Grey Counseling

08/12/2023

08/11/2023

Pop psychology isn't always the full story. Although many people do experience the extreme end of these concepts, that doesn’t mean the extremes apply to everyone and every situation.

Dive deeper before generalizing, and remember that real understanding requires more than a catchy phrase or a buzz word.

Not everything is ‘this or that’—when it comes to human behavior and the human psyche, it is deeply nuanced.

08/01/2023

Nature is always seeking the harmonious interplay of feminine and masculine energies. Just like the sun and the moon, each of us Carrie’s a unique blend of these forces within, shaping our emotions, actions, and perspectives.

Strive not for dominance of one energy over the other, but for a harmonious balance. Cultivate self-awareness to understand when each energy serves you best, at an individual level, and when they need to work together in synergy.

There’s no right or wrong way to express your energies when they are in balance.

08/01/2023

It’s important to talk about anger. Anger is highly stigmatized in our culture for both men and women.

Anger is a secondary emotion which helps to cover up more vulnerable emotions underneath. Anger is our protector when we feel threatened. Anger ebbs and flows, just like a wave crashing.

My fiancé reminded me today the importance of not being hard on ourselves when we experience anger. The key is to allow our anger to express itself, without leading to aggression or even violence— that’s the tricky part.

There are several strategies to manage anger such as practicing relaxation, expressing your feelings in a calm state more regularly, and improving your overall communication skills.

Remember, it’s okay to be angry. We all need that reminder sometimes.

07/11/2023

Soul work is the most important work you can do. To look conditioning in the face and to no longer identify with it, is the beginning of a difficult journey. But on the other side of this journey is you. You are worth the journey.

07/10/2023

Guard your energy like it’s the most precious treasure you own. Protecting your energy is essential for inner peace and overall well-being.

Sometimes this looks like saying no to places/people, setting physical and emotional boundaries, and honoring what your body tells you it has energy for in any given moment. Sometimes this looks like saying yes to something new, even if it seems a little “crazy”.

07/06/2023

Therapy shouldn’t be about receiving what you lack; it's a transformative process that uncovers the hidden depths within.

It's an opportunity to explore your inner world, unraveling the layers that make you unique. Through self-discovery and reflection, therapy can potentially empower you to embrace your authentic self, fostering growth and healing along the way.

It should never be about acquiring something external; it's about tapping into the infinite potential that already resides within you. If your therapist isn’t conducting therapy in this way, they are likely adding to your problems.

You know yourself better than any therapist. Therapy itself isn’t the magic pill, it’s simply a guiding tool to bring you back to yourself.

05/11/2023

So much of our suffering comes from feeling out of control. This is especially true for those of us who grew up in an unpredictable environment and didn’t get our needs consistently met by our parents/caregivers.

It helps to gently remind ourselves what we ARE actually in control of. When we can slow down and relinquish our need to have control over others, this frees up extra energy that can be used towards other things in our lives.

04/29/2023

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that taking it slow and being gentle with ourselves is okay. Not only is it okay but it’s necessary for our overall well-bejng 💙

04/27/2023

Healthy relationships are crucial for our mental health. Many of us weren’t modeled how to actually have healthy relationships, and don’t know what to work toward.

While every relationship is different, here are some of the main touch-points of a healthy relationship.

04/26/2023

We can’t overcome our struggles by simply just wanting to or by trying to adjust our thinking to positive thoughts only.

This is because our nervous system will always trump our cognitions, especially when we feel threatened and triggered. The flight or fight response will inevitably override any work we try to put towards our thinking patterns.

To truly overcome our struggles, we must face our fears and process those deeper emotions. This will eventually bring healing to the nervous system.

When the nervous system heals, so do our thought patterns and our emotions.

04/24/2023

It's hard to shake the feeling that something is inherently wrong with you, especially when that belief has been with there for so long.

By choosing to face those deeper emotions head-on and work towards overcoming that false belief, there’s so much freedom on the other side.

There is nothing wrong with you. It’s time to remember that and begin to embody it.

04/21/2023

Attachment wounds are emotion injuries that result from insecure attachment experiences during childhood or in later relationships.

These wounds have significant impact on the ability to form and maintain healthy relationships. If you’ve ever felt like your “picker” has been off, and you can’t seem to attract the type of relationship you truly desire, some or all of these attachment wounds are the barrier.

It’s not our fault that these attachment wounds exist within us, but as adults, it is our responsibility to become aware of them and heal them.

Healthy relationships are possible

04/20/2023

There is a direct correlation between an insecure attachment style and having unhealthy boundaries, or little to no boundaries at all.

People who have an insecure attachment style usually struggle with trusting others, and have a deep and persistent fear of rejection and abandonment.

With this fear of rejection or abandonment, it can feel like you’re risking your relationship by setting boundaries, and increasing the odds of getting rejected or abandoned.

Unhealthy boundaries leads to a host of personal and relationship issues: overwhelm and burnout, stress, resentment, and difficulty maintaining healthy relationships.

Learning to implement healthy boundaries in your life is crucial in shifting out of negative patterns that are holding you back in life

04/19/2023

Those triggers, the judgement, the pain, the suffering, the shame, the insecurity, the resentment, the fears—go into them. There’s freedom and love on the other side. You deserve to love yourself, every part of yourself, fiercely.

04/12/2023

Emotional eating is using food to soothe or suppress negative feelings, such as anxiety, stress and overall unresolved trauma.

Food can offer a sense of comfort, pleasure, and distraction. It can be a way to feel “full” to temporarily fill our emotional voids.

Emotional eating is particularly common when someone has experienced sexual abuse or assault, or an extreme emotional abandonment from an important person in our lives.

To break the cycle of emotional eating, it's important to develop alternative ways of coping with difficult emotions. It also requires that we get back in touch with our bodies, so we can re-learn our natural body cues that trauma disrupted.

Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their own bodies.

04/07/2023

Self love is the ultimate antidote to trauma, pain, loneliness, addiction, broken relationships, etc.

We come into this world authentic beings who are fully themselves. Then, conditioning happens which strips us of who we are and tells us what roles we need to take on, how we need to think, speak, behave, work, study, etc. all of that takes us away from who we truly are.

Then, we wonder why our society is so dysfunctional and why humans can be so awful to each other. We can step outside our homes and be surrounded by people but still feel alone. Why?

There’s a part of us that’s always crying out for ourselves, to come home. We abandon ourselves constantly and wonder why we are depressed, anxious and unfulfilled. Our entire lives are a call to come back home, to come back to ourselves.

You are the one you’ve been searching for. Everything you’ve been searching for in someone else, in the outside world, has been inside of you all along. You are the answer to your life and you are your own ultimate authority.

When you heal the connection with yourself, naturally everything else in your life will also heal. You deserve to fiercely love yourself.

This is the healing humanity needs 💛

04/06/2023

This really gets me sometimes. Some days I feel on top of the world and in awe of my progress and how everything has worked together for my ultimate good.

Other days, I’m in a dark place and it feels like all of my hard work has been for nothing, and I’ll never “get there”.

In my experience, those of us who have embarked on a healing journey need several reminders as to just how messy the process can feel.

So this is that reminder. Some days, healing just won’t feel smooth, comfortable, beautiful or empowering. It will feel like an uphill battle— and that’s okay too.