As a therapist, I can’t tell you how many times clients come to me with information that they have gleaned from checking their partners’ phone. Some people will come in with screenshots of text conversations between their partner and others, hoping to dissect them to determine whether their partner was flirting or whether the conversation was just platonic. Others come in with call records, telling me that it can’t be innocent when a partner calls a “friend” five times in a week....

Let’s get one thing straight: Being single doesn’t mean you’re going to be forever alone. If nothing else, being single is a learning experience — one that happens to be good for your mental health, believe it or not. So stop stressing over those seemingly endless (and cliché) “I SAID YES!” posts everyone shares on Instagram, and start appreciating the benefits of single life. Here are some ways being single is actually beneficial to your mental well-being....

Though we’re conditioned to think of romantic relationships as the center of excitement and passion in life, many people remain in intimate relationships they feel ambivalent about, not knowing whether to leave their partners, or to stick it out for the long haul. Because the excitement in romantic relationships is bound to ebb over time, it can be hard to know whether a relationship is just going through a boring or difficult stage, or whether it has naturally run its course....

The following is intended for readers 18+ Have you ever heard someone say, “Wow, that person’s miserable! They need to get laid!”? Well, that comment may be offensive and unnecessary, but it isn’t completelywrong. Sex may not be a cure-all (though I wish it were) — but it can have a measurably positive impact on your mood, as well as your physical health! In fact, sex actually has multiple positive effects on overall health, with studies to prove it!...

The following is intended for readers 18+ Sex is wonderful under the right circumstances, but it can turn into something not-so-great and unhealthy when it becomes a way of acting out, or a coping mechanism for other, deeper issues. Especially when your mental health isn’t on it’s A-game, your sex life can get out of whack. Here are some less than ideal decisions around sex one can make … and how to avoid them....

Dreams have been viewed as a key to the unconscious mind ever since 1899, when Sigmund Freud wrote his canonical textThe Interpretation of Dreams. Freud theorized that dreams act as a mental safety valve, allowing individuals to experiment with what it might feel like to act out negative emotions, fantasies, or impulses in a “safe” space, not the waking world. While Freud’s dream theory has been an important contribution in the history of psychology and psychoanalysis, it has since been discredited as unscientific — along with his idea that analyzing dreams can uncover the root cause of a patient’s neurosis, usually a repressed traumatic event experienced as a child....

The following is intended for readers 18+ The summer I was nineteen, I researched and wrote a travel guide to Italy, journeying from Venice to the Cinque Terre armed only with a sundress and my handy dandy Macbook. Experiencing sexual intimacy after violence may take time and the process of healing comes with lots of bumps in the road. But healing is possible, and you have a right to feel that your body is your home....

Fighting with your partner can bestressful, demoralizing, and scary. But fighting doesn’t have to be a source of such angst, and certainly doesn’t have to weaken your relationship. There are productive ways to argue with your partner and work through challenges that can bolster your connection and leave both people feeling better. Of course, much of the difficulty of fighting comes down to each partner’s communication style. Sometimes, it’s not what we say — but how we say it — that leaves one or both partners feeling misunderstood, angry, and emotionally abandoned....

Couples Therapy OnlineStrengthen your relationship through couples therapy you can participate in together or apart, at your convenience.Learn more Couples Therapy OnlineStrengthen your relationship through couples therapy you can participate in together or apart, at your convenience. Couples Therapy Online Strengthen your relationship through couples therapy you can participate in together or apart, at your convenience. Learn more Particularly for those who are sensitive, dealing with difficult people can be extremely stressful....

Research shows there’s a strong correlation between mental well-being and sleep. We know that problematic sleeping (e.g., insomnia, sleep disturbance, insufficient sleep, sleep difficulty, sleep loss, sleep apnea, etc.) can have a significant impact on mental health, and further, certain mental health conditions can detract from your quality of sleep. Essentially, sleep and mental health is a two-way street. Keep reading to learn more about this circular relationship and to answer the question:why is sleep important for mental health?...

Working with a therapist is one of the best things that you can do to better your mental health. It is a highly individualized process and can look different from person to person. This is what makes therapy feel so safe and productive for so many people. At the same time, there often comes a timewhen you’re working on particular goalsin therapy and need to be held accountable for making progress....

Love’s favorite thing to do is to stick around when it isn’t convenient. Perhaps the worst thing about a breakup is that the feelings don’t walk out of your life as easily as your ex did. Instead, they linger. Unsolicited late night “I still love you” text messages ensue. And if you’re anything like me, you think about your exes often, you still write in your journal about them, and, most importantly, you struggle to resist the strong urge to stalk them on social media....

Even if you don’t haveseasonal affective disorderor another kind of depression, it’s absolutely possible for you to feel the winter blues. Unless you’re one of those people who enjoys the cold and shorter days, you may have to take some precautions to make sure you don’t slip into a dark place…and I’m not just talking about the lack of daylight hours! As the winter barrels ahead, use it as an opportunity to really get in tune with your feelings....

The following is intended for readers 18+ For most of us, orgasms are, simply, awesome. Yet from the origins of modern psychology in the late nineteenth century, a combination of cultural stereotypes, pseudoscience, and plain old misogyny created an enduring notion that women’s orgasms were a problem to be solved, rather than anormal part of sexual pleasure and mental wellbeing. While historical stigma against women’s sexual pleasure contributes to anorgasm gapthat persists today, contemporary psychologists are drawing on the work of pioneering feminists and sexuality researchers to correct misinformation and celebrate the diversity of healthy female sexuality....

I run around my apartment a little out of sorts, throwing random items of clothing into an overnight bag. From reading the hospital’s website, I know I can’t bring anything with drawstrings, but I throw my green hoodie in the bag anyway. I can’t imagine being without it. My packing done and my hospital check-in time set, I’m not sure what else to do with myself on a Friday afternoon. I haven’t been to work in three days, but I guess I should inform them what’s happening....