Lindsey Pace, LCSW

Is anxiety bossing you around and determining every decision or step you take? In the most basic sense, anxiety is a physiological state in our body that is set off by an area of our brain known as the amygdala when our body or our mind perceives some kind of a threat or danger. Before modern times, this internal alarm system would've saved us from predators and prehistoric dangers. If our ancestors didn't have the instinct from anxiety to run or fight we would not be here. In this regard, anxiety deserves our gratitude and respect.  The way anxiety feels in our bodies varies person to person but typically one can expect to feel the following: tightness or heaviness in the chest, butterflies in the stomach, light-headedness, shallow and rapid breathing, tightening of the muscles, increased heartrate and palpitations, sweating, dry mouth, etc. This physiological process is honestly amazing because it allows us to be at peak alertness and readiness to make the next right move tha...

I went to a stupid spin class at the YMCA the other day. I call it stupid for many reasons but mainly because spin does not yield to my natural athletic skills and therefore I love to hate how challenging cycling is. I much prefer a bootcamp or yoga class. Also, I can’t for the life of me figure out why people just tolerate these teeny tiny little bike seats instead of advocating for a bike with a soft and wide cushioned bench. Seriously, if you have to buy diaper butt shorts to protect your bottom on your bike doesn’t that sound like a manufacturing error??? I guess it's just me. Anyways, I’m glad I went to the class because it was a blaring object lesson on resistance. As a therapist, resistance is something that I must be highly attuned to in order to have any hope of effective therapy. Resistance is something that we could all benefit from paying closer attention to because resistance represents an area of our life that we hold dear and a pattern of protecting ourselves, for be...

Whether you find yourself caring for your precious newborn, multiple kiddos, a spouse who has been injured or is sick, or aging parents, you are likely to experience some level of burnout during your time in this caregiving role. You might've even taken on this role already in a state of burnout from the basic demands of everyday life. While some people might view burnout as a preventable state resulting from not caring for yourself adequately or not having healthy enough boundaries, I would argue that burnout is a natural and normal part of being human. I believe that being a person who cares for and cares about other people is inherently good and exhausting and there is no way to avoid caregiving burnout unless you choose to stop caring altogether, and I'm guessing that's not an option for you.  So, how do we handle burnout when it comes? How can we lessen the impact of burnout? How do I know that what I'm experiencing is burnout and not something else? First, let...