Comparative Suffering: How Silencing Your Own Pain Hurts Everyone

Blog by Rebecca Gallardo, GSCI at Agape Therapy Institute

This has been a tough year. Disappointment and hardship seem to surround us. Last week my heart ached as a friend shared her struggle to manage a full-time workload while overseeing her two young children’s virtual education. Yesterday, I consoled a neighbor who hasn’t been able to visit her father in a nursing home for over 6 months. And just this afternoon I heard from a friend who had lost his job when his company was forced to downsize. Each of these friends is suffering in a very real way, but there is another thing they have in common. They each expressed shame for having shared their feelings, saying: “But I shouldn’t complain. So many people are suffering more than I am.” 

Despite feeling the very real stre ...

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What is your body trying to tell you?

Blog post by Kat Deery, GSCI

Have you ever experienced a break out of acne after a stressful week? Random pains occur in your body without explanation? Or perhaps you're developing arthritis in your thirties, wondering how could this be? Well sometimes these occurrences can be explained through Somatic Therapy.

Somatic Therapy is an approach to therapy that focuses on the mind-body-soul connection. This theory supports the idea that what manifests in the physical is a reflection of what is happening mentally and emotionally. It’s known that stress can take a physical toll on the body: you may be more irritable, your sleep patterns may be disrupted, or your appetite changes. Our central nervous system adjusts and reacts to the emotional and mental stress we experience. When traumatic experien ...

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Being you in COVID-19

Blog post by Brittney McKinney, RMHCI

It’s easy to feel pressure to survive the pandemic a certain way. Here are tools focused on your mental health that let us take a look at ourselves while we are surviving these unprecedented circumstances.

Irvin D. Yalom, MD has 4 concepts that he suggested we think about when examining our lives: death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. He called them “ultimate concerns” and here are some core questions to consider:

1:  Death
What pressures am I putting on myself to live my life perfectly?

2:  Freedom
I choose my attitude, so what can that teach me about my personal responsibilities?

3:  Isolation
What have I learned about myself that I can share with the people that matte ...

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