
Expelling the Stigma Against Mental Illness
Let’s talk about stigma, specifically the stigma against people living with mental health conditions and seeing a mental health professional. We may have come a long way from lobotomies and belief that women are unstable due to a “wandering womb” (i.e., the original meaning behind the word “hysteria”), but these unnecessary barriers to greater health and wellness are still with us today. Consider physical health: when a person is sick with a sore throat, it’s typically accept

Scary but Necessary: Why we MUST talk about suicide
In the wake of the most recent celebrity suicides (ie, Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain), I find I have the idea of suicide on my mind. As a psychologist, I talk about suicide all the time, nearly every day. After 15 years of asking The Question, it has become as normal to me as discussing someone's marriage, career goals, or fears. But as I have previously discussed, this hasn't always been true. My comfort with discussing suicide took years of practice, but I am grateful. When

Facing Shame: Daring Greatly
Dr. Brené Brown is an amazing human. She is an inhumanly courageous person, facing shame and failure head on. She is funny, honest, brilliant. I don't know whether I want to be her when I grow up or just sit at her feet and absorb everything she knows. Maybe both. Not only has her work shifted how I think about my work, but it's shifted how I think about shame, guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, and ultimately empathy and vulnerability. Although the first four seem like shade

Let's talk about survivors of suicide attempts
Last night I had the great privilege of going to The S Word with a friend. Not only did we get to watch the documentary, but we got to listen to the people from the movie in a Q&A afterwards. It was powerful, beautiful, sad, and surprisingly hopeful. It was about life after a suicide attempt, about picking up the pieces and moving forward, about becoming a healthier person and using that dark moment in history as a catalyst for growth and change. As mental health professional