A couple of months ago I saw a comedy special by the comedian, Gary Gulman. He spoke at a therapist seminar we therapists call “The Symposium.” He was speaking about a period of depression he went through in his routine,…
My son recently made the cross-country team at his school, and although all of the kids “made the team”, he was still very excited. But it got me thinking about the question: Why do some kids get upset when they…
Many people unknowingly derive their self-worth from external validation, praise, or the opinions of others. Over time, this can impact emotional boundaries, confidence, and decision-making. Learning to recognize inherent self-worth instead of relying on outside approval is an important part…
Today I want to talk again about how we talk to ourselves when we mess up. When we do something wrong, for lack of a better term. True story: A couple of weeks ago, I took my nine and ten-year-old into…
Lately, I’ve really been enjoying Dax Shepard’s Podcast, The Armchair Expert. I’ve listened to about three or four of them; and in particular, I want to talk about the episodes he did with therapist Phillip Stutz, Anna Kendrick, and Scott Galloway.…
One of the hardest parts about emotional healing is recognizing when we’ve slipped into feeling “better than” or “less than” someone else. These positions often show up automatically during painful experiences like betrayal, abandonment, rejection, or relationship conflict. This week,…
Something came up in a session today….relationships can sometimes blur the line between healthy connection and deriving our sense of worth from other people. Many individuals and couples struggle with understanding the difference between feeling emotionally connected and relying on…
Many people unknowingly tie their self-worth to productivity, achievement, and external validation. In American culture especially, success is often treated as proof of value, making it difficult to separate identity from performance. Healing can begin when we recognize that our…
If you’ve followed any of my content before, you know the EASA (my name) Lens of Self Esteem. This is where you define your worth if you don’t believe that you have inherent worth that stems from the inside—just from…
A lot of people move through life feeling either “better than” or “less than” the people around them without fully realizing it. When our self-worth becomes rooted in comparison, it can be hard to feel grounded, secure, or emotionally regulated.…