Megan York (she/her)

I have been treating anxiety disorders and feelings of anxiety my whole career. Anxiety is a feeling that we all have, but our society is so quick to pathologize it or label it as "wrong". Anxiety can look like worry, fear, dread, panic, sleeplessness, and somatic symptoms like stomach aches/gastrointestinal distress, racing heart, heaviness or dizziness. Anxiety can also be helpful, aiding us in caution. What is important is making sure we're taking the lead, not anxiety.

Many people look at grief as the consequence of love. Grief will touch all of us in our lifetimes, making it a universal human experience. But not all people grief the same way. We all believe different things about loss; where we go, how/when to mourn and when it should "end". Loss isn't only death, it can be a break-up, a divorce, moving to a new city, leaving a job. Grief isn't always equitable. Grief is political. And we all experience it.

Burnout can take many forms. It's taking care of a loved one physically and/or emotionally. It's working in the helping fields and experiencing caregiver fatigue. It's feeling overworked, underpaid or under appreciated. It could simply feeling that we can too much in a world that feels so uncertain and overwhelming. Burnout is more than just stress. It takes on physical signs like trouble sleeping, aches/pains in our bodies, gastrointestinal complaints, among many other things.

Trauma can impact so many of us. From those traumas we can develop thoughts that get us feeling stuck in those feelings. We may feel danger, distrust, or difficulty with relationships and intimacy after something horrible happens. CPT helps us challenge those thoughts, without having to rehash that horrible thing. I have been trained in this model and found it very successful for trauma and traumatic grief. We all can use a little help getting unstuck.

For most of my career my primary orientation has been DBT. I find DBT to be something you need to live and breathe. It's a practice, something that must be part of our daily routine. Emotions can take the wheel for many of us or they can be something we avoid. Finding ways to find a middle path, honoring both the emotions and the thoughts helps us cope and sit with our discomfort. Feelings are messages, it's up to us what we do with those messages.