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Why Anxiety Lies to You: Understanding the Stories Your Brain Tells
Anxiety is remarkably convincing. When it tells you that something terrible is about to happen, it does not present that as a theory; it presents it as fact. When it insists that people are judging you, or that you will not be able to handle what is coming, or that the worst-case scenario is the most likely one, it does so with a certainty that can be very hard to argue with. This is not a character flaw. It is how anxiety works. And understanding why it does this is often th
2 days ago3 min read


What Does It Mean to Defuse from a Thought? ACT Explained Simply
If you have come across Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and found the terminology a little puzzling; defusion, acceptance, the observing self; you are not alone. ACT uses some language that sounds abstract at first but points to something surprisingly practical. One of its core concepts, cognitive defusion, is worth understanding in plain terms; because once it clicks, it can genuinely change how you relate to your own mind. What is cognitive fusion? To understand def
Jul 83 min read


The Difference Between Feeling Sad and Being Depressed
Most of us have had the experience of feeling sad; genuinely, sometimes deeply sad; and then, eventually, feeling better. A loss, a disappointment, a hard week, and then, gradually, the weight lifts. Life moves forward. That is sadness doing what sadness is supposed to do: responding to something difficult, and then releasing. Depression is different. And understanding the difference matters; not to gatekeep who deserves help, but because the two experiences call for differen
Jul 13 min read


Trauma and Overexplaining: The Need to Justify Yourself
For many people, the habit of overexplaining is connected to trauma: a learned response to environments where simply being yourself was not enough, or was not safe.
Jun 244 min read


Living in a Perpetual Breaking News Era: How It Affects Us and What Can Help
Open your phone on any given day and there is a good chance something feels urgent. A policy change, a disaster, a crisis somewhere in the world, a local story that hits close to home. Then tomorrow there is something else, and the day after that, something else again. If you have noticed a low hum of dread that never fully goes away, or a sense that you cannot quite relax because something new might happen at any moment, you are not imagining it. Many people are describing t
Jun 174 min read


When the Job Is Gone: Coping with Layoffs and Job Loss
Losing a job is one of the most destabilizing experiences a person can go through. Whether you saw it coming or it arrived without warning, the impact of a layoff reaches far beyond your bank account. It touches your sense of identity, your daily structure, your relationships, and your belief in what comes next. If you are navigating job loss right now, what you are feeling is not an overreaction. It is a completely human response to a genuinely difficult situation. Recent la
Jun 104 min read


Navigating Identity Exploration at Any Age
June is Pride Month — a time to celebrate the resilience, joy, and diversity of LGBTQIA+ communities, and to reflect on how far we have come and how far we still have to go. At Stone Soup Counseling, Pride Month is also a time to think about something that sits at the heart of so much of the work we do in therapy: identity. Who we are, how we understand ourselves, and what it means to live authentically in a world that does not always make that easy. Identity exploration is n
Jun 34 min read


When Caring Becomes Too Much: Understanding Depression and Burnout in Caregivers
Caregiving is one of the most profound and demanding things a person can do. Whether you are caring for an aging parent, a partner with a chronic illness, a child with complex needs, or another loved one who depends on you — you are doing work that is often invisible, rarely praised, and almost never truly finished. And if lately you have been feeling more depleted than devoted, more numb than nurturing, you are not alone. What you may be experiencing is caregiver burnout, an
May 274 min read


The Winding Path: Why Therapy Rarely Goes in a Straight Line
There is a graphic that circulates around the internet from time to time that captures something most therapists wish they could tell every new client before their first session. The top half shows how we want therapy to be: a clean, straight line from "struggle" to "start therapy" to "feel better." The bottom half shows how therapy actually is: a winding, looping, doubling-back journey through confusion, feeling worse, relearning, introspecting, feeling better, getting trigg
May 194 min read


5 Signs It Might Be Time to Try Therapy
Thinking about therapy but not sure if you really need it? You are not alone. One of the most common things people say when they finally start therapy is some version of: "I wish I had done this sooner." The barrier is rarely that therapy is unavailable; it is that most of us have been taught, in one way or another, that we should be able to handle things on our own. That struggling quietly is just part of life. That things have to get really bad before asking for help is jus
May 153 min read


Mental Health Awareness Month: Why it Matters and How to Show Up for Yourself
Every May, Mental Health Awareness Month invites us to pause and reflect on something that touches every single one of us: our mental and emotional wellbeing. At Stone Soup Counseling, this month holds special meaning. It is a time to speak openly about mental health, to push back against the stigma that still keeps too many people from seeking support, and to celebrate the courage it takes to prioritize yourself. Why Mental Health Awareness Month Matters Mental health condit
May 54 min read


Autism Acceptance Month: Understanding, Accepting, and Supporting Autistic People
Autism Acceptance Month encourages us to move beyond simple awareness and toward something more meaningful: genuine understanding, inclusion, and respect for autistic people and their experiences. At our practice, we believe that starts with listening — to autistic individuals, to families, and to the growing body of research that continues to reshape how we understand autism. What Is Autism? Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how
Apr 203 min read
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