What Are Your Values, Really
Your values are not goals or rules. A Carlsbad psychologist explains what values really are in ACT, how to find yours, and why they steady a hard life.
Undercurrent · Archive · Page 3 of 6
Undercurrent.
The archive
More essays.
Living Between Two Cultures: Bicultural Identity and Your Mental Health
What it means for your mental health to live between two cultures, and why feeling at home in none of them is not a flaw. From a psychologist.
ACT for Anxiety: Why Fighting Your Anxiety Keeps It Alive
The harder you fight anxiety, the stronger it tends to get. A Carlsbad psychologist on how acceptance and commitment therapy changes your relationship to anxiety instead of trying to eliminate it.
Projection: When the Feeling Is Yours but the Address Is Wrong
Projection takes a feeling you cannot accept in yourself and hands it to someone else. Sean Noe, PhD explains why the mind does it, what it costs, and what helps when you are the one being handed a feeling that is not yours.
Acceptance Is Not Approval
Accepting a painful reality does not mean condoning it. A Carlsbad psychologist on what acceptance actually asks of you, why fighting a feeling backfires, and how acceptance is what makes action possible.
Cultural Competence vs. Cultural Humility in Therapy: What It Means to Be Truly Seen
Cultural competence is what a therapist knows. Cultural humility is what they do when they reach the edge of it. A psychologist on the difference, and why the second one matters more.
The Difference Between Letting Go and Giving Up
Letting go and giving up look almost identical from the outside and feel completely different inside. A Carlsbad psychologist on acceptance, resignation, and the line between them.
Feeling Like a Different Person Before Your Period
Many people feel like someone else in the days before their period. Naomi Wu, PsyD on what that experience means, and how to meet that version of you instead of fearing it.
Splitting in Psychology: Why the Mind Sees All Good or All Bad
Splitting is the mind's habit of seeing people, including yourself, as all good or all bad, with no middle. Sean Noe, PhD explains where the defense comes from, what it protects, and how therapy helps it soften.
Understanding Psychoanalytic Diagnosis: A Different Way of Seeing People
Psychoanalytic diagnosis asks who you are, not just what symptoms you have. Jean Jho, PsyD explains levels of personality organization, character styles, and how the PDM differs from the DSM.