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Spill the (Therapy) Tea


Seasonal Sadness Isn’t Just the Weather: Understanding SAD and Fall Fatigue
The clocks change, the light fades, and suddenly your motivation evaporates with the daylight. Welcome to November. If you’ve noticed lower energy, heavier moods, or that you’re sleeping more but feeling worse, it’s not in your head. You might be experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or a milder form of seasonal mood change — sometimes called “fall fatigue.” 🧠 What’s happening in your brain When daylight decreases, your body produces more melatonin (the sleep hormon
Nov 181 min read


Holiday Boundaries: When “Family Time” Feels Like Emotional Cardio
The holidays are coming — which means it’s officially “boundary season.” Family time can be lovely… or it can feel like running an emotional marathon in jeans. Maybe it’s the same political debate every year, the “When are you getting married?” interrogation, or that one relative who believes volume equals being right. Between the pressure to be cheerful, the expectations to show up, and the emotional landmines of old family dynamics, the holidays can easily go from festive
Nov 114 min read


Why Gratitude Feels Awkward—and How to Make It Actually Work
Let’s be honest: gratitude season can feel... forced. You’re barely holding it together, your inbox is overflowing, and someone on Instagram is telling you to “just be thankful.” Cue eye roll. But here’s the thing: gratitude does have real mental health benefits. It’s not just a Pinterest mantra — studies show that regularly practicing gratitude can boost dopamine and serotonin (your brain’s “feel good” chemicals), reduce stress hormones, and even improve sleep. The trick i
Nov 42 min read


🎃 Ghosted by Your Feelings? How to Handle the Emotional Hauntings of Halloween
Boo! 👻 It’s that time of year again—when skeletons come out of closets (literally), everything smells like pumpkin spice, and pretending to be someone else is totally encouraged. But while the fake cobwebs and candy bowls are easy to clean up, the emotional ghosts hanging around? Not so much. At ABC Counseling , we love Halloween for its creativity and laughter—but it’s also the perfect time to talk about the ways fear, masks, and ghosts can show up in our emotional lives. �
Oct 312 min read


🕸️ “Monster in My Mind”: When Anxiety Dresses Up for Halloween
October is full of jump scares — haunted houses, creepy clowns, your inbox after a long weekend. But for some of us, the real monster isn’t under the bed — it’s in our head. Anxiety loves Halloween. It gets to wear all its favorite disguises: The “what if” witch who brews worst-case scenarios. The perfectionist vampire who sucks all your energy until nothing feels good enough. The ghost of past mistakes who whispers “remember when…” at the worst possible time. At ABC Coun
Oct 282 min read


🍬 Emotional Eating, Sugar Rushes, and the Sweet Side of Self-Compassion
Halloween is basically the Olympics of candy consumption. Mini Snickers, Reese’s cups, and Skittles somehow multiply overnight — and suddenly you’re standing in the kitchen at 10 p.m. with an open bag of fun-size regrets. But here’s the thing: eating a few (or a few dozen) pieces of candy doesn’t make you weak, lazy, or “bad.” It makes you human. At ABC Counseling , we’re all about helping people find balance — and that includes your relationship with food, your body, and tha
Oct 252 min read


Venting: Why It Doesn’t Always Feel the Way You Think It Should
We’ve all been there. You’ve got feelings brewing inside you — frustration, overwhelm, maybe that one snarky comment from your coworker that’s been living rent-free in your brain all week. And you think: I just need to vent. The idea is that venting will feel like blowing off steam: you let it out, you feel lighter, your friend nods in solidarity, and you both move on. But sometimes? It feels less like letting off steam and more like chugging gasoline and lighting yourself o
Oct 222 min read


🍬 Trick-or-Treat Your Brain: The Psychology of Rewards
By Kelly Clarke, LMFT-S Halloween isn’t the only time our brains love treats. In fact, your brain has its own version of a candy...
Oct 133 min read


🛡️ Boundaries: The Real-Life Magic Shield
Superheroes have capes. Vampires have garlic. And you? You’ve got boundaries. Boundaries aren’t walls that shut people out—they’re...
Oct 92 min read


🍂 Seasonal Shifts & Emotional Drifts: Why Fall Feels Weird
The leaves aren’t the only things changing—our moods often shift with the seasons, too. Maybe you feel cozy and energized by cooler...
Oct 62 min read


🎃 Spooky Season, Scary Thoughts: How to Handle Mental Monsters 👻
Ghosts aren’t the only things haunting us this October.Sometimes it’s not the creaky floorboard or the pumpkin patch scarecrow—it’s that...
Oct 22 min read


The Psychology of Procrastination: Why We Wait (Even When We Don’t Want To)
By Kelly Clarke, LMFT-S We’ve all been there.You have something important to do — a project, an email, a conversation you’ve been...
Sep 293 min read


Therapy for Individuals in a Polycule: Yes, It’s For You Too
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be in crisis, and you don’t have to bring your whole polycule into the room, to benefit from therapy....
Sep 253 min read


Pumpkin Spice & Mental Health Advice: A Fall Guide to Feeling Your Best
By Celeste Hernandez, LMFT-A Ah, fall. That magical time when the air gets crisper, the leaves turn into art, and everything suddenly...
Sep 222 min read


Joy as Resistance: Cultivating Personal and Collective Well-Being in Challenging Times
By Christina Song, LMFT-S To live joyfully in a world that often feels bent on breaking us is an act of fierce resistance. Joy is not a...
Sep 192 min read


It’s Your First Therapy Session—What Should You Expect?
By Jessica Rodriguez, LPC-A You’ve done it. You made the appointment, signed the paperwork, and now you’re just waiting for the day you...
Sep 163 min read


Therapy for Polycules: Yes, It’s a Thing
You’ve heard of couples therapy. You’ve heard of family therapy. But have you heard of polycule therapy ? If you’re in a polyamorous...
Sep 113 min read


How to Sit with Your Feelings Instead of Explaining Them Away
By Madyson Newberry, LPC-A When strong emotions come up, it’s tempting to either analyze them to death or push them deep down where we...
Sep 82 min read


“Oh Right… We Were in the Pit of Despair” (And Why That’s Actually Progress)
You walk into your therapist’s office (or log onto Zoom), coffee in hand, ready to get started.They smile and ask, “So, where did we...
Sep 42 min read


What To Do When Someone You Love is Struggling
By Kelly Clarke, LMFT-S We’ve all been there—watching someone we care about slowly unravel under the weight of grief, anxiety,...
Sep 15 min read
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