Anna McDonald, LMFT

15/03/2024

Hi all, I am in an entrepreneur training class through the SF LGBT Center, and I'm conducting a bit of market research around q***r and trans' folks experiences receiving healing from trauma in the mental and medical health realms. If you area a trauma survivor, please fill this out for me. If you're not, and can share with any friends/loved ones who are, it would greatly benefit me. It's anonymous, and should take about 5 minutes to complete. I need 10 responses by March 19th. Thanks in advance for your assistance!

This is an anonymous survey that will help inform Anna McDonald, LMFT, a licensed therapist based in San Francisco, on how to create a clinic that will specifically serve those who are diverse in gender and sexuality and also traumatized. She will use the information in her course with the SF LGBT C...

20/01/2022

I love to highlight organizations that are doing great work. The Women's Cancer Resource Center is a non profit based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They provide counseling, peer support, access to financial relief grants, and more.

13/01/2022

If you or someone you know is a person living with HIV/AIDS in Alameda County, this support group may be of interest. Please feel free to share widely.

04/11/2020

Some coping skills for stressful times.

Is the election giving you nervous energy? Click on this.

30/10/2020

This week I've been talking a lot about creating an Election Cycle Self Care Plan. 4 years ago, a lot of folks were taken by surprise and really struggled. Some ideas of strategies to utilize include taking time away from work to process your feelings, viewing results with supportive family or friends (in person or remote), getting outside, taking space from news, social media, and politics and only checking in during timed, intentional intervals.

If you're feeling solid, check in on your potentially more vulnerable friends and loved ones, especially LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and disabled folks, and those who work in health and healing professions.

No matter what happens this election cycle, the fight for more justice and true equality will continue. 🌈

22/05/2020

May is Mental Health Awareness month- and aren't we all so much more aware of our mental health right now. Sheltering in place and the pandemic are bringing up so much for so many of us, sometimes in surprising ways. Feeling more anxious or depressed, using more substances to cope with difficult feelings or deal with boredom, having a panic attack for the first time in years, managing the uncertainty of unemployment or the fear that we will lose our loved ones. Grieving those we have lost, and grieving a lost way of life. Missing each other, missing touch, so deeply.
Take a moment, if you have it in you, to think about who you haven't heard from in awhile, and send a quick message to let them know you care. Take a moment to think about who has a more stressful job or situation than yours, and see if you can send them delivery dinner so they don't have to think about it today in addition to work and childcare, or find some other creative way to offer care from afar. Helping others helps us keep perspective.
Take a moment to check in with yourself. What do you need today, right now, in this moment? How can you feel lightness, playfulness, pleasure, or bliss in the midst of all the other feelings? Do that thing. It's a marathon, not a race, this SIP.
And finally, reach out for mental health services if you or someone close to you need more than what a friend or family member can support you with. There's no shame in asking for help, talking to someone, or getting medication to lessen your suffering. We're all in this together.

30/04/2020

I've been loving this drop in expressive arts therapy support group that's meeting on Friday at lunchtimes. Join us for some restorative and nourishing time together. https://annamcdonaldtherapy.com/tryingtimes/

Learn more about an upcoming drop-in expressive arts therapy support group held over video chat to help people cope with these trying times.

30/03/2020

For all the healthcare professionals out there: California is currently registering those of us who are willing to be deployed for COVID 19 response, including mental and behavioral therapists. You can state preferences, including how far away and how long you'd be willing to be deployed. It took me about 30 minutes to sign up. Share! https://healthcarevolunteers.ca.gov/

24/03/2020

5 Ways To Cope with Shelter in Place

A lot of my clients are struggling with an increase in symptoms right now. Anxiety, overwhelm, sadness, grief, and fear are among the key experiences being reported. Additionally, a lot of people are feeling unsupported as their partners, friends, roommates, and loved ones are -also- struggling. While this pandemic creates a sense of shared urgency, it is also taxing on each of our nervous systems to lie in wait of unknown outcomes. So then the question is, how do we cope?

Here are 5 suggestions for how to take care of yourself during the shelter in place mandate.

