While there is greater acceptance of LGBTQ identitiesthan in previous decades, there is much more progress to be made in order to improve the lives and mental health of queer people. This is especially true in matters of employment. Whether or Not to Come Out One primary challenge forLGBTQpeople in the workplace is navigating the decision whether or not to be “out” at work, allowing their coworkers to know more about their personal lives outside of work....

Sometimes, life comes close to this narrative. In 2016, for example, the survivor of the Stanford rape case authoreda powerful victim impact statementthat captured the country’s attention and, undoubtedly, helped ensure jailtime for the perpetrator. But most of the time, for most survivors, reality looks quite different thanLaw and Order, SVU. The vast majority — 69% — of sexual assaults go unreported to the police, and only0.7% of all sexual assaultsresult in a conviction....

Whether you’re working on overcoming a mental health challenge, or just interested in how your mind works, it’s important to understand cognition and its effect on your beliefs and actions. In short,cognition is thinking— it is the mental process of gaining understanding and knowledge and involves a host of our intellectual functioning including learning, language comprehension and production, reasoning, judgment, attention, and memory. Cognition is the knowledge that you are not your cat, nor your chair, nor your lunchtime banana....

All of us experience periods of shyness, social awkwardness, and fear of rejection among our peers. This is especially true when we encounter new social situations or are going through a difficult time in life. These experiences are normal, though usually fleeting. Most of us, especially if we tend to beintroverted, just need to ease into social situations slowly and will begin to feel at ease. But what if you feel uncomfortable in social situations pretty much all the time?...

On my wedding day, I woke up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I crept out of bed while my fiancé David slumbered on, tiptoeing through the air conditioned hotel suite that had been offered to us as a free upgrade because the city was empty on July 4th. I stepped out onto the terrace with an impossibly gorgeous view of the Empire State Building. The darkened city had just a few lights winking at me like fireflies....

When something goes wrong, are you more likely to own up to the mistakes you made, or play the blame game? Many people are quick to point fingers and play the blame game. In fact,recent researchhas shown that weexpectthis behavior to happen. We expect to experience others engaging in blame-shifting, placing the blame on others for their own mistakes. My hands aren’t clean. I’ve blamed people for my own mistakes more than once, that’s for sure....

If you love someone who doesn’t love you back, it can feel like the pain is self-inflicted. You know that they don’t owe you anything, that they haven’t done anything wrong, and yet there’s an ache in your chest that won’t go away. You’re breaking your own heart, but you don’t know how to make it stop. “Unrequited love” is the poetic name for this feeling of one-sided affection, and it’s extremely common....

If you are a child of the 90s, you might remember Helga Pataki. She was blond, had a strangely shaped head like the rest of her peers, lived in New York City, and, most importantly, relentlessly bullied television’s cartoon sweetheart, everyone’s favorite oblong-noggined Arnold. “The message it sends is that love equates to violence.”Talkspace Therapist, Joanna Filidor, LMFT “The message it sends is that love equates to violence.” You don’t have to be a 90s kid for Helga’s behavior to seem familiar....

Picture this: You’re in bed with your significant other, and things are getting hot and heavy. You’re kissing each other, taking your clothes off, touching each other, and then —a memory from your workday flashes through your head. You can practically hear your naggy boss listing off all the things you need to get done. Next thing you know, you’re stressed — all you can think about are your feelings of stress....

A poor night’s sleep affects us all occasionally, and therapists are not immune. We, too, experience sleepless nights when stress keeps us tossing and turning. We’re also just as vulnerable to the effects of the habits that lead to poor sleep. Admittedly, therapists have an advantage in fighting sleep problems because we know a little more about how sleep works. Good sleep depends on your routines and habits — known as sleep hygiene — your physical needs, your mental functioning, and sometimes, medical intervention....

Updated on 2/17/21 Is checking my phone — first thing in the morning — the best way for me to wake up? Do Ireallynot have time to practice yoga, or is that just an excuse? With the hustle and bustle of life, I often find myself reacting to what’s happening around me instead of taking a proactive role in creating the life I desire. Now, I try to ask myself daily: how are you taking care of your mind, body, and spirit?...

From the celebrities who have opened up publicly about their struggles with mental illness, includingLady Gaga and Michael Phelps, to the rise of popular conversations on social media about self-care, mental health has been one of the biggest discussions of the 2010s. “The past decade has brought about a more open, less stigmatizing dialogue around mental health and illness,” says Jill Daino, LCSW, a Talkspace therapist. But with prejudice still present, andissues like anxiety on the rise among young people,how far have we as a society really come in destigmatizing mental illness?...

Updated 8/15/2022Frequent panic attacks can be crippling and devastating. They can keep you from living your life and enjoying the people in it. The good news, though, is they’re highly treatable. Armed with the right coping tools and information, you’ll understand how to stop a panic attack, in public or in private, the next time you experience one. Controlling your panic attacks, instead of letting them control you, will feel liberating....

Updated on 11/15/2020 What is Horticultural Therapy? Horticultural therapy is a technique that relies on plants and gardening to help people overcome health issues such as high blood pressure and memory disorders. It can also greatly help those battling depression, anxiety, addiction, and for survivors of abuse. This form of therapy is connected to the concept of “biophilia,” which is the idea that people are genetically connected to nature and plant life....

My husband and I are both Chinese American — he is first-generation and I am second-generation. We often have conversations about how our Chinese heritage impacts our daily life. Some days we forget entirely that we are Chinese, and other days we are hyper-aware of the microaggressions we incur as part of an immigrant family. While there are currently 20 million adult U.S.-born children of immigrants, according toPew Research Center, we can’t forget that the vast majority of the United States population is made up or descended from immigrants....