Rachel Shubert/Therapy, Coaching, Meditation Instruction

11/22/2024

Big personalities are everywhere but character isn't. That's what makes character deeply sexy. If you have it, own it!

07/23/2024

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXZ5Bo5lafA

When we deny the existence of deep despair and loneliness created by the painful secrets of our past, we can create a camouflage of “perfect” normalcy – or w...

03/14/2024

Part announcement, part request for input!

Between my own work with clients and broader observation of a rapidly changing world, I see the need to make explicit the availability of therapy for "online problems" (for lack of a better term). These are difficulties in which tech and the online world are heavily implicated. Many of them aren't modern problems at all, but have become more difficult to conquer given the convenience and ubiquity of our phones and other devices. I'm thinking about...

*Online shopping and gambling addictions
*P**n addiction; use of OnlyFans or hookup apps to the detriment of relationships/finances
*Financial domination (findom kink) leading to financial ruin
*Catfishing, falling victim to relationship-based and financial scams online
*Losing oneself to online communities, cults, forums, or subcultures, e.g. inceldom
*General internet/social media addiction
*Failure to launch or withdrawing from normal life connected to online gaming, excessive immersion into fantasy worlds
*Loneliness, social isolation, confusion/stress over online-only relationships
*Doomscrolling habit
*Insecurity, envy, life dissatisfaction due to social media use
*Falling victim to cyberbullying, cyberstalking, hacking
*Obsession with online personalities
*Body dysmorphia driven by, or exacerbated by, constant exposure to altered images online
*AI-related anxieties or realities (e.g. job loss to AI)

My question is: what am I forgetting?

03/13/2024

There's an amazing difference between doing something to earn someone else's love versus doing it because you love yourself. Same act, different energy, different impact on life.

03/13/2024

Learning to handle pain wisely is one of those things that can make or break a human life. It helps to remember that all feelings are:

1. Human--shared across time and space and culture
2. Acceptable
3. Inevitable
4. Temporary!

01/24/2024

It's a shame that dream analysis has fallen out of vogue because dreams contain so much healing material. With your regular waking ego out of the way, other layers of yourself can come forth and use symbol and metaphor to give you new understanding of your problems, their origins, and their solutions. Cultures around the world, across time and space, work with dreams for good reason.

The more you pay attention to them, the more dreams you will have. You may find yourself having lucid dreams without even trying, or experiencing synchronicities that link dream content with waking life.

If you record them, you'll start capturing larger swaths of them upon waking. You can write them out, draw or paint the central images/scenes, or capture visual with written material. You could make a voice recording on your phone as soon as you wake up.

There's nothing wrong with you if you experience bizarre or shocking imagery; it's designed to get your attention. Repetitive dreams are trying to get your attention, too! Take interest in the settings, situations, and objects that recur over and over. Once you figure out the message, these will typically change.

One way to interpret a dream is to consider every character in it to be an aspect of yourself. This isn't the only way, but it's worth considering.

Dreams can occur in a series that link together like episodes of a show. They can be spaced out by days, months, years. Again, a record of some kind can help you spot a series.

Some dreams do seem to be nonsense. Some are unmistakably numinous. You'll know. And you'll heal.

If you want to work with a therapist to understand your dreams, look for a Jungian analyst or someone with a grasp of Jungian psychology.

Dream on!

12/27/2023

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and if you didn't, then I salute you for simply getting through this season. It is laden with expectations, family dynamics, memories, and all the other beautiful messy human s**t we get up and face every single day--yet somehow it's intensified as the year draws to a close.

In this vein, if the new year that's just around the corner doesn't feel like a bright new start, look at the natural world and understand you are a part of it. Just rest. Your bright new start will come when it pleases, and not before.

I'm trying to decide what I want to do with this page...can you tell? I really, REALLY miss longer forms of writing. I haven't engaged in "real writing" for about five years now. I'm in the home stretch of a process I kicked off in the summer of 2019, which is becoming a therapist with an independent private practice. Fate threw in the pandemic, a long-delayed ADHD diagnosis, and several other curveballs for laughs along the way. Between a midlife career switch and single parenting, I have not had the mental bandwidth or the time for serious writing.

Sending love to anyone that is going through similar territory, in which you can feel new dreams taking shape, but you're currently too tired to act upon them or the timing isn't right. Sending love to anyone that's feeling the revival of an old dream, but is full of doubt as to whether it's possible anymore. Sending love to everyone with unfinished projects, unfinished business, and only vague ideas for completion.

Love, trust, and rest.