How Avoiding Painful Emotions Can Lead to a Smaller Life

“Being cut off from our own natural Self-compassion is one of the greatest impairments we can suffer.” ~Gabor Mate Most of us avoid experiences not necessarily because we don’t like them or want them, but because we don’t want to feel how we will feel when we go through that experience. Our lives become altered […]

How Can Immigrants Protect Their Mental Health Right Now?

In early January, a wave of immigration arrests in California’s Central Valley sparked fear across the state. Those real arrests spurred false reports of raids in cities like Oakland, heightening anxiety just days before President Donald Trump officially returned to office. Then, on his first day, Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting immigrants’ […]

Therapy Isn’t Something to Be Ashamed Of

As a therapist, as well as someone who goes to therapy, I can speak firsthand about the importance of attending therapy. Think of it this way: you are driving your car and suddenly you hear a funny noise. At first, you ignore it and hope it goes away. But over time, the noise starts to […]

5 Powerful Mental Shifts to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” ~Lao Tzu We carefully pick out what we wear to the gym to make sure we look good in the eyes of the other gymgoers. We beat ourselves up after meetings, running through everything we said (or didn’t say), worried that coworkers […]

How Communities of Practice Can Support Teachers

In classrooms around the world, educators strive to nurture not only students’ academic skills but also the qualities that help them thrive more generally as dynamic people, namely character strengths such as curiosity, perseverance, kindness, and open-mindedness. Researcher Marvin Berkowitz and his colleagues define character education as “the intentional attempt in schools to foster the […]

How Forgiveness Changes You and Your Brain

What does forgiveness look like in the brain? As a neuroscientist, I am always looking for the biological underpinnings of mental processes—not as an effort to distill mystery into molecules, but to understand rich and complex psychological experiences as combinations of simpler building blocks. Breaking things down in this way can shed light on how […]

How Research Cuts Are Hurting the Science of a…

Recently, Toni Antonucci, a senior researcher at the University of Michigan, received a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). For decades, she and her colleagues had been running the National Study of American Life, studying the social determinants of health in preventing and treating Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in Black […]

7 Reasons Adult Children Stay Connected to Toxic Parents

Parent-child relationships are often portrayed as inherently loving, but this isn’t true for many adult children. Instead, they endure ongoing emotional harm or mistreatment from their parents that undermines their self-worth. If you find yourself in this situation, you might question why you remain in contact with parents who consistently belittle you, manipulate you, ignore […]

Four Ways Making Art Can Help New Moms

Maternal well-being is an important public health issue. A 2022 report by the World Health Organization explains that one in five women experience Mental health challenges during pregnancy and one year after the birth of a baby. There are many government policies, workplace benefits, and other supports that could help mothers during this transition—but a […]

“Profound Autism” Consensus Definition Debuts at INSAR

It’s been more than three years since the Lancet Commission proposed the new term “profound autism” to describe the subset of the autism spectrum most disabled by the disorder. This label has been widely embraced by a range of stakeholders, including researchers, clinicians, policy makers, autistic people, and parents. A quick search for “profound autism” […]