Throughout my life, I have turned to writing and stories as a source of respite, wisdom, and comfort. Since I was a teen, I have kept a journal/diary named Gerty where I would write all the things down that I thought were true. I had a voice that would chime through, sometimes as kindness or...
A New Approach to High Pressured and Stressful Holidays: Tips For Keeping Your Cool and Supporting Yourself During the Holidays This blog is for folks who want to spend time with family this holiday season and be intentional about breaking intergenerational patterns of family emotional dysfunction. Picture this – you came to therapy with a...
During the holidays, it can be so busy that we can go into automatic pilot and forget about self-care and the true meaning of the holidays. Here are a few tips to help you stay focused and practice good self-care. Be Intentional During the holidays, it’s easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of...
This blog was written by Hina Wain, a therapist in training who interned at Centered Therapy Chicago this past year. Part 2: Self-Compassion and Radical Bravery There is a common misconception that self-compassion is simply “making excuses” for passivity, complacency, or avoidance of responsibility. There may be a tendency to reject the kindness directed at...
This blog was written by Hina Wain, a therapist in training who interned at Centered Therapy Chicago this past year. As a South Asian in North America, I have always been curious about the meeting of Eastern ideas and Western inquiry. May, as you may know, has been named as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and...
by Bianka Hardin, Psy. D. Over a decade ago, I was at a trauma conference and noticed and bought two books that have impacted the course of my career. The books, “Healing Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship” by Dr. Lawrence Heller and Aline LaPierre and The...
Aliza Solomon just joined CTC in 2022, and we are glad to have her on board. As a professional, Aliza is a board-certified in Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT) and is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). She earned her M.A degree in Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling from Columbia College Chicago in 2018 and prior to that attended the...
After a year and a half of living under lockdown and social restrictions, people are clamoring to leave their homes and interact. According to the CDC, as of June 18th of this year, 57.2% of all Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Many businesses are lifting their Covid restrictions, and with summer...
Everyday we are bombarded on social media, news channels, and television with stories of community violence, mass shootings, sexual assault and more. It’s hard not to feel distressed by these current events. Daily exposure to traumatic events can have a cumulative effect on us, even when we are not directly exposed to the event. This...
Even though spring officially begins on March 20th, there’s no reason to wait to do some mental and emotional spring cleaning. The idea of spring cleaning has been around for thousands of years. Some research points to the Persian tradition of cleaning the entire house in preparation for Nowruz, the Persian New Year which falls...