You've always been this way. Thorough. Detail-oriented. The person who catches what everyone else misses, who would rather redo something than submit work that's less than excellent. These qualities have served you well — academically, professionally, in the eyes of people who rely on you. So when someone suggests your perfectionism might be a problem, the reaction is usually resistance: This is just who I am. Without it, I'd be mediocre. Here's the question worth sitting wit

If you've ever had cancer — or are currently in treatment — you probably know this feeling without needing a name for it. The scan is scheduled. Somewhere in the days or weeks before it, something shifts: sleep gets harder, every twinge becomes evidence, and a low hum of dread settles in that you can't reason your way out of. This is scanxiety — the intense anxiety cancer patients and survivors feel in anticipation of follow-up scans, imaging, or results. For many, it's the h

Mindfulness has a marketing problem. Somewhere between the clinical research and the wellness industry, it got repackaged into something that sounds nothing like what it actually is — and everything like something a certain kind of person would roll their eyes at. Candles. Apps. The instruction to "just breathe." The implication that if you're still anxious, you're not doing it right. If that version of mindfulness hasn't worked for you, that's not evidence that you can't do

You've talked about it. Maybe for years. You've described what happened, processed how it made you feel, traced it back to your childhood, understood the patterns. You've had a therapist who was warm and attentive and genuinely cared. And yet — something hasn't shifted. The nightmares continue. The avoidance is still there. Certain situations still hijack you in ways you can't fully explain or control. You still feel, in some fundamental way, stuck. If this is your experience

When people first hear that acceptance is a core part of therapy, the reaction is often the same. Acceptance? You want me to just accept this? It sounds like resignation. Like being told to make peace with something that doesn't deserve peace. Like giving up on getting better, on things changing, on the life you wanted. For people who have survived difficult things — trauma, illness, loss, burnout — the suggestion to "accept" it can feel like a profound misunderstanding of wh

There is a particular kind of wound that doesn't fit neatly into the categories we usually use to describe psychological suffering. It isn't simply fear, grief, or anxiety. It is something closer to a fracture in the moral foundation of a person — the sense that something happened that should not have, that you were part of it, and that you can never fully make it right. This is moral injury. It is one of the most underrecognized forms of psychological distress affecting peop

A Life Built on Resilience and Growth Before I became a psychologist, I was a gymnast and a cellist. Sports and music taught me discipline, focus, and how to thrive under pressure—but also how to cope with setbacks and losses. I learned early that strength isn’t about never falling; it’s about getting back up, learning, and moving forward. That mindset has carried me through every chapter of my life, including some of the hardest ones. From Performance to Purpose I pursued p

If you’ve ever felt trapped in anxious thoughts, overwhelmed by emotions, or stuck in perfectionistic loops, you’re not alone—and...