FPA Blog

  “Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn and work well, and contribute to their community. It has intrinsic and instrumental value and is a basic human right.” (World Health Organization, 2025) So you’ve learned that there is a therapist at your doctor’s office. Perhaps you learned this from a recent notification shared by FPA, or perhaps your primary doctor recommended that you meet with the therapist. What do you do now with this information? What benefits are there in meeting with the therapist? What is therapy even like? These questions, as well as many others, are very common to have when considering the usefulness or necessity of meeting with a therapist. Even when it is recommended, it can be difficult to feel comfortable opening up with a therapist about your life or current stressful experiences. If you’ve never experienced therapy before, that can also add a layer of “new” an...

December is upon us! I hope you are spending this season gathering with loved ones and enjoying a slower pace of life. As December rolls around, there’s often a quiet moment — between the busyness, the gatherings, and the year-end noise — when we start to look back. We might think about what went well throughout the year, what didn’t, and where the time even went. But real reflection isn’t about judgment or checking boxes. It’s about slowing down long enough to notice yourself — your growth, your challenges, and everything in between. I encourage everyone to take a routine inventory, helping cultivate gratitude for all we have and clarifying the vision we hope to manifest in our lives. If you’re ready to take a mindful look at your year, here are some gentle suggestions to center your thoughts. Start with Curiosity, Not Criticism When you think back over the past year, try to let go of the instinct to measure or evaluate. Think about moments that stood out — not just the big milestones...

Hello FPA community! I was recently chatting with a patient of mine who works as a cattle farmer. We were talking about how to prepare a farm and a herd for the winter months. Just as we change our habits to keep our animals safe and comfortable when the weather changes, we also need to change our own habits to keep good mental health in the winter months. As the days get shorter and the weather turns colder, many people notice their energy, motivation, and mood start to dip. It's known that less sunlight affects our neurological functioning. The good news? There are small, effective steps you can take to ease symptoms and help protect your mood through the darker months. Seek out natural light whenever you can Sunlight helps regulate your body’s internal clock and supports healthy levels of serotonin — the “feel-good” brain chemical. Try to get outside during the day, even if it’s cloudy. A short morning walk or lunch break near a window can make a real difference. Move your body ...

Hello dear FPA community! Happy October. I hope this time finds you crunching leaves underfoot, enjoying fireside chats with your loved ones, and baking all the spiced goods for the season. This season I personally am facing the challenge of embracing a big change and wanted to share some thoughts with you on why change is hard for many of us and what we can do to navigate it with better agility and grace. Change is the one constant of our human experience- ironic, isn't it? Change happens in big and small ways, across our health, our relationships, our work and even our identities. Change feels hard for most of us. As beings of nature humans are wired to seek predictability as a way to minimize risk and maximize survival. Uncertainty usually incites fear, in turn triggering a stress response in the body and in the mind. Emotional responses to change might include grief, anxiety, resistance, and irritability among many others. We are constantly faced with options in confronting cha...

Hello FPA and happy September! This month I wanted to share some thoughts with you about something I work with almost all of my patients on. My first meeting with a patient I usually set the expectation that in therapy we will often think about how we think and talk about how we talk. I know that might sound a little funky, but it's true! We don't take much time in our day to day lives to think about how we're thinking and talk about how we're talking. Our thoughts are so automatic within our own minds, but not every thought we have is accurate or helpful. Read that again real quick… not everything we think is true. Not every thought reflects a fact or a full reality. Each of our thoughts are influenced by past experiences, emotions, or biases. Sometimes our brains fall into patterns that overlook or neglect certain truths. We might get caught in black and white thoughts, or overgeneralizations, or catastrophizing. Black and white thoughts might sound like "If I ...

  Hello FPA friends and family! We have arrived in the month of August. We're gearing up to send our kiddos back to school and resume some of our normal rhythms. We're also on the edge of a changing season, shifting away from the heat of the summer into the crispy cool of the fall. You may have noticed (I'd be shocked if you didn't) that our summer came with some intensely high temperatures. I stay curious about the relationship between external environment and internal experience. The heat waves of the season made me wonder about the impact of hot weather on irritability, mood, and relationships. There are some real implications of abnormally hot weather on our physical, emotional, and relational well-being. You might notice during heat waves that you have a shorter fuse, you tend to snap back at others, you might have difficulty concentrating, some general restlessness or an antsy feeling, your baseline frustration might have risen. This is all directly correlated wit...