I recently texted a friend, “Ok. Brave face on. Counseling here I come.”  We discussed how counseling is a place for vulnerability and transparency. We talked about how scary those things are, and that it truly takes bravery to willingly put yourself in that posture knowing you may have to face some pieces of yourself you’d rather leave buried. Brave. Merriam-Webster defines it as, “having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty : having or showing courage.”  It says nothing of the absence of fear nor does it gloss over the real presence of danger or difficulty. In fact, the presence of fear or danger is necessary in order to be brave. I always think of a knight doing something daring or someone going into battle being brave. I don’t often associate bravery with day to day life, but, in this journey, it is such a huge part of making progress!  Without bravery, I would sit at home hopeless.  I would let the rage come and the fear th...

"We aren't accepting new insurance patients," she said cheerfully.  Stunned, I asked, "Do you think any openings will come up for insurance patients any time soon?"  "No, ma'am," she replied, "we may not be taking new insurance patients for the next 12 months. This is the conversation I have had with multiple psychiatry clinics in our town.  I can really only muscle through one of these calls every few days because they just leave me feeling defeated and hopeless.  I finally scheduled an intake appointment with the only therapy center listed as covered on my insurance's website.  Even they had a two week wait for an intake appointment, and I could not schedule with their prescribing Nurse Practitioner (who sees patients via video chat) until after the intake confirmed that I do, in fact, need to see her.  That appointment was set for another four weeks out.   Mental healthcare is exhaustingly impossible to access, especially for so...