Are You Diagnosing Me Right Now?
The Dreaded Dinner Party Question: “Are You Diagnosing Me Right Now?” Written by Sarah M. Kranz, Ph.D. If you are a therapist, counselor, or psychologist, you know that entering a social setting comes with a distinct set of occupational hazards. You can’t just tell someone what you do for a living without bracing yourself for impact. Here is how it usually plays out: Someone asks what you do for a living. You answer. They respond: they lean in to share a deep, impromptu confe
Marcus Behavioral Therapy: A Case for Using Memes in Therapy with Teenagers
Written by Sarah Gerrels-Hinkle, Licensed Psychological Associate In October of 2025, my friend sent me an Instagram reel of a strange-looking creature from an online game (VR Chat). It was a viral video making its rounds on the Internet. In the video, a chubby, worm-looking creature (but with arms and legs?) is standing in front of a campfire with his buddy. “I don’t like this rock, Robert. It’s pissing me off!” he says in a weirdly monotone voice, pointing at a rock in fron
Just Try Harder
Just Try Harder written by Locke Curfman, LPC, Clinical Director One afternoon several years ago, one of our daughters came home from school and announced that she no longer wanted to attend. As parents, statements like that tend to get our attention. After some gentle questioning, she finally explained what had happened. She had been struggling in math and worked up the courage to ask her teacher for help. When she approached the teacher’s desk and explained that she was hav
CONNECT THE DOTS, PART 2 (WHAT THIS MEANS FOR CLIENTS)
Written by Sarah M. Kranz, Ph.D. In our last post, we exposed how insurance giants built a closed loop to corral therapists onto tech platforms, harvest clinical data via AI, and slash pay for deep, human-to-human care. So what does that actually look like when it hits the waiting room? When a client sees a trusted provider leave an insurance network, the client may assume, “Oh, they just want to charge more money.” The reality is that providers are fleeing a system that make
CONNECT THE INSURANCE DOTS (WARNING TO FELLOW PROVIDERS: THIS IS NOT A GAME)
Written by Sarah M. Kranz, Ph.D. Very recently and only eight days apart, Aetna made two announcements. Let’s play connect the dots! Over the last few years, major insurance corporations have quietly built a massive structure designed to phase out traditional, long-term therapy and replace it with automated, corporate-run care. Here is exactly how the insurance giants rigged the system from the top down. Step 1: Making the Paperwork Impossible (The Data Gate) To accept insura
Why Do We Have Emotions? The Complex Tapestry of Human Emotions: Unraveling the "Whys" and "Hows"
Why Do We Have Emotions? The Complex Tapestry of Human Emotions: Unraveling the Whys and Hows Written by Locke Curfman, LPC-S,...
DBT: The Basics
DBT: The Basics Guest post by Ashlyn Mayhall, LPC If you’ve gone poking around the therapy world looking for the right fit, you may have...
Is Pharmacogenetic Testing Right for You? A Personalized Approach to Mental Health Treatment
Is Pharmacogenetic Testing Right for You? A Personalized Approach to Mental Health Treatment Written by Miriam Lowery, APRN, PMHNP-BC...
When “Helping” Hurts: A Cautionary Look at Ethics in Therapy with Married Clients
When “Helping” Hurts: A Cautionary Look at Ethics in Therapy with Married Clients By Locke Curfman, LPC, Co-Clinical Director At this...
You Are More Than a Label
You Are More Than a Label By Locke Curfman, LPC, Co-Clinical Director Have you ever been called a certain “type” of person? Maybe someone once pegged you as “the smart one,” or “the anxious one,” or “the one who’s always messing things up.” Maybe you’ve even labeled yourself—“I’m an introvert,” “I’m not a people person,” or “I’m just damaged.” Some of those labels might hold a kernel of truth. After all, we’ve all had clever moments and foolish ones. But the danger comes when
