If you've experienced trauma in the past, then you've likely also felt the sting of imposter syndrome. Why is that? Trauma in early life can obviously pose quite the challenge to the growing self-esteem and sense of identity of the younger you. These effects to your core belief system can last for years, even decades.

For some of you, this shows up as a deeply held belief that you could never be successful. So when your outer world

One question I often get from clients who are looking for a therapist, or who have already decided to get started with me, is what they should expect at the end of an intensive. They are curious about how it will feel immediately after completing a 3-hour therapy session, or what changes are possible in the weeks and months that follow.

I love this question because it tells me that folks are being very thoughtful about their therapy services and the kind of counseling experience they want to create for themselves.

There’s something about having a moment of clarity and realizing exactly what is going wrong in your life that can create a sense of urgency on regards to your healing.

You may even start combing through Google and sending out mass messages to any therapist you can find online, in the hopes that you’ll find your way to someone’s chair in the near future.

But what if the search becomes longer, more drawn out and more confusing than you ever expected?

As some of you may know, I am in the first generation of my family to be born in the U.S. and therefore a second generation American. This makes so many of my accomplishments an automatic first on U.S. soil, even if many of these were mirrored by my parents, or those who came before them, in our home country of Ghana.

There is something about being the daughter of immigrants that places a tremendous amount

…we will consider exactly how to interview your potential next therapist and learn whether their type of therapy offering is a good match for what you need right now.

So let’s start right in on some options for interview questions. I’ll bullet point the questions themselves for quick reference, explain the rationale for asking them and give an example of an answer you might get. I’ll also highlight red flags in certain answers you may receive that could indicate that it is best to continue your search for a new therapist.

You may have heard some confusing references to CBT or DBT, or you might have a friend who raves about her time doing EMDR and how it completely changed her life (what do all those acronyms even mean??).

Perhaps you heard a celebrity sharing about an awakening they experienced with their hypnotist that

…women of color continue to be less supported than other groups, and can face more daunting odds to success, whether in their own business or in larger, well-established organizations. The access to high quality mentorship, legacy networking, venture capital, or the automatic privilege of assumed competence is either severely limited or entirely absent

[For readers with fertility struggles, please feel free to skip this post and check out some of my earlier articles].

One of the first words out of my mouth after I gave birth to my first son were “He’s going to be an only child.” And I absolutely meant it.

You see, I had approached having a baby with a lot of hopes and expectations. I was pretty sure I was doing most of the right things and

If you had to sum up the last year, how would you describe it?

I can think of many words that might be applied to the past 12 months. Words like “struggle,” “languishing,” and “fatigue” all come to mind. The endless unknowing, the personal losses, the surprise disappointments and the tragedies on the world stage were a lot to hold without much of the familiarity of our usual support systems or…

If you’re feeling on the fence about whether to dedicate time and resources to high-quality therapy at this time in your life, you are not alone. According to a recent OnePoll survey, 1 in 6 Americans started therapy for the first time in 2020, joining the roughly 15% who were already receiving therapy services.

While you may be concerned that seeking treatment is a sign of weakness,…

Everyone is searching for something. Whether we label this “something” as relief, release, a fresh start, a new and improved self or transformation, one thing is clear: we know we have an unmet need and we will seek to fill it by any means necessary.

This quality of staying persistent in meeting our needs is part of what makes us human, and is…

It’s been waaay too long since my last post, and I am really excited to reconnect with you on the blog today. Some of you may already be wondering about the title of this article, as we are clearly well into February. But no worries- I won’t hit you with a “Happy New Year” because that time has passed!

The point of this post is to help you stay focused on any intentions or goals that you wanted…

You may have been working on yourself for quite some time, coming to terms with past losses, mourning the secure attachments you didn’t have, or rediscovering your true self to improve how you show up in your relationships.

While you have a sense that you are making progress in your recovery…

In the context of our current realities, most of us already know or are quickly learning a lot about microaggressions. Understood to be off-hand statements that are essentially assumptions based on someone’s observed characteristics (race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc), you have undoubtedly been on the giving or receiving end of these incidents in one way or anothe…

If you read the title of this post and hoped that this one article would fully encapsulate or explain the depth of what each of those phrases is referring to, you will likely be disappointed. Not because I won’t make a genuine effort to educate, or, in the case of some, validate, but because these are massive topics with extensive history and/or data points. And while I can be a research nerd, that is not in my lane. So let me just speak to you for a minute.

Hello there dear readers! It’s been much too long since I’ve been able to connect with you. Between seeing my wonderful clients, chasing after/entertaining/enjoying my emerging toddler and making the constant adjustments necessary for this pandemic period, life has sped up considerably rather than slowing down.

Times are tough, you all- I’m sure you don’t need…

Hello to all my self-healers👋🏾 Let's start with some background. Post traumatic growth is a theory that was developed in the mid-1990s by psychologists Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD. They used it to explain how people sometimes experience dramatic positive change in the aftermath of trauma. Interestingly, they found that those who exhibit this response were not necessarily…

Woah, how did we get here? You're too smart for this, right? Right. And yet, let's assess- you're pinning, they're uncommitted and the majority of your inner circle is giving you side-eye about the whole thing . So what happened?

1. You let fantasy define your reality rather than the facts…

In part 1 of The Satya Approach, I spoke with you about how the reluctance to engage truth and/or reality is creating a barrier to the life that you desire for yourself. I wanted to give you a wake up call to start things off, because burying your head in the sand simply isn’t cutting it anymore. And, really, you just deserve better. Here in part 2 I want to offer a few practicals for increasing your ability to work within reality

In the philosophy of yoga, Satya is one of the Yamas, or inner restraints, that explores truthfulness. While the idea of authenticity appeals to most of us, the actual practice of living our truth often requires a great deal of courage. We tend to look at others who are unapologetically themselves and wonder if we could ever really be like them. So, why does something so worthy of imitation feel so unattainable?