Happy Pride, y’all! While we have come a long way in the acceptance of LGBTQ+ identifies and fighting for equal rights, Pride is still incredibly crucial for continuing our progression forward. Internalized stigma and shame is still, unfortunately, too common and it has a profoundly harmful impact on mental health. According to an article about trauma in the LGBTQ+ community, by The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), “As a result of trauma, LGBTQI individuals may tur

For a primer on this topic, check out the post written in 2024 from my colleague, Kim, by clicking here! After learning about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its affects from Kim's post, you can learn about organizations who are allies in supporting those who experience PTSD below. Home Base Program Located in Charlestown, MA, the Home Base Program is a Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital program dedicated to healing the invisible wounds of war inc

Starting therapy often means sharing parts of yourself that feel personal or vulnerable. When your counselor holds different identities or life experiences than you do, this can add another layer to the process. You may notice yourself wondering whether you will feel understood, emotionally safe or able to fully relax into the space. Difference is always in the room There is nothing wrong with noticing this. Identity, power and lived experience are always present in therapy w

There is wellness found in the intentional application of written and expressed words! As an expressive therapist, I have explored a diversity of tools and creative resources to engage with mental health. When I think of poetry as a therapeutic intervention or for wellness, I associate this as an off-shoot of bibliotherapy - click here to read more about this approach from a post I wrote in 2022! Poetic language can be found in a diversity of expressed words whether poetry, s

Today, we’re looking at the title track on the EP, “Dancing In The Kitchen,” recently released by Indie Pop artist, Freya Ridings, in April 2026. Let’s dive in… “Mama said it's the grit that makes the pearl Hold your head up high, you’re my girl But I found it really hard” This type of sentiment, while commonly shared with the best of intentions, can have the opposite effect. Not only does Ridings note this explicitly, but the way in which she sings these lines is beautifully

Let’s take a few minutes to go back to the fundamentals of grief and loss! Over the years, Looking Glass Counseling has talked about grief and loss in a variety of ways. For this edition of Monday Mental Health Moment (MMHM), we will look at the stages of grief. For some additional information on how to cope with loss, check out a post I wrote in 2023. Once you have read that post, come back to this paragraph. As we sit with the notion of loss, what are the stages of grief?

Sometimes a relationship ends and the mind keeps circling back to the person and the relationship anyway. There is nothing wrong with this. It is not a failure to “move on.” This is because the nervous system is doing what it was designed to do: reaching for connection, searching for safety and trying to make sense of what changed. Relational loss involves not only grieving a person, but also grieving who that person was to you and for you: a bond, a rhythm, a sense of belong

A vibrant, fair, and regenerative future is possible — not when thousands of people do climate justice activism perfectly but when millions of people do the best they can . - Xiye Bastida The first organized Earth Day was April 22, 1970. Since then, the Earth Day Network has mobilized environmental awareness and activism to protect our planet. This Earth Day, people of all backgrounds and generations are called in solidarity, kindness and action to show their care for Pl

According to statistics gathered by RAINN , which is our “nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization and operator of the National Sexual Assault Hotline,” an estimated 443,635 people ages 12 and older experience sexual violence each year in the United States. Over half of these victims are ages 18-34. While statistics show that 1 in 6 women in our country have experienced attempted or completed rape in their lifetime, 1 in 33 men have also experienced attempted or co

April is Autism Acceptance Month! For a primer on this topic, check out the post written in 2021 for LGC by clicking here ! Although autism has a large breadth of published material including what it is and how to support our friends and family who identify with autism, here are some key points to help us lean in as allies and supports to celebrate the contributions of Autistic individuals. First, according to the Autistic Self Advocacy Network , “Autism is a developmental di