On Pain Repurposed

On Pain Repurposed

There was a time when I believed the beautiful lie that everything happened for a reason. In this conception of the universe, every feeling I experienced served some greater purpose that helped me escape the present moment with the promise of a brighter tomorrow. My...
Self-Esteem and Why It Matters

Self-Esteem and Why It Matters

Self-esteem is, in short, how the mind evaluates itself. There is no metric that can objectively determine a person’s self-esteem — the concept is inherently subjective. So how can we think about it? Well, as with many things in counseling and psychology, there...
The Power of Effective Self-Talk

The Power of Effective Self-Talk

I have a confession. I used to view self-talk as self-deception.  When I was a teenager, I learned positive self-talk from a teacher. I resisted it because she taught me to feed myself sugar-coated messages to feel better. I didn’t appreciate the power of effective...