According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 18.5% of U.S. adults aged 18 and over have been diagnosed with depression.  Despite its prevalence, depression is often misunderstood and mischaracterized by the media and popular culture, and the medical establishment has failed to counter…

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a designation made in 2008 to help raise awareness and acknowledge those who have been impacted by suicide and help honor those who have been lost.  Since its inception, suicide rates in the United States have hovered between 10…

I was listening to one of my can’t-miss weekly podcasts recently where the host was interviewing a mental health professional speaking about her own experiences with postpartum depression as she struggled with parenting three children in the months after giving birth to her youngest.  She…

At the height of the pandemic, I helped a friend move after he filed for a quarantine divorce. As we sat in the kitchen of his tiny rental house eating takeout, I asked how he felt. He became very quiet and replied, “I don’t even…

When working with clients who have experienced trauma, one of the first questions I ask is whether they have been screened for PTSD. Most of the time, the answer will be a firm “no”, usually followed by a variation on, “I don’t have flashbacks”, or…