In our daily lives, we often encounter two distinct types of loudness: the audible kind that assaults our ears and the emotional kind that stirs our inner peace. While both can be uncomfortable, they affect us in profoundly different ways.

The problem child, the reject, the one who just doesn’t fit in. We see the phenomenon of black sheep throughout society and countless families. What does this mean? As a relational therapist I view the black sheep as a reflection of the system, aka the family.

In today’s society, where the media constantly bombards us with images of “ideal” bodies, many people struggle with body image issues. These issues can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, and even eating disorders. While body positivity has gained momentum as a movement to counteract these negative influences, there’s another approach that’s gaining traction: body neutrality.

On the fight card today it’s a head-to-head with…ourselves.

What exactly do I mean? I’m talking about the daily battle between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that exists in our minds. I’m not sure if you’ve taken notice but there seems to be a push and pull struggle with how we view and talk about ourselves – which oftentimes isn’t very productive or supportive.

Connecting to emotions is one of the things men are not taught to do. Suicide rates and addiction in men are sky high. Is this a cause and effect issue, or simply correlation? Maybe. What we are aware of is that knowing your internal emotions can lead to better outcomes in nearly every aspect of life. Want to land that job? Find your ideal partner? Start here with better attuning to and understanding your emotional experience.

“Black and white thinking” or as I like to refer to it “polarized thinking” is an all too common phenomenon. Most importantly, people seem to have difficulty with recognizing how their polarized thinking shows up in their lives. One of the frequent manifestations of this are statements like “always” and “never.”
Especially when working with couples I often here it used in the form of, “you never…” or “you always…”