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A Story On a chilly, very early September morning in 2024, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, 31-year-old Tara Dower was sitting in her tent. It was 3 am. Her best friend was spoon-feeding her breakfast, to conserve Tara’s energy. Today, Tara would run about fifty miles of the Appalachian Trail. She’d done the exact same thing the day before, and the day before that. Tara was determined to run the entire trail, which stretches almost 2,200 miles from Maine to Geor

A Story A few weeks ago I was sitting at my dining room table, across from a new Mom-friend, sipping tea. Our kids, new school friends, played rambunctiously in the other room. We talked about where we grew up and our careers. Then we got talking about religion and spirituality, and she asked me more about my background, and if we were introducing any faith to our kids?  I loved this question, though I had no clear answer. I rambled, sharing that I’m agnostic now, and what my

A Story The other day, walking in one of my favorite bustling Seattle neighborhoods from my yoga class to my parked car, I heard a moaning sound like I’d never heard before. I spotted a person on the sidewalk across the street, who seemed to be a man in his 30s or 40s. He was well-dressed with cute chunky glasses frames. He was clearly in psychological pain, and maybe also physical pain. His wide-eyed expression and loud whimpers looked to me like emotional shock. He leaned i

I’ll admit I cringe a little when I hear the term “self-esteem,” a catchphrase in the Psychology world, even though I use it on my own website since it’s so recognizable. Western culture can be individualistic. We’re told to be  all we can, and do  all we can, standing tall. To me, self-esteem can sound like yet another thing to build, improve, and achieve.  I prefer the term self-worth. To me, it suggests believing in our inherent value and capacity as human beings. Sometime

If you enjoyed my last post on Walk-and-Talk Counseling, this post is to geek out further! Let’s get deeper into the who, what, and why behind Walk-and-Talk as a modality, and as a modality near and dear to my heart.  Why would anyone walk and talk? And as it turns out, Walk-and-Talk Counseling is a very old practice. It dates back to the 1800s, at least: Freud often took his patients on walks around the University of Vienna campus. He found his patients spoke more freely on

Are you curious about Walk-and-Talk Counseling? Or is this a brand new concept for you?  I offer both in-office sessions and Walk-and-Talk sessions. Though Walk-and-Talk is still an outlier as a way of doing counseling, it’s becoming more popular. I was excited to read this recent article in the Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mental-health/more-seattle-area-therapists-are-taking-their-sessions-outdoors/   As for my style of Walk-and-Talk, I tend to b