7 Practical Tips for Slowing Down
New Year, Simpler Life? 7 Practical Tips for Slowing Down By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Living with intention and purpose often seems like a pipe dream. Amid our busy lives and harried schedules, filled with obligation and responsibility, who has time for intention? The...
Anxiety’s Grip — 7 Steps to Break Free
by Linda K. Laffey, MFT Anxiety should be your friend. It should be a warning when things get scary or dangerous. It should be a motivator when you have been challenged. Unfortunately, your anxiety simply will not leave you alone. It's always there, always...
Could You or Someone You Love Be Suffering From PTSD?
Review These Signs: Recognizing the fear, defenses, and pain that keep you from moving on. Essentially, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a broken “fight or flight “ response. The danger passes, but the alarm persists. A third way this shows up is in a "freeze"...
“We Don’t Talk Anymore” — Communication Tips for Couples
Helpful ways to restore loving connection. How “good” was the last good conversation you had with your partner? Did you talk about how much you care about each other? Check in on each other’s long held dreams? Encourage one another, laugh together, or praise each...
Create a Relationship with Your Teen for Their Safety and Your Peace of Mind
Stay connected to them while understanding their need to individuate. The adolescent brain is changing, beginning to think abstractly for the first time. Abstract thinking is a requirement for problem solving, and teens need to master this skill to make it in the...
Interesting Facts on Treating Anorexia Nervosa in Women
While anorexia often begins as a battle of self-control between the desire to eat and the desire to lose weight, it eventually becomes a complex disease that is much more about control and self-esteem than about food and dieting. The anorexic may come to develop her...
How Can Counseling or Therapy Help?
Counseling or Therapy can help you: Create happier, healthier, more loving relationships. Increase self-awareness and understanding. Improve communication skills. Decrease stress and anxiety; Increase peace of mind. Develop healthy conflict resolution skills. Improve...
10 Tips for Successful Dating and Relationships
Prior to beginning a new relationship, make sure that you have taken the time to heal from a previous one that has ended. If you are still hurting, you will not be emotionally available to the new person, and the unresolved pain will cloud your decision-making...
Establishing Real Connection During Social Distancing
The coronavirus pandemic has challenged all of us with the need for social distancing. For some people, this has been an opportunity to tackle unfinished projects at home. However, after the garage is organized and the stacks of unread books dwindle, the feelings of...
Is Anxiety Your Default Emotion? How Therapy Can Help Create More Calm
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Anxiety often serves as a secondary emotion, which means it surfaces in place of another emotion. Most of the time, this occurs because the real emotion is too challenging to face. Or, it’s merely a cover-up for a more complex feeling. For...
Angry All the Time? Signs Unresolved Trauma Is Fueling Conflict
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes—but rarely leaves an individual unscathed. From one significant experience to a series of events, these moments can cause so much damage. It only makes sense, then, that anger is a primary emotion people...
Dealing With Covid-19 Stress In Los Angeles
If you are one of the 40 million Californians who are confined to your home under the Covid-19 lockdown order, you understandably are feeling the combined effects of emotional stress and mental anxiety. According to Governor Gavin Newsom, California lacks the full...
How You Can Self-Soothe without Focusing on Food
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Feeding an emotional need with a tangible substance, such as food, is widely accepted in the modern world. Famous cooks have made a living from creating recipes for comfort food, after all. Moreover, it’s only natural to cater to cravings and...
7 Simple Ways to Play & Have More Fun Together
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Having fun together as a couple, family, or even a group of friends is more than sharing a few jokes now and then. Much is accomplished when you can play and genuinely enjoy one another’s company. For example, consider the bonding taking place...
Hints, Reminders & Suggestions: Signs You’re Nagging, not “Helping”
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Nagging is something that society pegs on women a lot—specifically wives. We like to call it aggressive reminding or helpful suggesting. After all, if our partners loved us, wouldn’t they try to accommodate our simple pleas? It’s not rocket...
Not that Bad? Why You Might Want to Consider EMDR for Life’s “Little” Traumas
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT It’s safe to say that life tends to deliver plenty of unexpected circumstances. Whether it’s a job loss, sudden cross-country relocation, or illness, “surprises” don’t always come neatly wrapped and stamped with a bow. As a result, these...
Struggling To Be Good Enough…Is Your Plan for Self-Improvement Healthy?
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Toward the beginning of a new year, thoughts of self-improvement tend to take precedence in our society. While that trend isn’t wrong by any means, it’s best to approach significant life changes strategically and healthily. Otherwise, the...
10 Steps Toward a Healthier Relationship with Food
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Whether food seems like a friend or a foe, the truth remains that we all have a relationship with it. Our bodies need it regularly for sustenance, and we also enjoy socializing around food as a culture. However, not all of us have good vibes...
Coping With the Valentine’s Day Blues When You Don’t Have Someone Special in Your Life
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Valentine’s Day comes every year. And while it’s easy to brush it off as nothing more than a silly greeting card holiday, it can often feel like it’s “in your face”, spotlighting your singleness throughout the month of February. If you don’t...
How Trauma Undermines Trust & Keeps You Isolated
By Linda K. Laffey, MFT Enduring a traumatic event or series of events can change your entire life. It’s not that you look or sound different. Mostly, trauma can prevent you from feeling like yourself from the inside out. What’s more is, eventually, that “lost”...
