Dynamic Counseling - Colorado Springs

11/20/2025

It is incredibly tempting to reduce our partner’s behavior to one simple label. When we feel hurt, overlooked, or disappointed, the mind grabs for the easiest explanation. Often that explanation becomes this: they’re selfish.

It is incredibly tempting to reduce our partner’s behavior to one simple label. When we feel hurt, overlooked, or disappointed, the mind grabs for the easiest explanation. Often that explanation becomes this: they’re selfish. It feels tidy. It gives us a clear villain. It gives us a story where ...

11/18/2025

Many people move through life feeling weighed down by guilt. They replay moments from the past and tell themselves they should have done something different or that an outcome was somehow their fault. In therapy this kind of guilt shows up often. It sounds familiar and it gives a sense of clarity. Yet much of what we label as guilt is actually grief in a different form.

Many people move through life feeling weighed down by guilt. They replay moments from the past and tell themselves they should have done something different or that an outcome was somehow their fault. In therapy this kind of guilt shows up often. It sounds familiar and it gives a sense of clarity. Y...

11/12/2025

I posted recently on true guilt and false guilt, but this article tackles what I think is an even more difficult and complex emotion: shame. In my practice and life, I notice that it is at the core of our stuckness, our wounds, and our healing.

I posted recently on true guilt and false guilt here. This article tackles what I think is an even more difficult and complex emotion: shame. In my practice and life, I notice that it is at the core of our stuckness, our wounds, and our healing. Shame lies under every struggle for emotional freedom....

11/10/2025

We often forget that before we are thinkers, consumers, or professionals, we are mammals — social, tactile creatures whose bodies are wired for co-regulation. Just as dogs curl against one another for warmth or monkeys groom to soothe and bond, human nervous systems are designed to settle through touch and proximity.

In a culture that prizes independence and personal space, many Americans are starving for something our bodies cannot live without: safe, comforting touch. Drawing on the insights of somatic therapist Peter Levine, this piece explores how touch regulates the nervous system, why children thrive throu...

11/08/2025

Holding Grief and Gratitude in a Life Marked by Trauma

11/05/2025

Triangulation is one of the most common but least recognized patterns that lead to emotional chaos in families and intimate relationships. It describes what happens when two people in tension or conflict draw a third person into their emotional system in order to reduce anxiety or avoid direct communication. Psychiatrist Murray Bowen, the founder of Family Systems Theory, coined the term to describe how families manage stress through triangles instead of straightforward resolution.

Triangulation is one of the most common but least recognized patterns that lead to emotional chaos in families and intimate relationships. It describes what happens when two people in tension or conflict draw a third person into their emotional system in order to reduce anxiety or avoid direct commu...

11/03/2025

https://www.dynamiccoloradosprings.com/post/under-functioner-or-over-functioner-what-role-do-you-take-under-stress

In her classic work The Dance of Anger, psychotherapist Harriet Lerner describes a painful yet common relational pattern that unfolds when one partner begins to overfunction while the other underfunctions. This dynamic, though often invisible to the couple themselves, slowly erodes intimacy, breeds....

10/29/2025

Guilt is one of the most powerful emotions we experience, and in my practice with adults, it is one of the most often misunderstood emotions. This blog explores what I find helpful to label as true guilt vs. false guilt.

Guilt is one of the most powerful emotions we experience, and in my practice with adults, it is one of the most often misunderstood emotions. This blog explores what I find helpful to label as true guilt vs. false guilt. Guilt can be good! That is, it is pro-social. It keeps society in cooperative c...

10/27/2025

When someone loves a person who is addicted, emotionally abusive, or unpredictable, life can become a constant balancing act between love and fear. The helper tries to keep things from falling apart, but in doing so, begins to lose themselves.

When someone loves a person who is addicted, emotionally abusive, or unpredictable, life can become a constant balancing act between love and fear. The helper tries to keep things from falling apart, but in doing so, begins to lose themselves. The three Ms—mothering, martyrdom, and manipulation—...

10/25/2025

https://www.dynamiccoloradosprings.com/post/the-cost-of-beauty-why-we-hide-from-the-truth-that-heals-us

In Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, there is a quiet but powerful exchange that reveals something essential about human nature. It is a conversation between Hercule Poirot and Michael Garfield, a man who has devoted his life to beauty. He tends to his gardens, his creations, and his image wit...

07/28/2025

How Trauma Erodes Our Identity—and How Self-Care Becomes Sacred Work

Written by our team member and trauma therapist in Colorado, Jeri Peterson

Written by our team member and trauma therapist in Colorado, Jeri Peterson. There are moments in trauma recovery when you feel like a ghost inside your own life. You go through the motions. You smile when expected. You respond to emails, refill the coffee, even volunteer at church. But underneath, s...

07/23/2025

https://www.dynamiccoloradosprings.com/post/why-younger-generations-are-embracing-couples-counseling-earlier-and-why-that-s-a-good-thing

For decades, couples therapy was viewed as a last resort—something couples turned to when the relationship was already breaking apart. Many older generations waited until deep wounds had formed, communication had shut down, and resentment had taken root. By the time they stepped into a therapist.....