Five Vines Therapy and Consulting

08/08/2025

But what if those questions could set them free? What if it led to greater freedom, happiness, more trustworthy friends and--increased status?

03/20/2024

We often think of stress as negative, but there are different types of stress and the right amount is essential for us getting things done.

Not all stress is harmful. Managing your stress to target eustress can motivate you to accomplish your goals and perform at your best.

03/12/2024

March 12 is Detransition Awareness Day, which focuses on the physical and mental health needs of detransitioners. Detransitioning can be scary and lonely, and sometimes a sense of hopelessness ensues. In this video Jilia, a detransitioner, gives a message of hope.

Watch Julia's powerful story in this remarkable animation. She shares her journey as a detransitioner, highlighting the challenges and misconceptions of tran...

03/10/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Ma2nEfCSAVHwMzeo/?mibextid=WC7FNe

02/11/2024

People looking to try out meditation might want to try out the Balance app for free.
I’ve been using it, and I particularly like the sleep stories. When I’m having trouble sleeping I put one on and I always end up falling asleep within about 5 minutes.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1djmmiAhywRaKKRw/?mibextid=I6gGtw

01/31/2024

I love my treadmill desk hack. Had to feel like I’m active enough when I have a sedantary job. At least I can get in steps when doing invoicing, returning emails, etc.

01/26/2024

I love to hear stories such as this one, where deep insight has the potential to bring change. Dr. Bauman is right that sometimes therapy challenges us, and for some people they don't come back. Someone I know once went to a therapist and had an instantaneous negative reaction, feeling like the therapist was judging her. But she went back, reasoning that something was triggered in her emotions, and she wanted to understand what it was before giving up on this therapist. In further sessions she didn't find she liked him much more, but she did find that he was making her think, and that she realized some things that she needed to do to make life better. A few more months in and she had grown to appreciate him and the fact that his challenges brought growth.

05/22/2023

While out walking today I was seeing a lot of trees with white flowers, but on a few of them there was an unusual site: branches with bunches of dead leaves that had never fallen off last year with new leaves and flowers growing out.

It seemed like an analogy, and you might think it is to let the old go, but honestly, what I was thinking is hooray for the trees, they’re growing anyways.

I meet a lot of people who don’t move forward until they get rid of something negative or solve something. Like a person who thinks she has to beat her anxiety before going back to school, someone who has to resolve all doubt before leaving a bad situation, someone who thinks he has to feel less depressed before trying a new career path.

Can you imagine if the trees decided to spend the year getting rid of the dead leaves instead of growing new ones? Without new leaves and photosynthesis, they would die.

Grow anyway. Even if there is still problems and negative stuff. The life is in the trying and the moving forward.

02/13/2023

I recently talked to someone who wanted to increase their physical activity and I was honest: I exercise, but I don’t like it much. How I keep doing it is that I think of it as “reading time” by listening to audiobooks or podcasts, or I go with a friend and gab the whole way.

I love that some people appreciate exercise for its own sake. But some of us need to hitch it to something else to make it palatable.

Whether you were born with running shoes on or you have to push yourself out that door, Five Vines encourages you to take your stupid mental health walk.

02/07/2023

Listening to an interview with neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman, I heard something that strikes me as having the potential to help us with our self-concept as well as our relationships. He said errors should usually be seen as being due to state, not trait. In other words, when we or other people make errors, it's usually about some circumstance present at the time, and not a character flaw.

Often when we make mistakes we are quite hard on ourselves, internally saying things like, "How could I be so careless?" and "I so stupid!" But often our mistakes are because of something very specific to what is going on at the time, for example, we have wrong information, we are tired, we are distracted, we are stressed. Often we perform quite well most of the time, have good intentions and we minimize these times and focus on the lapses as if those are the signs of our true selves.

Similarly, when we interact with others, we sometimes assume that when they act less than optimal it is a sign of who they really are, an insight into their character. But like us, much of the time these errors are about momentary lapses and not a sign of how someone feels or thinks about us.

If we can have grace for ourselves and others, we have the power to transform how we see ourselves and others, which can result in happier selves and good relationships.

Sometimes we need another perspective to help us put these insights into practice. Contact Five Vines Therapy and Consulting to help you find a path forward.

01/02/2023

Five Vines Therapy and Consulting has space for therapists and other wellness professionals to grow their practice. For many of us, private practice is something we do part-time. Even for those with a full-time practice, we may do a combination of working from home with video clients and having in-person appointments. Five Vines is ideal for practitioners who need a flexible arrangement as you book and pay for the time you need, appointment by appointment.

If you're interested, drop an email to judi.5vines@gmail.com.

12/03/2022

I’ve not had a client show me videos of pantry organization, but I’m open to it!