🌧️ The Opening Ryder sat across from me on a Tuesday evening, rain hammering the office windows, and confessed they were afraid of ruining their birthday party by paying for it entirely by himself, even though his girlfriend and his […]
Breakups - codependency - Dating - Family Dynamics - healing - In the Therapy Room - Samuel Hartwell
In the Therapy Room: The Complex Dance of Loyalty, Self-Erasure, and the Quest for Emotional Autonomy
A Brief Reflection Before We Begin 🪟 I remember the Tuesday afternoon Tabitha first walked into my office—the kind of gray February day when the world looks like it’s been drained of color. She moved carefully, as if navigating invisible […]
codependency - Family Dynamics - In the Therapy Room - Samuel Hartwell - Substance Abuse
In the Therapy Room: When Love Becomes Enabling
The Invisible Threads of Addiction and Family Love 🕸️ The serpent of addiction rarely strikes alone. It coils first around one victim, then stretches tendrils outward, ensnaring those who love too much, who help too much, who shield too much. […]
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 […]
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 […]