Welcome to My Website!
I know from personal experience that life can be exhausting, exhilarating, and everything in between. Navigating life’s ups and downs can be challenging, especially when you’re doing it alone.
I also know that you can not only overcome whatever life brings your way–you can become and even flourish! As a wise person once said, “Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely” (Karen Kaiser Clark). Join me and my community and choose to grow and become–a better woman, a better parent, a better child, a better family, a better you.
“The Psychologist, The Mom, & Me” Blog:
While you’re here, check out my blog, “The Psychologist, The Mom, & Me,” named one of the Top 100 Women’s Empowerment Blogs of 2012!
The Psychologist in me shares principles and tools to make life easier and more fulfilling.
The Mom writes about the ups and downs of family, marriage, life, and staying sane trying to raising 6 kids!
And Me? I’m just trying to be a little bit better each day, and I hope to help you do the same.
Read the Intro, browse below, or click here to read a post on Parenting, Emotional Health, Personal Growth, Pregnancy & Postpartum, Grief & Loss, and more!
How to Get Your Needs Met: 4 Tips on Asking & Receiving
ShareSome time back in graduate school I realized that if I don’t ask for help when I need it, it might never come. Like so many women, I’d spent the first several years of my marriage expecting my husband, OJ (no, not Simpson), to just “see” what I needed, wanting him to “notice on his own,” feeling that if I had to actually tell him what was wrong then he obviously didn’t love me well enough. Sound familiar? We’ve all seen this before, whether in a friend, on TV or in our own relationships. But friends, I hate to break...
read more“Mommy Fails” & Mother’s Day: 3 Messages Every Mom Needs to Hear
ShareWhy does Mother’s Day always make me think of all I’m not doing right as a Mother? Every year I try to avoid it, but I can’t escape. The images of crafty, fulfilled, do-it-all moms who are (seemingly) perfect, fill the world, and at first, I love it. I love glorying in this role that I truly find life-altering, holy, and divine–being “Mom.” But at some point I start comparing to those images. I see what I want (or wanted) to do and be, and feel I’m missing the mark. This week, for example, I had...
read morePSI Blog Hop 2013–Moving Beyond Shame: The Ultimate Power of Support and Time
ShareToday, as part of the Postpartum Support International (PSI) Blog Hop 2013, I am happy to host a guest post by colleague and friend, Laura DiVenti. Laura has an incredible story of postpartum recovery, one she shared many times at our Arizona Postpartum Wellness Coalition educational events. Let me just say that when Laura talked about what she’s experienced, the room went silent and each ear tuned in, every time. I am honored to get to share just a little of Laura with you here. You’ll see what I mean when you read her...
read morePSI Blog Hop 2013–16 Things I’d Like My Postpartum Self To Know, 16 Years & 6 Kids Later
ShareIt’s cliché, I know, but I certainly wasn’t expecting postpartum depression (PPD). Newly graduated from college and recently married, I couldn’t wait to start a family, to finally become a mother. It was something I’d wanted my entire life. PPD Round 1 Fast-forward 9 months. I didn’t expect to be induced and deliver my first baby boy breach. He came out bottom first and had the most perfectly round, golden head. When I came home from the hospital, I didn’t expect sleep deprivation to make me feel so crazy, and I...
read moreFEEL: How to Cope with Powerful Emotions (plus video)
SharePowerful emotions can be scary. Grief, anger, sadness, pain, fear, can feel intense, overwhelming, and out of control. We fear feeling powerful emotions because we believe they will overtake us; we fear that once they are free, we may never be free of them again. So, we ignore, distract ourselves from, and eventually box these emotions up and shove them deep down, like caged predators, in an effort to prevent the frightening consequences we envision if they were ever to escape. But, as a wise woman once said, “Just because your feelings...
read moreInvitation: PSI Blog Hop-Maternal Mental Health Recovery & Coping
ShareAn Invitation to YOU! Postpartum Support International’s 2013 First Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month Blog Hop! Theme: Recovery and Coping Skills I have been affiliated with Postpartum Support International (PSI) since 2000. A fabulous organization that provides support and resources for new mothers and fathers, PSI also serves families through quality education and conferences, advocacy, and through their website, warmline, and trained support coordinators throughout the world. I’m thrilled, therefore, that...
read moreHearts Breaking in a Broken World: 7 Ways to Heal from Tragedy Together
ShareI remember when the earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010. A postpartum mom still in the midst of my own life’s traumas, I got my kids off to school, then spent the day nursing my baby, watching the news, and crying. I spent the next day nursing my baby, watching the news, and going online to donate money. It was all I could think to do at the time. And I wanted to do something. I still want to do something. Hearts Breaking: We Want to Help Every time another tragedy hits our community, nation, world, my heart breaks. And I know...
read moreWhy I Feel Like a Loser Mom, & How I Know I’m Really Not
ShareI won’t lie. It’s been a rough week. A perfect storm of trying to meet a deadline for two book proposals while kids were having all kinds of issues, husband was MIA golfing in tournaments, hormones were at their evil low, and so was quantity of sleep. A “squall” of epic proportions started growing in my head and heart until I finally crashed on myself, feeling like such a loser mom. Yes, I feel that way too. And now that my head is clearer, I can tell you this: it all stems from my thoughts. This week, I could hear them,...
read more“Fear Does Not Prevent BAD; It Prevents GOOD.” How to Not Let Fear Get the Better of YOU!
ShareFear prevents good. That’s what I’ve learned. It’s an inhibitor. It stops us in our tracks. It keeps us from doing the things that might be really good for us. Fear Doesn’t Prevent the BAD; It Prevents the GOOD. But most people have it backwards. They think, “Fear prevents bad things from happening.” They think fear is a signal, telling us something terrible is going to happen if we don’t stop in our tracks right now! It’s true, historically, that our ancestors relied upon fear to warn them of...
read moreLiving a Life of Purpose & Meaning: The Key to True Happiness
Share“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”[1] What is your purpose? What were you and you alone put on this earth to do? We all have one, you know—a purpose. We’re all here with a call and a work to do. Allow me to prove it to you with these wise words: “’If you are breathing, you are still alive. If you are alive, then you are still here, physically, on this...
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