About eight years ago, my daughter came home from high school quiet. Not the usual tired-teen quiet, but the kind that holds something heavy.

A group of girls had left her out—on purpose. Not just from a party, but from belonging.

She asked me, “Why don’t they like me?”

And I felt that old ach...

Infidelity Recovery, Emotional Boundaries, and the Tap-Out of Self-Respect

As a therapist working with couples and individuals, this is one of the most common—and most gut-wrenching—questions I hear: “Should I forgive someone who cheated on me?”

Infidelity doesn’t just break trust. It destabilizes...

When my martial arts instructor first suggested I learn the Japanese art of the sword, I thought they’d lost their mind. Me? A blonde girl who loves makeup, hair, and a good blowout—doing swordwork? I’m a therapist by day, true crime junkie by night. I spend my evenings diagnosing fictional narcissi...

Rebuilding Trust and Boundaries After Betrayal

If you've ever searched for how to heal from betrayal or recover from infidelity, you know the journey is rarely straightforward. I didn’t know how I was going to trust again—because I didn’t ask for the betrayal. Like so many others, I was thrust into...

My Unexpected Path to Healing

I didn’t join martial arts seeking healing. It started as a trial for another project, something I thought might simply be interesting or beneficial for my advocacy work. What I never anticipated was how profoundly the experience would work on me.

Though I had spent t...