Hair-pulling, also known as Trichotillomania, is a pattern of behavior that affects many people. It causes them to repeatedly pick at or pull out their hair, and often results in noticeable hair loss and emotional pain. Finding effective treatment is critical. In this article, I'll explore how DBT can help treat hair-pulling and provide some practical tips for both patients and therapists.

In the fast-paced world of 2024, stress and emotional obstacles are part of daily life. Whether it’s work-related stress, personal pressure, or global dilemmas, having a reliable way to deal with it is essential for maintaining mental well-being. This personalized collection of tools and techniques is designed to help you navigate life’s ups and downs.

For bisexual people, the experience of parenting comes with its own unique set of challenges and joys. This article aims to address some of the specific needs and experiences of bisexual parents. My goal is to amplify bisexual stories and to provide bisexual parents with support, solidarity, and the resources to navigate their parenting journey confidently and proudly.

Exploring your sexuality is a deeply personal and transformative journey. For those beginning to dip a toe in bisexual identity, this process can be daunting. This article aims to provide support and resources for people who are starting to explore the B in LGBTQ+, helping us navigate our bisexual stories together with confidence and self-assurance.

In the queer community, friendships are a source of joy and a lifeline. They provide validation, support, and a sense of belonging that can be hard to find in our lives. This article explores how to strengthen LGBTQ+ friendships and form queer community, so that we can hold onto connections that are both meaningful and resilient.

DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) is a powerful tool created to help people manage their emotions and relationships. One of its essential techniques, the FAST skill, is particularly helpful for people with a pattern of prioritizing others' needs over their own. This guide will detail how the FAST skill can help queer people maintain their self-respect and combat the pattern of people-pleasing.

In December of 2023 I was interviewed by Hong Jeong, a fellow therapist, for a video series he was producing about self-healing. His project focuses on the healing we do inwardly, before we can take care of others.

Take some of the chaos out of your life with a self-care kit that is tailored to your needs. Having a basket or a box of self-care items available can be a priceless tool for managing your physical and mental well-being. This guide will walk you through building and using a customized self-care kit with all of the essentials, so that you have it ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Anxiety is a pervasive mental health concern affecting millions of people around the world. From everyday stress, muscle tension, fixation on what could go wrong, and falling into perfectionism, anxiety can significantly impact daily living and your well-being overall. As a professional psychologist, I've witnessed firsthand the exhausting effect of anxiety on peoples’ lives. I've also seen the transformative power of effective coping skills, particularly those grounded in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This article looks at one such skill, called Ride the Wave.

For bisexual people of Asian descent, navigating this intersection can get complicated quickly. In this article, my aim is to celebrate and uplift the people embracing their bisexual Asian identity. We’ll look at the specific challenges that come up when navigating being bisexual and Asian, celebrate the richness of these two communities, and uplift the voices of the people creating a life and a community as bisexual Asian Americans.

Finding queer friendships can be both exhilarating and challenging in a city the size of New York. Queer friendship plays a critical role in creating acceptance and belonging. For many LGBTQ+ people, forming queer community with friends who have similar experiences or fresh perspectives can provide a space for validation and self-expression. As a therapist specializing in LGBTQ+ issues, I understand the importance of building supportive connections, especially for queer adults building a life in NYC.

Finding your own path in the landscape of mental health can be hard for people all across the LGBTQ+ spectrum. For bisexuals in particular, the trip through discovery and acceptance and into better mental wellbeing is marked by unique struggles. In this article, let’s explore how Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can be applied to our experiences as bisexual people. We’ll explore how the skills from the four key modules of DBT can be adapted to work for bisexual people specifically. Though DBT was not designed with us in mind, it can still provide valuable tools for exploring our identity and for accepting and challenging the specific stigma and discrimination we face as queer people. 

Welcome to an exploration of radical acceptance, a fundamental skill in DBT: Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Radical acceptance means acknowledging reality as it is without making any judgments about it or resisting it. In this article, we will dive into the concept of radical acceptance from a DBT lens, and then explore its relevance and application for LGBTQ+ adults. It comes from the world of Distress Tolerance, a toolbox for withstanding pressure and intense emotions as well as for coming to terms with unchangeable realities. Radical acceptance is most useful for making peace with the parts of our lives we cannot change and the problems that have no solution. As a psychologist specializing in queer mental health, I understand how a distress tolerance skill like radical acceptance can help LGBTQ+ people face the unique challenges and stressors in their lives.

What are the top five misconceptions about bisexual people? Bisexuality is a significant and common part of human sexuality, although it is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Within the LGBTQ+ community and beyond, many myths and misconceptions persist. The pervasiveness of these misunderstandings casts a shadow on the experiences of bisexual individuals, and their self-esteem can take a hit. As a psychologist specializing in queer issues, it's critical to me to address these myths head on, and provide clarity for people exploring their sexual identities. By debunking these myths about bisexuality, we can deepen our understanding, acceptance, and support for bisexual people everywhere.

In the journey of acceptance and self-discovery, finding a sense of belonging is critical for LGBTQ+ individuals. Traditional family structures may not always provide the support and understanding we all deserve. Many of us within the queer community turn to what is known as the chosen family to cultivate those bonds. This article dives into the profound significance of creating a chosen family in forming queer community. Let’s explore how these relationships contribute to the mental health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people.

Within the tapestry of the queer community, bisexual people find themselves navigating a unique set of snarls. Among these challenges, one of the most ensnaring is bisexual erasure: the process whereby the B in LGBTQ+ gets hidden, dismissed, or denied. This experience diminishes the validity and the visibility of bisexuality within the queer community itself and society at large. In this article, we will pick apart the threads of bisexual erasure, exploring the causes, the impact, and most importantly, the power of bisexual stories in combating that erasure.

Exploring the history of self-care, from its roots in the political and social justice scene to the ways it is practiced currently, gives us new ideas for how to prioritize self-care as a practice. How can you take good care of yourself? How can you believe that you are worthy of quality self-care? Knowing that good self-care can never make up for systemic oppression, how can we find small ways to replenish ourselves? Read on for a list of free self-care basket ideas, to help LGBTQ+ people find what works for us.

March is Bisexual+ Health Awareness Month. That makes it a great time to highlight bisexual stories and talk about a 2023 study conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Let’s dive into what participants shared about their experiences as bisexual women of color: the struggles they face and the strengths they rely on to make it through.

Dialectical behavior therapy is an evidence-based treatment with a strong body of research to support it. Will it work for you personally? Read on to discover a list of four pros and cons of DBT therapy, to help you decide for yourself if it would be effective for you to try.

Forming queer community is often spoken about as the cure for loneliness for LGBTQ+ people. But how do you go about building it? This article explores different strategies for how we can connect with our queer family. Let’s take a close look at research published in the Journal of Lesbian Studies that explores the strategies one group of Black lesbians use for constructing LGBTQ+ community.