Category: Adult

Adoption: What happened to the Happily Ever After?

As we enter adoption month, it’s worth saying this is a beautiful month to celebrate.  Thank you to all the families who selflessly give their hearts, time, and selves to support children who need to belong.  Thank you to the communities who support these families.  This is one thing that makes adoption so beautiful.  It’s not one sided, though.  As an adoptive parent, I have learned so much about myself and about parenting.  My son, in all of his sweet innocence, has taught me so much about what it means to give selflessly, to be patient, and to love unconditionally. 

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The Mask We Wear

Have you ever thought about the masks we wear to gain acceptance or use to hide because of the constant thought of how you might look to others in the workplace, grocery store, or school?  With Halloween around the corner, I thought this the perfect time to talk about the mask that we all wear in everyday life.  When are we truly ourselves or are we always wearing some type of mask?  Would anyone recognize us without our mask?  How can we trust when we are always wearing a mask? I think it is normal to wear a mask to

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Dear Evan Hansen: Asking For Help

“Dear Evan Hansen” premiered Friday, the movie version of one of Broadway’s biggest hits in recent memory. This movie has a powerful and fundamental honesty that resonates with teens (and really anyone) suffering from things like anxiety and depression. Personally, I related to this movie on many levels. As a teen, I definitely experienced my share of anxiety from rejection, but depression was new as a 45-year-old adult. In the movie, Evan’s mom addresses how she fell short as a single parent. That’s the moment I felt like I lived in everyday. I couldn’t figure out how things did not

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Dr. Crystal: Why I Became A Therapist

“You don’t work a day in your life if you love what you do.”  Providing mental health support to people is so much more than a job for me.  I love what I do and truly believe this is what I’m built for.  Honestly though, this wasn’t my original my plan.  In my early 20’s I had anticipated going into corporate America and eventually working my way up to the corporate level.  Life had a different plan. It was a call. While I was attending college for business, I decided to take a semester off with the anticipation of the

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Kashmir: Why I Became A Therapist

Why I became a therapist is something I get asked a lot by the kiddos I see, and usually my answer is short and sweet…. because I really wanted to help families and kiddos just like them!  But the full answer to this question is definitely a bit more complex. So to preface, being a therapist is not just a job for me, it’s my dream, a life goal, something I am very passionate about and something that makes me extremely happy!  When I was younger and had this dream, I knew it would not be easy getting there, but

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How Do I Choose A Therapist That Is Right For Me?

Finding a therapist who is the right fit can take time.  It can be a bit like finding the right car.  Sometimes we get right in, and things just feel right.  Most of the time though, we do a lot of research to see what we need.  So, how can you choose the right therapist? What type of therapist do you need?  The mental health field has many specialties.  There are therapists that specialize in couples, marriage, family, grief, trauma, LBGTQ and more.  For instance, at Dawn we specialize in the prevention and treatment of trauma. To find the right

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Make An Informed Decision When It Comes To Therapy

Why is there so much paperwork when I begin therapy? I definitely did not get into this field for the paperwork.  And yet, here we are.  Whether it is the doctor’s office or your therapist’s office, the forms to fill out and sign can seem never ending.  And we each respond to this different.  Some people like to read through everything and ask questions.  Others want to sign on the dotted and get to the good part.  Either way, it is important to understand what’s in these documents. Making an Informed Decision by Knowing All the Facts There are several

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Parenting: Learn. Practice. Repeat.

Over the past several months, our family has really come to enjoy The Great British Baking Show.  We’ve recently taken to baking pasties with flakey pastry and are looking forward to delving into babka in the near future.  The show has been both entertaining and inspiring. The participants in this competition must show both knowledge and skill in baking.  They are judged on their technical skill in both recipes they are familiar with and those they are not.  And the producers have just the right way of creating anticipation and excitement in the viewers.  Can the bakers get it just

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Summer Time with our Toddlers

This blog is specifically for our Arizona families! For many past blogs I have spoken about the importance of co-regulation. The wonderful art of regulating our own emotions before reacting to our children. The art of co-regulation is not easy! BELIEVE ME!! However, it is a practice that can really ease many of the tantrums, fits, and outbursts that our very young children experience often. When we are able to regulate ourselves, we become less reactive and more responsive to the needs of our children. Think of it! When you come home after a hard day of work, and our

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The Road To Recovery

About eight years ago I took my first trauma course. I was completely captivated by trauma work. I’ve since dedicated almost the entirety of my work as a therapist to understanding the impact of trauma on families and walking alongside them as they find healing. Even more so, my relationship with my husband and children received the greatest benefit as I began to understand the impact of environmental trauma in my own life. At the end of that first trauma class, all students were challenged to focus on learning self-regulation and reflecting on how their relationships changed over a year.

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