Licensed Clinical Social Worker
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW “Early in human history emotions were known as the passions, because people were passive receivers of them. It is only in the more recent centuries that the term emotion (e-motion, to move out, emphasizing the action tendency aspect) began to be used” (Greenberg, 2008, p. 14). Currently, we tend to view […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW “Emotions are action-requiring neurological programs” ~ Antonio Damasio As a therapist, I’ve been sitting on the front lines of what feels like a slow-motion mass trauma-in-progress since February as we began seeing changes the COVID-19 pandemic is creating in our every-day lives here in the US. I have been talking with […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW “Emotions are action-requiring neurological programs” ~ Antonio Damasio The sadnesses are a much-maligned bunch (much like the character of Sadness at the beginning of Pixar’s “Inside Out” movie). As a family, they are particularly susceptible to being avoided or outright exiled. We as a culture tell even very small children to […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW “Emotions are action-requiring neurological programs” ~ Antonio Damasio Karla McLaren’s work (2010, 2013, 2020) teaches us to channel our emotions. To channel something is “to direct or convey something along a chosen pathway in a conscientious manner. If we can learn to properly channel our emotions, we can begin to … […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW Emotions are a crucial aspect of psychology and, thus, mental health. Unfortunately, families and society tend to pass judgement on emotions rather than teach or honor their function. To give you an idea of just how very emotion-phobic our culture is, even professional therapists (social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists) are not educated […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW I began practicing EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy after taking the basic course through the EMDR Institute in 2015. It is a whole different kind of tool than the other ones in my therapeutic toolbox. In traditional talk therapy, we utilize discussion to access and work through memory, thoughts, and […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW As you can imagine, therapists have a front-row seat to a lot of human suffering and breakdown within their office walls. People sometimes ask how I cope with all of that, how do I not take it home with me and feel overwhelmed and burdened by it? It’s because, mixed in […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW One of the more effective models I use in my practice comes from Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy, developed by Richard Schwartz, PhD. Working as a family therapist with bulimic women, there were many people in the room who all wanted the system to work, but they often had very different (even […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW I love helping people explore issues around their body/weight/shape/size (I talk more about my approach in my post “The 180-Degree Difference”). In my experience working within this specialty for over a decade now, it doesn’t matter what a person’s weight, BMI, or clothing size is: virtually no one is happy with […]
by Sarah Alexander, LCSW I see a lot of good, tender-hearted people in my practice who have deep wells of sympathy (even empathy) for the people in their lives, which is all well-intentioned and good. Just like any well-intentioned and good thing, however, it can become unintentionally problematic in excess: for example, when living with […]
