The Juggling Act Nobody Prepared You For You're managing a marriage, raising humans who alternate between needing you desperately and acting like you're the worst person alive, dealing with aging parents, crushing it at work, and oh yeah – your body is basically staging a coup. Welcome to the "fuck ...

By Megan Bayles Bartley, LMFT Welcome to the Club Nobody Talks About Here's the thing they don't tell you about perimenopause: it's not just about hot flashes and irregular periods. It's about your body staging a complete renovation while you're still living in the house. And honey, construction is messy ...

By Megan Bayles Bartley, LMFT "My 12 year-old daughter thinks I'm the meanest parent in the world because I won't let her go to the mall with a friend unsupervised. Am I being overprotective? Am I pushing her away by setting these limits?" If you've ever asked yourself questions like ...

By Megan Bayles Bartley, LMFT We've all been there—standing in the kitchen, completely blindsided by our teenager's emotional response to what seemed like a simple question. "How was your day?" somehow escalated into slammed doors and tears, leaving you wondering, "What just happened?" Parents often come to me feeling like ...

Lowering My Expectations On Mother’s Day Was The Best Thing I’ve Ever Done ...

By Megan Bayles Bartley, LMFT Parenting adolescents is like navigating uncharted waters in a boat that keeps changing shape. Just when you think you've found your balance, everything shifts again. Not too dissimilar to the toddler years.  I see it daily in my therapy practice at The Mindfulness Center—parents who ...

by Ashley Vaden, LMFT It was one of those Sundays when the weight of an endless to-do list—each task not insurmountable in itself—still managed to overwhelm me. Rather than spiral into endless doom scrolling, I reached for “The Antidote:  Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking” by Oliver Burkeman, ...

by Ashley Vaden, LMFT Therapy sharpens your critical thinking. Many people assume therapy is just about processing emotions or revisiting the past, but it’s actually a tool for refining how you think. A therapist acts as an objective thought partner, helping you challenge assumptions, recognize blind spots, and weigh pros ...

by Ashley Vaden, LMFT “You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase:  make use of suffering.” These words, attributed to Henri-Frederic Amiel, hold a quiet truth that many of us resist. Depression, in all its weight and misery, feels like the enemy—something ...