5 Activities to Connect your Mind and Body — Color your (inner) world with crayons! Coloring can be a great way to relax and take a break from the day-to-day stress of life. In fact, coloring is a way to add creativity into your life, which has been shown to have benefits to your well-being. So why don’t we…

We Lost Another Bright Soul — We are grieving the passing of Stephen “tWitch” Boss, a hip-hop dancer and television personality who rose to fame on the reality show So You Think You Can Dance before becoming a regular on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. …

An Experiential Exercise — We all do it. We do this when we’re daydreaming, talking on the phone, or trying to pay attention. Yep, I’m talking about the often ignored and thrown-away….scribble! Sometimes we just go on “autopilot” and it just happens. What’s fun about the scribble is that it allows us to be…

An Experiential Process — The activity introduced here combines images and words that not only helps us journey inward, but also helps us connect with others. The four steps on this creative journey are: Preparing, Searching, Engaging, and Processing. The therapeutic process of making art and the images created within this process, can become…

Joyful Living Challenge #3: Courage to be Imperfect — The “courage to be imperfect” refers to the idea that individuals have the ability to accept and embrace their limitations and imperfections rather than constantly striving for perfection. This concept is rooted in the work of the Austrian psychotherapist and founder of Individual Psychology, Alfred Adler, who believed that feelings…

Joyful Living Challenge #2: Popping Bubbles — In the hustle and bustle of life, with all of the obligations, responsibilities, and to-do lists, we can quickly lose touch with what is important to us. Are you making life happen, or does life happen to you? That is where we get stuck…we are either complaining about or ignoring…

Joyful Living Challenge #1: Choosing How You Show Up — Self-talk can have a significant impact on our mental health. The thoughts and beliefs that we hold about ourselves, others, and the world around us can shape our perceptions and experiences, and can ultimately influence our emotional and psychological well-being. Positive self-talk, or the practice of speaking positively to oneself…

The Connection Between the Expressive Arts and Polyvagal Theory — Polyvagal Theory provides a framework for understanding how expressive arts therapies may be effective in promoting safety, self-regulation, social engagement, and connection. We all process the world in different ways. For example, two people may have the same experience but describe it very differently. We constantly observe and interact with…

Helpful Planning Guide for Parents and School Counselors Parent involvement is essential in navigating the college and career planning process, whether your child is college-bound or vocation-bound. Parental involvement has been cited in research as one of the most critical factors in fostering a college-bound and career-minded student. As a…