During my graduate classes all my professors talked about self –care. It was a term I had not heard before. I would sit in class and think “who needs self-care? It sounds like something for people who are weak in mind, who can’t handle what is put in front of them.” I also thought “I [...]

Horses have been used therapeutically with those who have physical, developmental and emotional limitations for more than four decades. As very social creatures, horses are often eager to please the humans in their lives. They cannot be easily forced into submission, but rather respond positively to slow, deliberate actions evoking trust. 

I just returned from some much appreciated time off. I went into the backcountry of Montana for a week and then went to a conference: “Motivational Interviewing to Competence”. Being refreshed and renewed, I found the conference enlightening, instructive and intriguing. As a “seasoned” counselor, I have observed over the decades many new perspectives on [...]

It is the day after the horrific shootings at Fort Hood. Once again we find ourselves frightened by the violent events that seem to make no sense and for which we have no context to find meaning. The news stations and websites are filled with details, endless speculations, and ongoing analysis. As I scanned these [...]

As psychologist and author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi puts it, creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. It is “a process by which a symbolic domain in the culture is changed. New songs, new ideas, new machines are what creativity is about.” Everything in our surroundings is the result of inventiveness, of creativity. Csikszentmihalyi’s [...]

My husband and I recently made the heartbreaking decision to euthanize our eleven year old beloved dog Lucy. As we have grieved her loss the counselor part of me has been trying to make some sense of both the process of grief as well as psychological importance of the loss of a pet. I know [...]

By now, if you have been keeping up with my blogs, you realize that I focus much of my work into career counseling. But, as I have argued in the past, I advocate for no division between mental health and career counseling. Given this position, it would follow that I would write a blog about [...]

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders. -Maya Angelou, poet (1928- ) As humans, I believe we often give ourselves a little too much credit, believing that only we, the superior species, can [...]