Everyone experiences anxiety, about something, to some degree.  I’m starting a blog.  I’ve never done this before.  I’ve been planning to do this for a while and it has been causing me some anxiety.  This is doing something new, stepping outside my comfort zone a little.  Now that I’ve started writing I’m already feeling a little better about it.  It’s not so bad.  I’ve written a few sentences – I know how to do that.  I told myself that, and it helped…yet I still have doubts.  I can listen to those doubts and get stuck.  I can procrastinate and do something easier.  Or, I can focus and write.  Not judge.  Just write.

I’m starting a blog so I can reach more people with my counseling practice, beyond the walls of my counseling practice, and help more people.  If you’re reading this and you think that you might want to meet with a therapist, then hopefully my blog can help you decide that seeing a therapist could be a helpful thing.  This blog might help you get to know me and feel that therapy with me would be a good fit, and it might help you decide to schedule an appointment.  Maybe my blog can help you prepare to take the step to find and schedule with the right therapist for you, whoever that may be.  It is my hope that my blog can impart some knowledge, understanding, perspective or coping skill that can help you or someone that you care about.  I expect that writing a blog will also help me to grow as a therapist.  With this blog I intend to explore, revisit and develop my training and experiences, and to research and expand on that knowledge and those skills as I cover various topics related to counseling, psychology, relationships, and coping with and enjoying everyday life.

A common theme in my therapy work is that we are all similar.  However different or alone we may feel, we all are more similar than we are different.  We all experience the same basic emotions and go through many of the same experiences.  We all worry about being good enough.  That is a worry that can stop us from even trying when challenged, or it can challenge us to rise to the occasion.  It can also do both at once, working at counter-purposes and keeping us from succeeding.  Rising to the challenge can mean trying to do the very best job and striving for perfection.  Judging ourselves against perfection we are going to fail every time.  As such, I am going to try to write a good blog.  A helpful blog.  But not a perfect blog.  I will edit, but I will strive to accept what mistakes I make and remind myself that a pretty good blog is better than the perfect blog that never gets written.