General Archives - Page 12 of 13

Slowing Down with a Summer Cold

Today I woke up with a tickle in my throat and a determination not to let this turn into a full summer cold. I thought about all of the calls and emails and busy work that I had to do before seeing my clients. I could rush to work and try to cross everything off…

General

Big Hips

Yesterday I was helping my 3 year old get dressed when she exclaimed, “I have big hips.” What?! I must have heard her wrong. “I have big hips” she repeated. My heart started racing. Where did she hear that?! It’s not something I say. Or is it and I don’t remember? I started to get…

General

No, I’m not Dr. Phil

I recently had a final session with a client where we reviewed their progress. They achieved the goals that they wanted to in therapy and we were discussing our work together. “How was therapy for you?” I asked. Pause. Pause continues. I started to feel apprehensive. In my head I went over our sessions and…

General

Continuing the work of 2011

I didn’t create a New Year’s resolution. I don’t like the idea of starting off the New Year with this grand idea or gesture of how I am going to change/improve/grow myself. Inevitably by March I struggle to remember what it was I was supposed to change. Instead I thought that I would enter the…

General

Enough of the Bloody Images!

Everywhere you turn there are news reports of the death of Muammar Gaddafi. What has been disturbing me for the past two days is the images of his dead body EVERYWHERE. I went to the store to buy a banana and the newspaper next to the bananas had a graphic image of Gaddafi’s corpse. Later…

Anxiety, General

Quietly Anxious

Many of my clients are ‘superwomen’, or at least they appear that way. They are Black, professional women who are often look put together even when they’re wearing sweats. But their insides tell a different story. Inside they’re churning with anxiety. Their mind is constantly racing, planning, and thinking; it’s never still or quiet. Their…

General

Out of the Mouths of Babes

by Lexx Brown-James In many communities of color there is a belief that “children should be seen and not heard.” I recently met with a 7 year old girl who turned this idea around with me. When I asked her about those who loved her she replied “Grandpa.” She proceeded to tell me how sick…

Black Women Hair, General, Self-esteem, Self-love

Lexx’s Hairstory

At the age of 2 my mother gave me a relaxer. I did not have hair up until she game me the relaxer, I have no idea how it worked, but it did. Then growing up, in a predominantly, culture of power communicty I wore braids. My mother and I would drive one Saturday to…

General

Yesterday I Cried

In my 14 years of doing counseling, yesterday I did something that I have never done. I cried in a therapy session. A client Vanessa* was finally able to adopt a child. After years of struggling with infertility and then waiting for more years to adopt a child, she was finally going to be a…

Black Women Hair, General, Self-esteem, Self-love

Tonya’s Hairstory

Like many little Black girls my age I had pressed and then relaxed hair as a child. My mom always used a hot comb that sat on the stove top and I would sit in our orange kitchen chair dreading the whole process. When I became of age, about 10 years old for my house,…

CategoryGeneral

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