How to Relate

What's Happening with Young Men? In all honesty, this was difficult to write because there's a lot here, and it's only scratching the surface. I can almost hear people ask, "Why should I care? Men have been in power and succeeded in society for so long, they're the privileged ones." Here's the answer: men's issues and social justice are not mutually exclusive. The statistics here are scary, especially if you have boys and men in your life that you care about. The goal of this is to bring men...

The ACT of Feeling How to Accept Feelings and Make Changes My teenage self would say, "I don't have feelings." This laughably untrue statement led me to believe that being strong equated to "not feeling." In truth, I had so many emotions and couldn't differentiate my feelings from another person's. Emotions are the gateway to accessing information inside oneself; neglecting them meant neglecting me (sound familiar?). Needless to say, I changed tune upon entering the social work field, years...

Communication: It's a Symptom, Not the Problem What's Underneath? "We don't know how to communicate." "We're constantly fighting." "Talking about (XYZ) topic goes nowhere." "We don't know what to say." "I don't want to talk about it." "We need to communicate better" often becomes the blanket statement that lands couples in therapy. Given the copious amount of books, seminars, podcasts, and social media therapists who give direct communication strategies, is the problem really that we don't...

How to Make Friends- Not Influence People You might remember times in life when all you wanted to do was hang out with friends. Now, the trope is that adulthood mainly consists of making plans only to cancel them. While it's understandable that life happens, events compete for calendar dates, and "I just don't feel like it" takes over, have we taken the importance of our friendships for granted? Friendships remain the relationships of choice. When we choose romantic partners, we also choose...

Always Be Dating Medicine for the Mundane The modern American couple story goes a little something like this: Single: On the apps, swiping for love, going on numerous dates, asking people we know to set us up, and hope we find our person. We maintain hobbies, spend time with friends, and sustain well-established routines. We go through the emotional roller coaster of having hope for finding our person while feeling disappointed time and time again. Then we go on a date we're excited about....

Are You Emotionally Available? Do you really want to know? Funny story, I got asked this question, and it got me thinking what it means to be emotionally available. Emotionally unavailable is a term that the Sub-Reddit "Dating Over 30" thread has plenty to say about. We often hear about emotionally unavailable people, but what does it mean to be emotionally available? Emotions remain a long-standing hot topic in self-help world. Common terms include emotional intelligence, emotional maturity,...

Risks Worth Taking It was 2010 when the MTV show The Buried Life aired. The Buried Life followed four guys in their early twenties with a list of dreams they wanted to pursue. In typical early 20s guy fashion, this list included going streaking during an MLS game, pretending to be Cristiano Ronaldo to attend an award show, asking Megan Fox on a date, falling in love, etc. For every item they achieved, they helped someone else achieve a dream they had. Watching the show was inspiring,...

How to ChangeThe New Year Newsletter If you were to take an analysis of your day, how many decisions do you make? It might be overwhelming to think that every move we make is a decision. Some take more brain power than others. For example, you might have the same thing for breakfast each morning because making one more decision in the morning seems like a monumental task. Other times, the decision is not on autopilot, such as choosing a book to read, which weekend event to attend, or asking...

Tis the SeasonFor all of the ways the season goes It's the week of Christmas, entering the end-of-year bliss, chaos, and stress that comes with the holiday season. Work demands end-of-year goals to achieve with urgency, last-minute gifts need to be ordered stat, travel mayhem begins, and remember to have a great time! Make the holiday chaos look effortless and fun, and we'll be on our merry way- right?! Some may feel this pressure, while others may feel rather dull this season. Maybe it...