Meandering Thoughts of a Psychologist

  Graduate students generally dislike the “grunt work” they are expected to do to support research, and I was no different. As a young woman in my twenties, I would much prefer completing my course work or focusing on my personal research dissertation. Afterall, I chose to go to school in the frozen tundra (Buffalo) to work under a specific professor doing eating disorder research, so I was unhappy at first with a portion of my graduate assistantship being assigned to a professor who studied social justice. Not only was this a content area that was not my personal passion, but I was expected to transcribe hour long interviews. I had a recording software that enabled me to listen to the interviews, repeat the words, and the program typed the content. This sounds easy enough, but the software was less technologically advanced at the time, and the tasks usually required me to follow along correcting paragraph by paragraph the words I spoke. I hated it at the time, but it really made m...

  It is hard not to feel helpless and overwhelmed with life in America today. It is hard to know where to trust the news because it all seems slanted in one direction or the other – to the left or right. It all feels confusing, but there's a strong sense within me that the attack on immigrants in the United States feels wrong, and the leadership by Donald Trump feels unsettling. I watched my pastor friend’s message about the example of the Monks walking for peace and her message that peace begins within us. This message of finding peace within the self first is important, and I also know that it is necessary for me to find peaceful networks of others who share similar values, even if our political views differ. Otherwise, it's quite disorienting to exist isolated in a community that largely supports what seems to be White Christian Nationalism. This week I protested ICE brutality with a few other dedicated citizens in Rabun, and I was happy to see that we received more posi...

Depression is often viewed as a condition of “sadness” by the general population, and I wish we could all move beyond this perception to help both individuals struggling with depression and their support systems understand the magnitude of the illness. Yes, gratitude and thinking positive can be helpful suggestions, but they sometimes make an individual with depression feel more guilty and responsible for their own suffering. In a depressive episode, an individual can feel a complete lack of motivation and energy . Simple tasks like showering can feel challenging, which is why personal hygiene can deteriorate in extreme cases. One of the most challenging symptoms of depression is the decline in cognition – the ability to prioritize tasks, make decisions, think competently at work, read and comprehend, and process information is diminished. Oftentimes and especially if the person has experienced past trauma, critical and almost paranoid intrusive thoughts emerge reinforcing your sen...

At the bottom of this post is a link to an old video I commonly use when working with girls and women on body image issues. At some point we have to grasp how being of a slender build, perceived as attractive, having a lighter skin pigment, born into wealthy families or with US citizenship, etc. are a genetic lottery win in our society that has been built to influence standards of beauty and success. The human brain is built to categorize information for ease of navigating our lives, but we are also blessed with higher order critical thinking skills to challenge the stereotypes, messaging, and systemic oppression that exists in this world. We are naive to think that our creator is not observing how these human influences are impacting our character and whether or not we are using our privileges to speak out to fight the oppression and injustice of others. In ancient times, people did not grasp why Jesus healed the gentiles and others outside of his Jewish race. They would've been a...

My take on the harm of using the terms “sin” and “spiritual warfare” comes from my experience of understanding addiction based on my lived experience with an eating disorder, extensive research, and clinical practice. When I say addiction, I am referring to emotional eating/"gluttony," substance abuse, sex addictions, and a variety of other process addictions. Recovery from an eating disorder only comes with a solid relapse prevention approach to normalizing the struggle with relapse as a part of the process to recovering, addressing guilt and shame with compassion, and treating the addiction in a multifaceted approach (psychology, psychiatry, support groups, spirituality, etc). I have treated and known a multitude (thousands) of people with eating disorders, and I don’t know a single one who has achieved solid recovery via reliance on prayer, spiritual practice, and “giving it to God” alone. I have only seen this method fail and cause more suffering. This is because it’s not...

I care very deeply about how the world is getting a polarized view of the Christian Faith and who Jesus was on this earth. This blog is for individuals who hear Christianity aligned with modern day politics and question why in the world individuals of sound mind would cling to the old testament scripture. Let me first say – I wrestle with it myself. In all honesty, I’ve wanted a church that follows the New Testament and specifically the Gospels. It’s obvious it was difficult even for the disciples of Jesus to decipher many of his teachings, so I try to stick to the specific (specific as possible with translations) words and actions of Jesus while on earth. To me, this makes the most sense considering my understanding of psychology and humanity and the tendency of humans to not report history without the influence of their own understanding and culture. God and Jesus are divine (people are not). I am, however, trying to understand the entirety of the Bible and explore whether or not the...