Ambiguous Loss: Living with the Pain of Uncertainty Before I was a therapist, I had not heard the term ambiguous loss. I know now that I experienced it. Ambiguous means inexplicable. These ambiguous losses of mine were deeply felt for many...
Is there something that happened in your past that you cannot stop thinking about? An incident or relationship that continues to feel deeply sad, shameful, or distressing? The past shows up through rumination, nightmares, or flashbacks. The experience may be...
The big holiday month is here. If you have discovered a family secret that impacts you, the holiday season presents an extra challenge. Will you be able to fake happiness or act polite with people close to you that have...
Leslie Pate Mackinnon, LCSW is a seasoned and well-respected therapist in both the adoption community, third party reproduction, and MPE (misattributed parentage event) communities. She is a nationally known trainer who travels across the country training therapists, agencies and child...
Home DNA testing has become a pretty common practice as people explore family genetics. According to a study at MIT, the DNA market is projected to double in 2021—for the 5th year in a row - which could mean over...
Mother's Day Gratitude and Grief Depending on your relationship with your mother, Mother's Day may bring authentic feelings of gratitude, more complicated feelings, or both. If your mother is absent from your life, grief is likely to be experienced too. Growing up,...
I recently shared a meme from Nicole Arzt, LMFT's hilarious and irreverent Instagram feed psychotherapymemes. It said, "Friendly reminder that therapy is still effective even when everything in life is going well. Y'all ever run a Roomba on a 'clean'...
It wasn't that bad. Four words that make a story small and minimize an experience. It can be helpful in the moment and hurtful in the long run. It wasn't that bad We reduce an experience when we say, "It wasn't that...
Our pets are an important part of our life so when they die it's really painful. In the United States, we spend around $72 billion on our pets annually. According to a survey done by TD Ameritrade, Millennials expect to...
You've made it through Thanksgiving. Now Christmas and Hanukkah which has an intense focus on merriment, joy, and family togetherness. If you're celebrating and you're grieving, it's really hard. You want to be happy, but you aren't feeling it. At least...