Introducing myself with all the words that define who I am: I am a mother of three, an Army veteran, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and someone who is constantly working to understand myself and others.

I draw from many different modalities in my work and writing. I also want to be real and authentic in my writing. Which means sometimes, I will use language that some people will have feelings about, including some profanity. If you feel this is not the language for you, then this blog may not work for you.

At the end of the day this space may not be where you are, and I send you love and kindness.

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I work with veterans and many times our perspective on the world and the thoughts in our heads often includes our language, just like any professional field. The only difference is, we don’t have time for pretenses.

My overall goal for this blog is to shift perspectives through understanding more of the context of what we are trying to understand. I hope to increase human connections through developing an empathetic understanding of others through identifying a similar struggle we see in ourselves, and bring compassion to that place.

I pull concepts from Cognitive Behavior Therapy as well as a great deal from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: using much of the language from Dr. Steven Hayes and Dr. Russ Harris. Many of the concepts I use and will use in this blog are drawn from many different people’s work. I want to acknowledge and thank these wonderful people for their work as it has helped me tremendously with my framework and understanding of methods that have helped me to be a better person and clinician. My writing will also include many ideas from Dr. Brene Brown and her work on vulnerability and shame.

I hope through some of the language I have learned in my work: from my time in the military and now my experience in providing psychotherapy, I can bring these tools and understanding to help other veterans, women, men, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, and anyone who is open to working through some of their shit that isn’t working for them.

-Aarika