On any given day, more than 440,000 children live in foster care in the United States. The children in foster care spend an average of two years in care and rarely remain in the same home during that time. Sadly, some of the homes they are placed in provide an environment that is no better than the environment from which they were removed. Jam...

In a 1938 stage play written by Patrick Hamilton, a husband mysteriously disappears each evening. When his wife grows anxious about his behavior and questions him about it, he brushes it off and claims she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. And then he reminds her of several other ways in which she’s been acting crazy lately...

In two recent episodes of the Emotions Mentor podcast , I had the privilege of talking with individuals who once found themselves in the mires of addiction but have done the hard work to crawl up from rock bottom and turn their lives around. Today both women take others like them under their wings and walk them through the addiction rec...

British philosopher, writer, and literary critic GK Chesterton wrote: “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder” (from A Short History of England , 59). In 1917, when Chesterton first published these words, there was no scientific research to back up his ideas. A litt...

Each year, more women will experience postpartum depression than there are new cases of tuberculosis, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy combined—for both men and women. That means a little more than 1 in 7 women will suffer from postpartum depression. In lower socio-economic ar...

Suicide rates in the United States over the past 15 years have skyrocketed, making suicide a growing epidemic in our country. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that a suicide occurs in the United States once every 12 minutes. And the Centers for Disease Control reports that in children and young adults ages 10 to 2...

Five years ago, the American Psychological Association (APA) published the results of an intensive survey on the youth of America and the pressures they face. The results were somewhat surprising—and quite troubling: Today’s youth report stress levels higher than those experienced by adults. Norman B. Anderson, PhD and CEO of the ...

One of the more common tropes in television and movies is that of the man lost on a country road, stubbornly refusing to look at a map or ask any passersby for directions back to the interstate. We all laugh at the character’s expense, many of the women knowingly nodding their heads, some of the men getting just a little defensive. These ficti...

Death is often referred to as life’s great equalizer. And, it’s true, we all die eventually. But the manner in which a person grieves the loss of a loved one is varied, complex, and unique to that individual. Grief is multi-layered and full of many other emotions, such as anger, guilt, and abandonment. Because ...

Very often in life, we look at a person who has made it through a difficult time—the death of a loved one, abuse, a natural disaster, a horrific accident—and applaud that person’s ability to persevere by using words like brave and courageous and fearless to describe them. Sometimes these words are, indeed, true descriptors of th...

This week marks the beginning of that stretch of year often referred to as the Dog Days of Summer. In ancient times, the Greeks noted that this period of time (July 12 to August 20 on our current calendar) followed the appearance of the star Sirius—often called the Dog Star. It was a time associated with drought, heat, mad dogs, bad luck, malaise, lethargy, ...

The late American screenwriter Frank Howard Clark once said, “Habit is something you can do without thinking, which is why most of us have so many of them.” And where are most of these habits developed? In our families of origin. Many patterns of behavior learned in the home thrive for generations simply because no one in the family realiz...

Addiction is a tough word—one that no one wants associated with themselves or with a loved one. In reality, however, addiction touches nearly all of us in some way or another. Consider these statistics for the year 2017: • 19.7 million American adults battled a substance abuse disorder • Nearly 74 percent of those adults also s...

After a whirlwind of travel, and with another week of flights and workshops ahead of me, I settled into my plane seat and complained via text to my friend, Hayley Hobson, about how exhausted I felt. She replied, “Well, then, tell yourself another story! Tell yourself you aren’t exhausted.” I was a little perplexed at first, but then I dec...

Recently on my Emotions Mentor podcast , I spoke with functional medicine practitioner Melissa Esguerra about the connection between the brain and the gut. It’s a topic I’ve written about before and one that’s receiving increased interest in medical and psychiatric ...

Healing from anger , frustration, anxiety , stress, exhaustion , or any other emotional ailment that blocks happiness—and often productivity—isn’t easy. It takes time, commitment, and a willingness to change. And sometimes, the hardest part can simply be getting started. Through years of study...

Learning to feel comfortable in your own skin, to truly love who you are, takes a lot of work. But, as Brené Brown wrote in Daring Greatly, “Owning [your] story and loving [yourself] through that process is the bravest thing that [you’ll] ever do.” Recently, on my Emotions Mentor podcast , I spoke with energy and ...

“She died of a broken heart.” “He’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.” “Butterflies danced in her stomach.” Phrases like these make a connection between physical pain and emotional pain and are used frequently in literature, film, and television to convey just how deeply em...

, From the time a pre-teen girl starts puberty to the time she reaches her 40s and 50s, the hormones in her body ebb and flow, carrying out silent but vital tasks that impact how she feels, acts, and behaves. When hormones are out of balance or working to move the body through natural transitions (puberty, pregnancy and postnatal phases, perime...

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, affects millions of Americans each year—men, women, and children alike. The numbers are sobering. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that 10 percent of women who experience trauma each year will develop PTSD, compared to 4 percent of men who experience trauma. The rates for children a...