brain” Your brain already has in it all the drugs it will ever need to feel…

Meet Our Newest Team Member, Jessica Calhoon! Why I Do What I Do Every time someone asks me why I do what I do, and I reflect on this question, I find myself uncovering a new layer to my answer.  This is because as I continue to grow as a person and a therapist, I gain a greater passion and…

Feeling burnout and apathetic in your work? Struggling with Compassion Fatigue? We’ve all been there. We begin to feel like the compassion satisfaction when we first started the job is lost and unlikely to come back. Well, perhaps less is more… According to the book, Peak Performance, it’s important to remember the following script: Rest + stress = growth. Don’t…

Motivation is a Myth Personally, I believe motivation is a myth. The myth is that we must be motivated to act. The trouble with this “motivation first” attitude is that it backfires. We think motivation is like a bubble. The longer we wait, the bigger it gets, the more likely we are to burst into action. The truth, however, is…

As a parent with a child about to turn one, it’s hard not to look at all the arbitrary check lists out there to make sure one’s child is “on track.”   As nice as it is to have Google at our fingertips with all of its normative statistics to catch red flags in development, I often wonder if it…

Evan’s Story From addicted musician to professional therapist: Though the drugs have gone, the music goes on strong In the end, the light at the end of the tunnel had shrunk down to a tiny pinhole and all around me was a roiling universe of self-hatred, hopelessness, and fear. That’s where addiction took me.  What had once filled the hole…

There’s some debate in the therapy world about the value and necessity of no-show fees. On the one hand, time is money and someone who cancels at the last minute is bad for business. On the other hand, no one’s perfect. Life happens. To charge or not to charge, that is the question! Or is it? For me, this is…

There are certain companies I hate dealing with: AT&T, Direct TV, shady home warranty people, etc… Vista Print, however, is not one of them. For anyone looking to create their own brand for a business, event, or personalized gift, Vista Print is truly the way to go. Case in point, I recently ordered two branded coffee mugs. The Mental Fitness…

Stress is a natural reaction to threatening situations in life. Often, it kicks in our primitive “fight-or-flight” reflex leading us to believe we have only those two options. This common misconception is not only not true, it can be downright dangerous. Taken at face value, stress makes our thinking more myopic. The trouble here is that by getting sucked in…

In my field, I see a lot of families who do a lot of therapy. Granted, this is a great problem to have as it shows the family is motivated, engaged, and invested. Still, when problems arise, more often than not my suggestion is NOT for more therapy. In many cases, my suggestion to the parents goes something like this:…