Do you ever feel completely exhausted, crawl into bed… and suddenly your mind is wide awake? It starts running through tomorrow’s to-do list. Replaying today’s conversations. Rewriting moments you wish had gone differently. Your body is tired, but your brain refuses to turn off. It’s happened to me more times than I would like to admit. And that’s why yesterday felt so meaningful: I reached 1,000 consecutive days of meditation (Thanks Headspace). If you had told me a few years ago that I’d...

I like this watercolor painting, but boy it took a lot of patience to allow each layer to dry fully before moving on to the next. (I know there is a good metaphor in there somewhere) Yesterday was Valentine's Day. For many, that means romance, flowers, and chocolate. For others, the honest reaction is: Yuck. As an art therapist, I spend my professional life helping high-functioning, capable adults untangle the insecurities and negative self-talk that already live inside them. And I’ve...

By Pamela Hayes Malkoff Introduction: The Middle School Curse In my decades as a board-certified art therapist, I’ve com e to believe that most of us carry a quiet creative wound from childhood. Around age eleven—what I often call the “Middle School Curse” something shifts. We stop playing freely with color and form and start judging ourselves against an impossible standard of realism or perfection. For many people, it only takes one offhand comment from a teacher, parent, or peer “That...