1) Maintain routine and ritual. If you usually get up, exercise for 20 minutes, shower, get dressed, then make coffee-- do those things. It might seem silly to get dressed every day when you're not seeing anyone, or seems fun getting dressed waist up since you're using video chat. The thing is, we're trying to keep your nervous system tricked into thinking everything is just fine, so maintaining routine and ritual are super important. No one else knows about the pajama pants, but your brain does, and it's not used to it, so it's freaking out. Some of these things seem small, but brushing your hair and teeth and putting on clean underwear just might save your mental health. Same goes for your nighttime routines, and bedtime. The more you can maintain, the more of a sense of normalcy you'll achieve.

2) Keep calm. This goes deeper than #1 suggests with routine and ritual. Keeping calm at a time with increased stress and anxiety (you can feel it in the air in San Francisco) means you have to do -extra- things to support your nervous system. Taking more breaks in your work day to do deep breathing and stretching, getting out into the sun when we have it, and any other nourishing and restorative activities are vital (hot baths, gentle self touch, weighted blanket, love from pets, healthy meals, etc.). This will also help you stay healthy. Stressed out bodies get flooded with cortisol, which lowers your immune response. Let's not do that, ok?

3) Be prepared. I'm not saying you have to build a Cold War style bunker in your backyard, but having the basics of extra food and medicine on hand will really help you feel less stressed. See #2. Think to have things on hand that you can eat if you and the people you live with all get sick, like canned soups and microwave meals.

4) Keep it creative and lively! We're all connecting with each other on text and video chat to stay in touch, and that can really help. Try also to think of unique and fun ways to connect with others. We had a watercolor painting night with Youtube tutorials at my house this weekend. There are apps to watch Netflix together and live chat while you watch. Apps like Marco Polo allow you to leave live video messages for others, including emojis and other fun effects. Apps like Smule let you karaoke with friends or strangers from all over the world. PicsArt is an app that lets you edit your pictures, which could be a fun activity with family or friends. What else can you come up with to make connection from afar (or with those you're hunkered down with) more creative and interesting? Playfulness and humor often alleviate tense emotions, and help us to feel our aliveness.

5) If you're struggling, get help. There's no shame in admitting that things are super weird and really hard right now. Reach out to friends and family, and if that's not enough, reach out to a mental health pro. Almost all of us are seeing clients using online video chat, or phone if we need to. If you're worried about affording a therapist, please reach out, as many of us are offering reduced rate services for folks who are struggling right now. If a therapist isn't available to you, please remember that there are great 24 hour hotlines you have access to in SF, like the SF Su***de Prevention Hotline (415-781-0500), the LGBT National Helpline (888-843-4564), the Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860) and a domestic violence hotline (877) 384-3578).

We're going to get through this together. I'm here if you need support. Take a deep breath. Now another one.

Leave more ideas for how to creatively cope down below. I'm curious to hear your unique ways of managing with shelter in place.

21/01/2020

A lot of times, survivors of trauma and abuse find ways to cope with their difficult symptoms that are "unhealthy". This can look like a lot of things-- substance use, self harm, lashing out at family or friends, engaging in risky behaviors, etc. If it's starting to impact your life in negative ways, it's time to find another way. With harm reduction, we can look at these behaviors without judgment or shaming, and find other ways that work better for you. If this sounds like what you need, I've got a few spots open in my practice right now. Send me a message, or book a consultation through my website, and let's get started today.

19/12/2019

This time of year often brings reflection about the year past, and focus toward the future. It's easy to lose self compassion in these reviews. Be gentle with yourself as you reflect on the past and make goals for the future. You're worth a lot more than your successes and failures. If you do want to reflect, kindly ask yourself questions about what you've learned in the past year, and how that will assist you moving forward.

10/12/2019

Love after Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

--Derek Walcott

06/12/2019

Sometimes, the hardest thing can be saying "no" to something. If it's a commitment you weren't that excited about anyway, it may not be a challenge. But often in this busy and overwhelming world, we have to say no to lots of things that sound great, but aren't sustainable for us. In a season where we're often pulled to do lots of things, especially with family, coworkers, and friends, it can be helpful to think about where you need to say no. If the holidays are particularly challenging for you, those "no"s are going to be extra important. Taking care of yourself is vital, and sometimes, saying no is part of that.

03/12/2019

18/11/2019

I love using EMDR with clients. Progress like Jameela describes is common. It’s amazing how it can transform trauma triggers that were previously quite debilitating into something innocuous.

A clip from the upcoming Under The Skin podcast with Jameela Jamil. Listen to it in full on Luminary this Saturday 25th May - get the app here you don't alre...