Articles

When I had gotten to the point in my life where I allowed my anxiety to paralyze me, I decided I had to turn that around to serve me instead of punish me. I wrote a letter to it. I spoke to it. I verbalized it and I meditated on it until I felt a shift in my personal power. Practice this for yourself and transform your pain to purpose. Here is an excerpt from my upcoming book: Spaghetti Scars Dear Anxiety, Dear Younger Me: I understand your fears about the future.  Your life has not been entirely pleasant for you up until now. I know you have been let down by those you had hoped you could trust and depend on. I understand that your holding me back from living and experiencing things is your way of telling me […]

God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting the hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right If I surrender to His Will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with Him Forever and ever in the next. Amen.

A choice to begin. A choice to continue. A choice to like yourself, a choice to love yourself, even if you don’t . . . yet. By the time I met my husband nearing my forties, I had finally found my voice. He was the first relationship I had in my life where I was completely myself. He did not try to silence, manipulate me or coerce me into being anything other than my authentic self. More importantly, by that point I had evolved into a person who believed that my opinion, feelings, and thoughts mattered. And I made it clear I would accept nothing less than someone who respected that. I had finally become free of the voices of the past that would pull me back into the neglected, undeserving child I believed I was. I was now in […]

I am an adult child of an alcoholic. I have had my share of abuse, trauma, neglect, co-dependency, self-loathing, depression and anxiety. So, if you’re finding it difficult to navigate through relationships or finding something about yourself that you love or even like, I hear you, I feel you, and I see you. I remember an assignment in college, the professor of my Grief, death and dying class gave an assignment to class. She gave us 5 seconds to write one word that described our childhood. Without thinking, I wrote Hell. If you asked me today to describe the life I created in the moment I am at now, I would say joyful. Although, I can’t change the past, I have learned how to use each and every piece of that part of my life as teaching tools to help […]

Once I had begun to heal from the pain of my past and feel the freedom of my true and authentic self, my passion for self-growth and helping others to find healing and personal freedom grew. So, I become a therapist. True growth takes time. It is a journey. A daily routine of self-acknowledgement and commitment that allows seeds of self-love and acceptance to grow. A flower does not bloom in a day. There is daily nurturing that allows for full potential of it to blossom. Just as flowers and plants need oxygen, so do we need to keep giving ourselves the proper nourishment so we can blossom into our full potential. How are you nourishing yourself, your thoughts and your soul on a daily basis?  For me, meditation, visualization and affirmations really changed my inner programming and responses to […]

This first chapter covers the story of my childhood, which was marred by my parents’ violent arguments, and my subsequent job to “clean up their messes.” Their own deep-rooted wounds caused me to suffer both their verbal abuse and parental neglect. I show the reader how and when our true selves and inner child morph into what others need us to be. The reader can then know the point at which to begin their own inner work. As in each of the other chapters of the book, I include my own adult reflections at the end, so that the reader might draw vicarious lessons. I also include  journaling prompts that guide the reader toward further transformation and change. Short Excerpt: I’m sitting at the top of the stairs in my girly girl pink pajamas, clutching my legs in hopes that […]