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Beyond Postpartum: The Surprising Benefits of Being a Mom

Beyond Postpartum: The Surprising Benefits of Being a Mom

Writer and mother extraordinaire, Lynn Shattuck, recently wrote a great piece for her blog reflecting on her postpartum experience. It was hugely popular because it hit home for many women. It brought back some memories for me, too. It took me a few weeks to regroup...

Curiosity and Relationships

Curiosity and Relationships

Note from Hannah: This is a guest post by Portland therapist, Bonnie Dunn, LCSW. It's part of the New Perspectives series where writers give us their take on emotional wellness and the human experience. In honor of July 4th, Hannah did a post about Freedom.  Her last...

Assertiveness

Assertiveness

  Assertiveness is... caring about a situation, cause, one’s self, or a relationship enough to speak or take action when needed. preserving one’s integrity, duty, connection, or worth. well-intentioned words or actions for the benefit of truth, justice, fairness,...

Assertiveness for Women Mini-Workshop

Assertiveness for Women Mini-Workshop

Clear and Kind: Assertiveness for (Nice) Women Mini-Workshop at Hannah's office 203 Anderson St. Portland, Maine Thursday, July 18th 2:30-4pm Learn to speak in ways that people will listen. Will use real-world examples. Cost is $30 and you can sign up by emailing at...

The Requirements of a Life in Transition

The Requirements of a Life in Transition

Every time my toddler learns something new, like amazingly-awesome new, she can’t sleep very well. She rolls around for an hour in her crib before falling asleep or gets up in the night and just looks around, sometimes for hours. It happened when she learned to crawl,...

Freedom

Freedom

Freedom is NOT: pushing down real feelings a stubborn refusal to talk about what’s really going on looking to appearances and perfection to give you worth striving for accomplishment to give your life meaning expecting so much of others that they can’t possibly...

I’m Excited

I’m Excited

I’m excited. This has been a very common statement towards the end of sessions lately. I work primarily with people in transition. I’ve gotten a lot of energy and joy in helping people find their way through the big stuff: breakups, new relationships, new jobs,...

Dominant Emotional States

Dominant Emotional States

A few weeks ago, I wrote to Rudy Skowronski, LCSW, who is a brilliant trauma therapist in practice in Saco, Maine (you can see his full bio at the end of this post). I asked Rudy to talk about his work with Dominant Emotional States as part of the the New Perspectives...

The Surprising Reasons You Feel the Way You Do

The Surprising Reasons You Feel the Way You Do

  This week has been all about why having a deep understanding of your emotional life is essential to your well-being and the health of your relationships. Today, I will concede that this can be difficult work. I've argued before that emotions are information,...