Courtney invites you all into her past year of reading! Warning: Since the beginning of the pandemic, she’s found herself gravitating towards a genre that she has never explored before–romantic comedies (she have a feeling she's not the only one who needed a guaranteed happy ending these past few years). Here are some of her favorite books which made her feel feelings from 2021.

Instead of "new year, new me” this year, I think slogans like, “new year, new strain” or “new year, same anxiety” might be more appropriate. How are we supposed to move forward and set intentions, resolutions, or goals for the new year when travel, gatherings, events, and social life are cancelled? If you’re looking for a blog post with answers, this is not it. Read more for reflection and validation.

Death is disastrous. It doesn’t make sense and it’s certainly not tidy. The meaning we make of it, however arbitrary, is the meaning of it. Anna shares her story in navigating loss, becoming a therapist, and finding wholeness after loss.

All of our transitional experiences have two things in common: our lives were never the same, and we evolved. No matter how seemingly positive the transition was, I bet challenges and uncomfortable feelings accompanied it. Read on for tips to help you navigate change with ease.

When we practice validation, we’re letting someone know that their internal experience and feelings are understandable and we’re communicating that they are okay to feel. By validating someone else’s experience you’re not invalidating your own--two people can be having different experiences and they’re both completely valid. Here’s 3 steps on how to validate others’ feelings.

For highly sensitive people, pausing to consider what we do and how we engage in something is a cornerstone of our trait. Sensitivity is a strength that we can all use to cultivate more empathy and humanity in our leadership. Read on to learn about embracing sensitivity!

It’s been one year since we began living every moment in a global pandemic and have faced so much loss. We’re supposed to “just get over it,” and when we don’t, we feel disordered or wrong. Whether the loss of a person, a job, a friend, a plan, an identity, hope, time. We all lost our pre-pandemic existences. Read on for more tips on coping with grief anniversaries.

At its core, relational therapy recognizes that the primary tool for change and/or growth is the relationship between client and therapist. This focus on relationships comes from the psychology of connection and co-regulation. Read on to learn how relational therapy helps heal, build empowerment, and improvement your relationships.

How often are you practicing self-compassion? Be honest! We tend to favor self-criticism or self-judgment over learning to be compassionate with ourselves and our experience. We have become so accustomed to beating ourselves up that self-criticism feels comfortable and can even act as a way to soothe ourselves.