The Golden Handcuffs We Kiss Goodnight 💰 Manhattan in autumn. The kind of crisp Tuesday afternoon where ambitious New Yorkers are either making deals or making therapy appointments to discuss why those deals don’t fill the void. Kai walked into […]
Families - In the Therapy Room - Monica Dean - Personal Development
In the Therapy Room: The Invisible Costs of People-Pleasing
I met Tessa in a café near Spinningfields on a drizzly Tuesday afternoon. She’d been referred by a friend—though “referred” isn’t quite right. More like gently pushed in my direction after confessing she’d spent twenty minutes agonizing over which sandwich […]
Breakups - In the Therapy Room - Marriage - Melanie Doss
In the Therapy Room: Emotional Labor and the Marriage That’s Already Divorced
The Weight of Invisible Exhaustion 😔 Brittany came into my office carrying the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t show up on your face—it shows up in the way you set down your bag, the way you exhale when you finally […]
Families - In the Therapy Room - infidelity - Jas Mendola - Relationships
In the Therapy Room: When Family Loyalty Becomes Emotional Quicksand
🪑Bryson sat down that first day. He was built solid, with hands that showed work and eyes that wouldn’t settle on any one spot in my office. His denim jacket had a patch from the local power plant. He twisted […]
Dating - Friendships - In the Therapy Room - Relationships - Self Care - Sex and Intimacy - Sophia Rivera
In the Therapy Room: When Friendship Gets Physical and Complicated
Friends with Benefits Minus the Benefits 🤔 She sat across from me, twisting the ring on her middle finger like it might somehow crank out the answer she was looking for. “I know this sounds ridiculous,” Tessa said, “but I […]
Dating - Family Dynamics - Identity - In the Therapy Room - Samuel Hartwell
In the Therapy Room: Loving Against the Current of Social Expectation
The Widow and the Gardener 💕 I remember the afternoon Tessa first walked into my office. At 42, she had already weathered significant loss but had found her footing again. A successful business consultant and widow of three years, she […]
Depression - Identity - In the Therapy Room - Lucian Blackwood
In the Therapy Room: The Exhausted Creator
🪞 The Exhausted Creator Finding Intrinsic Motivation Through Ritual and Shadow Work By Lucian Blackwood, Ph.D. The black obsidian mirror on my office wall reflected Tristan’s slumped posture as they settled into the leather chair across from me. At seventeen, […]
Family Dynamics - In the Therapy Room - Lola Adams - Self Care
In the Therapy Room: Emotional Labor and the Invisible Tax on Women
I was sitting in my favorite espresso bar on the Upper East Side, nursing a double shot after an especially intense session when I heard it. A young woman’s desperate phone call to her mother—the exasperation, the silent seething, the […]
Dating - In the Therapy Room - Monica Dean - Social Anxiety
In the Therapy Room: Social Anxiety and Inner Conflict
🗣️ When the Internal Conversation Becomes a Battlefield I still remember the day Tobias walked into my office. The tall man with sandy blond hair and hunched shoulders seemed to physically fold in on himself as he settled into the […]
Authenticity - In the Therapy Room - Melanie Doss - Relationships
In the Therapy Room: Navigating Ambiguous Relationship Messages and Emotional Labor
What No One Tells You About Ambiguous Relationship Messages Tessa sat across from me with the kind of anxious energy that makes you want to physically hold someone’s nervous system for them. She was twenty-two, four months into a relationship […]