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The Downtown Kid

Therapy

Therapy has a stigma it shouldn't. Nowadays, it seems like we all could use some "shrinking." For me, moving downtown was part of my therapy process. Honestly, I botched it up pretty spectacularly. I'm working to fix all that as best I can, though, and so a lot of what I want to share through this collection of experiences is how downtown is saving me from myself, even though it kind of tried to kill me at first. I hope that having the vulnerability to share my journey with you might offer up encouragement for you to find ways to support your own journey. I hope you'll share yours with me, too. One of the best feelings in the world is knowing that you're not alone in this mess. Go be awesome.

  • tall blocks that spell out thank you

    Day 16: Thanks, Kid.

    I know you feel stuck, Kid; you’re fighting what feels like an impossible fight and you’re not gaining any ground. I know you had big dreams based on bigger promises and all that’s crashing down around you. You feel helpless and out of control. I know it hurts to breathe and you can’t imagine the new world order in front of you. I know your heart’s been broken so many times you’ve lost count. But thank you. For choosing to look past treatment that shook you to the core and challenged what it meant to love another person greater than yourself. Hell, for dealing with things that challenged you to…

  • Day 8: Doing Life Better

    For many, the new year is all about trying to live better, fuller, happier, whatever-er. We pretend we can reset the system. And as much as I wish we could just start some things over, we can’t. So we’ve got to be real about where we are and create tangible plans for where we want to go. Today’s blogging challenge is to make a list of five ways we can take care of ourselves. While most people are focused on how to improve the physical around this time of year, I’d like to take a look at how to improve the mental. 1. Be in the Moment Anxiety is no…

  • Day 7: Lessons from 2018

    Today’s blogging challenge is to take a look at lessons learned from 2018 through a course, book, social media, article, or website. And that’s hard. I feel like I learned so much from last year. So how can I pick one thing? There are books and experiences galore, but one of the most impactful things I did was for a presentation in group therapy. I worked with another woman to share the enneagram, and if you’ve never heard of the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator (RHETI), it’s kind of like a more scientific Myers-Briggs. Tons of corporations use this tool to manage their people and projects more efficiently. On a personal…

  • Day 6: Movie Review

    Today’s blogging challenge is to review a favorite movie from 2018. My choice was released just before the new year, and it hit home hard. You’ve probably heard of a little Netflix gem called Birdbox, yeah? I mean, in the first 7 days it was out, some 45 million people watched it. So I’m chilling at the a-p-t when the BFF messages me and tells me he’s watching Bird Box. He wants to see what all the fuss is about. That, and get all the memes. Well, hell. Now I gotta watch it too so we can chat about it. Confession: I’d seen articles about how the movie addressed the…

  • Day 5: Letter to Myself

    Today’s challenge is to write a letter to myself explaining to future me where I’ll be in a year. It’s kinda like a written vision board. What’s cool about today’s challenge is that I actually do a similar assignment like this with my students every year. They have certain prompts that they respond to, but the letter is a composition all their own. We seal them in envelopes and I lock them in a filing cabinet. They basically forget about them, and then I give them back out on the last day of school. The kids will leave themselves all kinds of neat things in these letters, too. Sometimes, they’ll…