Heart beats. Faster. Faster. Faster. It feels like a racing, fluttering, thing trying to escape from her chest. Breath shortens, lungs tight and full, but starving. Palms tingle and sprout beads of moisture, fingers cold and clenched. Brittany can’t see anything but the closet door. The dresser next to it, the bed to her left.Continue reading “Fiction Friday (the second)”
Author Archives: alexm1008
What’s wrong with need?
Women. This is a call to action. I don’t know when we learned that our needs were going to be too much. That our emotions are messy and unwelcome. That we need to control ourselves so as not to be a burden. I hear it so often in session that clients are scared that ifContinue reading “What’s wrong with need?”
Never Forget
My most clear memory of the World Trade Center is standing in line at the TKTS booth that used to be on the second floor under the windows on Saturday mornings. My roommates and I would get up from various beds/couches/futons in our studio apartment (shared between three people) on Water Street and head overContinue reading “Never Forget”
A dream is a wish your heart makes…
I believe that I’m doing the best that I can. I also believe that in order to change I have to do things differently – better. How do I do better if I’m already doing the best that I can? I need to keep learning. I need to keep trying. I need to keep growing.Continue reading “A dream is a wish your heart makes…”
What’s with today, today…
Happy Monday! Mondays are a long ay for me at work. Sometimes, when scheduling kid activities, I forget this and over commit for after work on Mondays. Orthodontist at 3:30? Of course, no problem. I don’t know why I didn’t remember that we have piano on the other side of town at 4 on MondaysContinue reading “What’s with today, today…”
Fall…
It’s fall, I’ve just started some chicken chili in the slow cooker and there’s football on the television. Thus begins one of my favorite seasons of the year. If only it felt like fall outside – here in Houston it is approximately 100 degrees outside. Though there are many realities I work with clients toContinue reading “Fall…”
Emotion Modeling
I’ve been working with several of my clients lately to diagram their emotions. I think about emotional reactions as reasonable (in that the client has reasons for reacting the way that they do) and rational (meaning the reaction makes sense if you see things the way the client is seeing them) in most situations. ByContinue reading “Emotion Modeling”
Fiction Friday (the first)
I’ve had some ideas for books – fiction and non-fiction circling in my head. I never actually share them with other people or even really write them down. An idea I had today (or awhile ago, who knows, they always seem to run around and around on a loop and never get pulled out andContinue reading “Fiction Friday (the first)”
Time in the car…
Today was a long day. The kids are back to school and the early morning coupled with the restart of all of their activities means I spend a lot of time in the car. In Houston, for me, the car means aggravation, frustration and a little bit of road rage (maybe more than a littleContinue reading “Time in the car…”
Emotions with a point…
I’ve been thinking about mental health a lot lately. We use words like diagnosis and disorder pretty freely in working with clients. We’re trained in school to think in terms of pathology and symptoms. To look for disorder or illness. To search for dysfunction. In my DBT skills group the other day, we started talkingContinue reading “Emotions with a point…”
Running for Disney 