Lately, I’ve been sitting with this question. As therapists, we urge our clients—and let’s be honest, ourselves—to “practice self-care.” We say it with the best of intentions. We want everyone to feel grounded, stable, and resourced. And all of that is well and good—important, even! But recently, the phrase has started to sound… hollow. Overused.…
The Wildflower Blog
Venture into the heart of therapy with the Wildflower blog. We delve into topics that matter, blending therapeutic expertise with genuine stories of hope and transformation. *Please note that our blogs are designed to inform only and are not intended to diagnose or treat mental health disorders.
Trauma Sensitive Yoga Therapy: What It Is and If It’s For You
Trauma affects not only the mind but also the body, often leaving survivors feeling disconnected from their physical selves. There are many treatments for trauma, and you can learn more about those in Navigating Life After Trauma: Healing and Integration. Traditional talk therapies address the cognitive and emotional aspects of trauma, but many individuals find…
Between Sessions: Our Favorite Recent Reads
Few things beat the simple pleasure of sinking into the couch with a book that grabs you and doesn’t let go. We’d like to share with you Wildflower therapists’ most recent favorites, ranging from fiction to non-fiction, heartwarmingly tender to laugh-out-loud funny—books that moved us, made us think, and kept us turning the pages late…
When Love and Diapers Collide: Navigating Your Postpartum Relationship
As a therapist who specializes in perinatal mental health and sex/couples therapy, I often witness what happens when romantic love meets sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, and a tiny crying human alarm clock that doesn’t come with a snooze button. In the postpartum period, partners might feel more like cranky roommates than starry-eyed soulmates. If this…
Therapist Spotlight: Jackie Bellefontaine, MSW, MPH, LCSW
Jackie is a psychotherapist at Wildflower. In her clinical practice, Jackie draws on Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Jackie works with adults and families experiencing stressful transitions including the transition to parenthood, anxiety, mood disorders, birth trauma, sexual challenges, and relationship issues. Jackie has experience in addressing postpartum…
Menstrual Cycle and Mental Health: What to Know and How to Cope
Many women know that their menstrual cycle can impact mood, but don’t know the specifics of how each phase of the cycle can affect them. Research shows that changes in estrogen and progesterone can affect emotional regulation, cognitive function, and overall mental well-being (Handy et al., 2022), with each part of the cycle exerting a different…
Healing Sex After Sexual Trauma
Sex after sexual trauma can bring up a whole host of emotions. To be clear, some survivors of sexual violence don’t experience changes in their relationship with sex, while many others do. All reactions to trauma are valid–your mind and body are responding to protect you from experiencing further harm. This article is for those…
The Many Faces of Postpartum Worry
The postpartum period is often described as a time of joy and bonding, but for many new moms, it’s also a time of worry. Transition to parenthood is a significant life change, bringing emotional, hormonal, relationship, and lifestyle shifts all at once. Caring for a newborn while adjusting to your life being completely different makes…
From Overwhelm to Connection: Managing Emotional Flooding as a Couple
Being overwhelmed is something that everyone has experienced. When we are in this overwhelmed state, we are not able to be our best selves, and it sometimes feels like we have lost control of our emotions and our actions. This experience can feel like we are “seeing red” or like it saps us of all…
Therapy Insights: Learning to Control What We Can Control
You may have heard the old phrase, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” This quote resonated with me as I with thinking about this post, mostly for its incompleteness, especially in the context of my work. Being a therapist, one thing I witness day in and day out is the inevitability of pain. If…
