𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴…𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝗜𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗜𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿? Intentional living means understanding your fundamental beliefs and values and then actively living your life in line with those values. Tapping into those values daily is the difference between living life on...

I’m floating down the river on my daughter’s 14th birthday. Why am I so excited to be leading this group of teens? Why am I so happy? I float back... For as long as I remember, teens have felt like foreign creatures. Not foreign like “these kids have weird style and...

National Daughter's Day... What a privilege to be an instrument of generational change. With each milestone and opportunity they experience that I was deprived of, I'm grateful for the resilience that gives me freedom and joy to escort them through these stages. Girls...

Our Dobson Ranch home of 16 years closed today in the smoothest transaction we could asked for. Here is a Jenny-style reflection of 16 years of "Place". What does it mean to live for 16 years in one home? I moved a lot as a kid -- 10 times between 6 and 16, so I’ve...

No-Talk Rule - This foundational dysfunctional family rule demands children never tell the truth to outsiders and never speak up to their abusers. Blurry shapes floated in and out as I lay on the operating table trying to wake up. The smell of antiseptic burned my...

Dented cans are cast aside, although they are not broken. A dent is not the can’s fault, it did not decide to get dropped, or kicked, or mishandled. It just happened. The dent can’t be removed. The dent is on the outside of the can, it cannot be hidden or disguised....

The Threat of Peace Hypervigilance: The state of being highly alert to potential danger or threat I sat on the floor practicing my Forward Facing trauma techniques as I rubbed my hands across the thick bedroom carpet. Grounding myself in the present, I took a deep...

The Friend of Love - Resiliency My best friend is moving away. She’d been dropping hints for months, but I decided to retreat behind a wall of denial and hope for the best. The best was not to be. Ellen is moving, and there isn’t anything I can do about it. We had our...

The Stories We Tell Ourselves - Emotional Regulation My first grade year was the first time in my life I felt understood. I loved everything about school. The snacks, the smell of mimeographed worksheets, learning how to read and write, the playground, and most of...

Fight or flight and emotional regulation The desert of the Southwestern United States has a strange, stark beauty all its own. Gorgeous sunsets, rock formations and deep canyons accented with spiky cactus resemble another world. If you grew up back east like I did,...