Your mom calls on Sunday and asks why you didn't bring the kids over again. You both know the answer. The last time, she screamed at your four-year-old for spilling juice, the same way she used to scream at you. Now your aunt is texting you about how hurt your mom is, and you're sitting in your car wondering if you're the problem.

If that sounds like your life, there's a name for the role you're in. A cycle breaker is someone who recognizes a harmful pattern that's been passed down in their family, like yelling or going silent for days, and chooses to stop it with them. In this post, we'll cover the signs you might be a cycle breaker and how to keep going when your family pushes back.

You finally bring up the thing that's been bothering you for weeks. Maybe it's the comment your partner made about you in front of his friends, or the way your mom told the whole family something you said in confidence. You stay calm and pick your words carefully. Twenty minutes later, you're the one saying sorry, and you can't quite trace how you got there.

What happened has a name. DARVO is a manipulation pattern where someone you confront about a hurtful behavior denies it, attacks you, and then casts themselves as the person who's been wronged. If you looked up the DARVO meaning after an argument that left your head spinning, this post is for you. We'll walk through what DARVO looks like, why it so often ends with you apologizing, and how to respond when it happens.

It's been fourteen months since your mom died. At work, someone says it's great to have you "back to normal," and you smile because there's no easy way to explain that you cried in the parking lot that morning. The group chat stopped asking how you're doing around month three. Sunday afternoons, when you used to call her, still feel like a hole in the week.

Being stuck in grief means the pain of a loss stays sharp and keeps getting in the way of your life long after the people around you expect it to ease. Part of what makes it so hard is the loneliness that comes with it, the sense that everyone else has picked their lives back up while you're still standing in the same spot. In this post, we'll cover what being stuck in grief looks like, how long grief can last, when it might be prolonged grief disorder, and what helps when you feel left behind.

You're brushing your teeth on Sunday morning when a picture flashes through your mind: last night's party, your hand on someone's shoulder, a laugh that might have been too loud. Did you say something cruel? Did you touch someone who didn't want to be touched? You don't remember doing either, and you can't prove you didn't, so by noon you've replayed the whole night more times than you can count.

False memory OCD is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) where you get stuck on the fear that you did something bad in the past, even though you have no clear memory of doing it. It's a known theme within OCD, and it's treatable. In this post, we'll cover what false memory OCD looks like, why OCD false memories feel so convincing, how it differs from real event OCD, and what helps you stop chasing an answer that never seems to settle.

You hit every deadline this week. You made it to Saturday’s soccer game, answered the late emails, and nobody at work would guess how many nights end with a bottle of wine you meant to stop halfway through. From the outside, life looks fine. So when the thought “Do I drink too much?” shows up, it’s easy to push it aside because you’re handling everything.

If you’ve typed “what is a high functioning alcoholic” into a search bar at 1 a.m., that question deserves a clear answer. A high functioning alcoholic is someone who meets the criteria for alcohol use disorder while still keeping up with work, family, and daily life. That’s why the drinking can stay hidden from the people around you, and often from yourself. Below, we’ll walk through the signs, why this pattern is so easy to miss, what tends to happen over time, and how therapy helps you or someone you love.

You told your mother last week that you can't take calls during work hours. It's 2:15 pm on a Tuesday, and your phone already shows four missed calls and a voicemail saying you've obviously stopped caring about her.

Setting boundaries with a narcissistic parent is deciding which behavior you'll accept and what you'll do when it shows up, whether or not your parent agrees. If you've been searching for how to deal with a narcissistic parent, boundaries are the place to start. This post explains how to set a boundary your parent can't argue away and why the pushback is so predictable. It also covers what to do when the boundary gets ignored.

You're 34, and you manage a team at a job where difficult conversations are an ordinary part of your week. Then you walk into your parents' house for a holiday, and within ten minutes you're standing between your mother and your brother, smoothing over an argument exactly the way you did when you were eleven.

Dysfunctional family roles are the fixed parts each family member plays to keep the household running when something inside it isn't working. If your family was under strain, it probably had several of them. This post explains how those roles develop during childhood and why you and your sibling ended up with different ones. It also covers what it takes to step out of yours now.

You're standing in front of the closet in the morning, and nothing fits the way it did last month. The jeans won't button, and the one dress that still works is in the wash. A coworker told you yesterday that you've "popped," and you smiled, then thought about it for the rest of the day. You wanted this baby, and you still don't recognize the body in the mirror.

Body image during pregnancy is the way you think and feel about your body as it changes to carry a baby. If those thoughts have turned harsh, you're dealing with something common that rarely gets talked about. This post covers why body image issues during pregnancy show up and how to tell everyday discomfort from something bigger. You'll also find ways to cope that our therapists use with clients.