BetterHelp has been trying to recruit me. As soon as I became licensed, they started circling. They’ve sent multiple messages to me over the last couple of years via every imaginable pathway. I get harassed on LinkedIn, my work email, and, most recently, three sequential emails sent directly to my personal email address that is not publicly available. I mention this not to shame them for aggressive recruitment tactics, but to highlight from the start that they are, first and foremost, a tech company. They are mining and using data about their customers, therapists, and consumer habits to make ..read more

Spring is upon us, with all of its weather whiplash of 70 degrees and sunny, and then hail? At least that’s the case in Southern California. And with spring, I feel a general eagerness to change and transition with the season. Growing up evangelical Christian, part of spring meant preparing for, and then celebrating Easter. This blog is for all of those who have experienced religious trauma, church hurt, and/or spiritual wounding and are looking for a way to incorporate some of the Easter traditions in a new way this year. celebrating easter & navigating religious trauma Let me first talk ..read more

This blog is incredibly special because it features two folks who are near and dear to Kindman & Co.! Dani Marrufo is a therapist who has been here for a few years, and Gaby Teresa is a therapist who used to work at Kindman & Co. and has now launched their own private practice. Gaby and Dani share more about what it’s like to be a Latine person working in mental health. In this article you’ll read more about how healing it can be to work as a therapist and also the really hard parts. Both Gaby and Dani hold multiple intersections of identity, and since they are relational therapists ..read more

Being with those who are grieving is one of the most powerless feelings. There’s pretty much nothing you can do to make it better. And it often feels like the things you’re doing are making it worse. If you haven’t experienced loss yourself (or even if you have!), it can be hard to know how to support others who are grieving their own losses. Here are a few simple things to try to help a loved one who is grieving: Be curious about the loss Being curious about someone’s loss can help in a couple of ways. First, it allows space for the grieving person to talk about their loss. In most spaces in ..read more

I love working with folks in identity development because there are so many different forms of identity—formation, transition, and renegotiating. For example, when working with folks going through break ups, I like to encourage them to remember that this specific transition time allows you to figure out who you are as an individual and return to the foundational needs and parts of you that you had left while in the relationship. It’s a reintroduction to your friend groups and spending time with other loved ones. It all links back to identity—what do you like to do by yourself? the emotional i ..read more

In our most recent episode of Out of Session with Kindman & Co., our therapy practice podcast, skilled religious trauma therapist, Caitlin Harrison, spoke with Cait Ference-Saunders of Move with Cait, a trauma sensitive yoga practice. Read on for their conversation discussing embodiment and what is Trauma Centered Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), the importance and power of making choices, and each of their takes on what is religious trauma. You can also listen to this episode, Embodiment & Making Choices with Cait Ference Saunders, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. embodiment & making ..read more

I’ve been dealing with this thing that I’m going to call Sunday Angries (™️ pending). Sunday Angries is similar to the Sunday Scaries concept, which is when people feel anxiety about the impending doom of the work week, as detailed well in The Atlantic’s article, Why People Get the ‘Sunday Scaries’. For me, Sunday Angries are more tied to issues around perfectionism, something I am actively working on recovering from. In this blog, I am going to discuss how perfectionism can impact your relaxation and self-care, and then provide a few ways to support engaging with self-care in a new way. sund ..read more

I’ll be honest, Valentine’s Day usually brings up memories of last-minute panicking to make sure I had Valentine’s cards and candy hearts to bring to all my elementary school classmates. It felt contrived and stressful, and I wonder if this is partly why I usually avoid celebrating Valentine’s Day. This year, I accidentally bought tickets to a show on February 14th for my partner and me and I’m looking forward to doing something out of my ordinary. In the same spirit, here are some thoughts from a therapist on 5 ways to honor love and romance this Valentine’s Day. Date Yourself to promote sel ..read more

So we’re almost at the end of the first month of 2024 which means you have probably already given up on New Year’s Resolutions or are just now getting around to thinking about making some. While I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions and instead, feel passionate about helping people cultivate empowerment and pride in being exactly where they are, I know that many of us feel pressure to be doing something differently during this time of year. One of the common resolutions or changes many people are considering in the beginning of the new year is actually whether to start therapy for ..read more

Loss is extraordinarily painful and real. There is no pain quite like that of losing someone you love. It’s a pain you cannot know until you do, and then you can’t un-know it, no matter how badly you might want to. In western culture, the depth of pain one feels in loss is also uncomfortable and unwelcome—people just don’t want to think about it. It’s unyielding weight is very quickly considered impolite, and our cultural push toward collective denial can be so painful for those in the midst of a loss who can no longer deny its existence. More than 30 years ago, in the last volume of his tril ..read more