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Blog post 05.10.2022

How I Learned to Stop Avoiding Life

This blog was originally posted on Ten Percent Happier on April 22, 2022 and is reprinted here with permission

Blog post 09.19.2023

How Do I Love Myself When I’m at War with My Mind?

My question to my fellow therapists who treat women with OCD is this: “How can we teach women to whole heartedly love themselves, when a mind that creates negative, intrusive, and terrifying thoughts is such a large part of us?”

Blog post 04.20.2023

Are the Kids Really Alright? Troubling Headlines, Teenage Girls, and Declining Mental Health

The headlines and the CDC report are indeed alarming, but they should serve as a wakeup call to all of us. Yes, we should think seriously about why we are seeing a steep decline in the mental health of teenage girls, but we have to come together now as parents, family, friends, educators, clinicians, providers, and as a society to support, enhance and establish more preventive measures for our youth.

Blog post 03.24.2023

The Black Church: Our Refuge, Our Mental Health

Working with Black churches to create a better today and a much better tomorrow in the field (literally) of mental health care for African Americans are three Black leaders in mental health who will present at the 2023 ADAA Conference. ADAA is excited to have Bernadine Waller, PhD, Atasha Jordan, MBA, MD and Kimberly Arnold, MPH, PhD discuss their work, research and findings in a presentation titled Implementing Evidence-Based Mental Health Interventions in Black Churches.

Blog post 12.06.2022

Exposures for OCD: Getting Creative

The ability to be ourselves with clients makes it so much easier to connect, to be real about how challenging treatment is, and enlist their help to ensure that whatever the exposure is, its something they can tolerate, trust in, and most importantly, begin to experience relief from their intrusive thoughts and the compulsions that may dominate their lives.

Blog post 06.04.2022

Busting Myths that Keep Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts Stuck

A thought is not a message about what is going to happen. Thoughts have nothing to do with character, which is a reflection of how you lead your life and what you choose to do. Believing even some of these myths can be responsible for ordinary intrusive thoughts becoming stuck.

Blog post 06.03.2022

Anticipatory Anxiety: Bleeding Before You Are Cut

Anticipatory anxiety involves worry about—and the urge to avoid—not only anxiety or panic, but also disgust, anger, shame, regret, humiliation, becoming overwhelmed, or any other unwanted emotion. We think of anticipatory anxiety as a third layer of fear.

Blog post 03.15.2022

Mind the Gap: Worsening Black Maternal Mental Health Outcomes During the Pandemic

Pregnancy and childbirth can be a joyous time in a woman’s life but can also be a challenging one. Besides the physical changes that occur during pregnancy and postpartum, about 20% of women may experience mental health challenges.

Blog post 03.11.2022

How Black Women are Harnessing the Power of Racial Identity in the Face of Racism

Our growing understanding of the relationship between racism and health has enormous implications broadly and in relation to minoritized women. Black and Brown womanhood often results in the exposure to multiple oppressive and traumatic experiences uniquely dependent on the intersection among racism, sexism, and violence.

Blog post 10.12.2021

The Power of Saying, “Whatever"

I’m a psychologist who treats OCD and Anxiety Disorders. When my patients get to a point in treatment when they shrug their shoulders and say to me, “Yeah, I had an intrusive thought, but ‘Whatever”, I know we have hit a home run.

Blog post 04.24.2021

What Now? Dealing with the Emotional Aftermath of the Verdict

One year ago, the world tuned in to see a man being murdered by a uniformed police officer while onlookers pleaded for mercy. George Floyd’s death led to numerous protests all over the world against police brutality and systemic racism experienced by Black and Brown communities.

Blog post 04.02.2021

Antiracist Parenting is a Journey Not a Destination.

Parenting is an increasingly complex job. It’s layered with important responsibilities one of which is raising anti-racist children. In addition to being a Registered Psychologist, I am also a parent, a white parent, who wonders what I can do to engage with this important work.