For the next four years or so I became stiffened and afraid to do things that might compromise my body’s integrity. My mind fixated on the faintest of sensations rising in my gut, my throat, my chest… It only took a few moments of poking and examining myself to succumb to yet another panic attack. I began to feel sore in the places I’d continually examined and this only further contributed to the notion that my body was a time bomb ticking its way toward disintegration. It was utterly exhausting, but it bled into the interpersonal realm as well.

I’ve written up until now about how this impacted my mental health on an individual level but that doesn’t tell the full story and it isn’t the whole story when it comes to health anxiety. You see, after months of doctors visits and emergency room trips in the hopes of gaining clarity on what was so wrong with me, I had to face the realization that, physically at least, I wasn’t in such a dire state as I’d come to believe.

Private pay therapy offers deeper, more personalized care, free from insurance restrictions. Investing in your mental health means lasting change and true healing. Read on for more reasons why opting to pay out-of-pocket for therapy is really worth it.

I’m not sure where the narrative began that avoidance and disconnecting from yourself is a bad thing. I mean, if all you are doing is avoiding life and you don’t even realize when you are doing it…yea that will likely result in some other life challenges. For myself, I actually really enjoy taking a break from my deeper thoughts and momentarily jumping out of my emotions. Intentional avoidance and distraction help us to move further away from a feeling that is daunting or overwhelming - knowing that we will process those feelings later

In our culture, mental health is often viewed through a narrow lens of pathology—focusing on individuals and their symptoms. Pain, disconnection, and despair are categorized into neat diagnoses—anxiety becomes a disorder, depression a chemical imbalance, burnout the result of poor self-management. These labels can provide temporary relief by naming what feels overwhelming, offering a sense of clarity about what is “wrong.” But this focus on individual symptoms is ultimately limiting, failing to acknowledge the broader social and cultural forces at play.

I kind of worked out recently that maybe if we didn't call what BetterHelp was doing necessarily psychotherapy, I might be able to be a bit more comfortable with it maybe. I still think it would be problematic, but I think it's the conflation of psychotherapy as I know it, and mental health support in a whole variety of different ways. So it could be, well, it is the fact that you have this platform that's offering something to people in the world of mental health, mental health professionals to speak to in some way or fashion. But the way that BetterHelp works is completely antithetical to how I was trained to offer a psychotherapeutic space, which was about consistency, regularity, space between those sessions. Generally very little contact between sessions, generally a commitment of more than a very short period of time...

Kindman & Co. has now been up and running for 4 years! Amanda, our care coordinator, sat down with our co-founders, Kaitlin and Paul, to finally share the story of just how our practice got started and the importance of the social-justice, relational approach that we take. Click here to read more!

Starting therapy for the first time is scary! And finding a therapist who is the right fit for you can be a process! Preparing the right questions, and clarifying what we want to get from therapy is helpful in making this important decision, and might make picking up the phone (or crafting that email) a little easier. Click here for 3 tips to find a therapist who will be the best fit!

When everything is a disaster, it’s easy to figure out what you should talk about in therapy. Conflict, sadness, anxiety, relationship problems, friendship problems, parent stuff, body image, identity, etc. etc. Pleeeenty of content for a 50 minute session. It's those moments when things are actually going well, when just before your session you think: “What am I going to talk about today?” Click here for 5 topics to explore when it feels like things are going well and you’ve got nothing to talk about.

Surprise! Therapists are humans and also go to therapy! Gaby Teresa shares her recent breakthroughs in her own therapy experiences as a queer, Latina woman and therapist. Click here to learn more about how women are forced to stay silent and how to move forward in your own healing journey. Because mira, we’ve got to stop silencing women. Especially BIPOC women.