A few weeks ago, I found myself in the midst of an experience that left me grappling with a whirlwind of emotions—anger, betrayal, and the weight of an unspoken expectation to suppress my feelings for the comfort of others. The incident took place during a professional training, one where I had hoped to find solidarity and understanding, but instead, I felt profoundly let down.

During my time in Belize…I participated in a Mayan healing ceremony led by a traditional Mayan healer named Thelma. Before the ceremony, Thelma guided us through a medicinal plant walk to connect with nature and select plants that spoke to us for use in the healing ceremony. While I won't go into details about the ceremony or the specifics shared out of respect for the sacred nature of the ritual, one thing Thelma showed us that spoke to me was extending gratitude to the plants and the land for providing us with these abundant resources.

Last month, I shared about Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). It’s such an interesting and powerful new option that I want to continue educating my community about it. EMDR is different from other modalities because it's more of a brain-based process as opposed to talk therapy. Talk therapy can be re-traumatizing for clients because a client can feel like they have to reveal (and risk reliving) every detail of their past traumatic experiences.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. It’s based on the Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP) which basically states that trauma is stored in the neural networks of the brain. Traumatic memories are connected to negative emotions and cognitions (thoughts) so the aim of EMDR is to change those and take the sting out of traumatic memories through a process called bilateral stimulation (BLS) which creates new neural networks. This can be done through eye movements, tapping and even bilateral sound techniques.

As one does, I went to my regular doctor but all they had to offer in terms of support was, “lose weight or get weight loss surgery.” This wasn’t out of the ordinary for this office: I was previously fat shamed by the doctor twice in one year. I was yelled at for not dieting even though I actually had completed a keto diet that was even lower in carbs than she’d recommended.

The thing about this occasion is that while it’s fair to say it puts often-unhealthy romantic pressures on everyone, from long term married couples to single folks to developing adolescents and everyone in between, it also carries a host of secondary pressures and toxic messages as well.

Here we are, the middle of January, where unrealistic and deficit-based New Year resolutions go to die, but not before they’ve made you feel like a quitter or failure. You don’t need that in your life!

Oh, do I have stories... There was the time my job banned “junk food” because leadership decided to impose a “food as medicine” approach on the entire staff, thereby promoting the misguided idea that some foods are bad and by extension, that people who enjoyed those foods were bad.

I was on a diet before I’d finished elementary school, so when I talk to clients about body image issues, difficult relationships with food, and the ubiquity of diet culture, I come to these topics with experience. In fact, my longest running relationship is my relationship to dieting