Lauren Rubenstein, PsyD, Psychologist

01/02/2026

Think of the year
as a house:
door flung wide
in welcome,
threshold swept
and waiting,
a graced spaciousness
opening and offering itself
to you.

Let it be blessed
in every room.
Let it be hallowed
in every corner.
Let every nook
be a refuge
and every object
set to holy use.

Let it be here
that safety will rest.
Let it be here
that health will make its home.
Let it be here
that peace will show its face.
Let it be here
that love will find its way.

Here
let the weary come
let the aching come
let the lost come
let the sorrowing come.

Here
let them find their rest
and let them find their soothing
and let them find their place
and let them find their delight.

And may it be
in this house of a year
that the seasons will spin in beauty,
and may it be
in these turning days
that time will spiral with joy.
And may it be
that its rooms will fill
with ordinary grace
and light spill from every window
to welcome the stranger home.

—Jan Richardson
from How the Stars Get in Your Bones: A Book of Blessings
janrichardson.com/books

Featuring the distinctive work of artist and author Jan Richardson, we offer images for worship, education, and contemplation. Individual downloads and annual subscriptions are available. Visit Jan’s primary website at janrichardson.com.

12/20/2025

By Megan Rundel:

At the winter solstice, we find ourselves in the long night—the place where nothing is being asked to improve. The Earth is not striving toward light. It is resting inside the dark, and in that resting, something ancient and trustworthy is already turning.

This is familiar territory for KAP therapists. Much of what we accompany lives below the surface of language and intention. The nervous system moves the way roots move in winter—slowly, invisibly, guided by an intelligence that does not announce itself. Our work is not to interpret or direct this movement, but to stay close, curious, and kind as it unfolds.

In sessions, we often sit with moments that feel like stillness, confusion, or descent. Joan Sutherland reminds us that these moments are not interruptions to the path; they are the path. Winter teaches us that not-knowing is not a failure of practice. It is a form of intimacy with life as it is.

The solstice invites a particular kind of trust: trust in what cannot yet be named, trust in the body’s timing, trust in the way healing grows sideways before it grows upward. When we allow the dark to be fully here—without reassurance, without hurry—we offer a field in which something true can arrive on its own.

This season also asks something tender of us as practitioners. Where are we being asked to rest inside our own unlit places? Where might we soften our grip on competence, certainty, or being helpful? The same field we offer others is the field we need, too.

And quietly, without ceremony, the light returns—not as a solution, but as a continuation. A little more space. A little more warmth. Not because we made it happen, but because we stayed.

On this solstice, may we remember that the dark is not a problem to solve, but a companion. May we keep company with it—together—until it turns.

12/05/2025

https://www.dailygood.org/view.php?op=nletter&qid=10500

12/04/2025

“How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

“So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen; if a restiveness, like light and cloudshadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening with you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand; it will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions? For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

12/04/2025

“I see now that we are to become the people who would have saved our younger selves, even if no example has been set for us.”

Becoming what will save us.

11/06/2025

Did you know your body considers one yoga nidra practice the equivalent to 4 hours of sleep? Come rest, reduce your sleep deficit, and remember who you are.

Give yourself the gift of deep relaxation and inner peace. Join us on Sunday, November 9th, from 1–3 PM for a guided yoga Nidra meditation paired with the soothing sounds of crystal bowls, flute, and chimes.

This workshop is designed to calm your nervous system, reset your energy, and leave you feeling restored.

📍 Potomac Flow Yoga

💲 PFY Members: $30 | Non-Members: $40

🖤 Register now on Mindbody

11/04/2025

10/30/2025

Can you use some pre-holiday relaxation and inner peace?

10/07/2025

Yoga nidra is one of the best practices I know for nervous system reset. The sound bath promises to make it even more special. Come rest and refuel.

10/04/2025

DAILY AWARENESS POEM
Always we hope
someone else has the answer.
Some other place will be better,
some other time it will all turn out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer.
No other place will be better,
and it has already turned out.
At the center of your being
you have the answer;
you know who you are
and you know what you want.
There is no need
to run outside
for better seeing.
Nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the center of your being;
for the more you leave it the less you learn.
Search your heart
and see
the way to do
is to be.
~Lao Tzu

07/11/2025

Permission to rest

“DON’T DO ANYTHING. JUST REST.

Don’t fall into the trap of believing that doing nothing… means doing nothing for yourself.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that not being productive is somehow a failure.

That if it doesn’t have a visible outcome, it doesn’t count.

That rest is wasted time.

We’ve become so used to being busy —

to checking off boxes,

to tracking our progress,

to measuring worth in output —

that we’ve forgotten something essential:

Rest is productive.

It’s the moment your body heals.

Your mind exhales.

Your soul whispers.

Reading a magazine.

Taking a long shower.

Sitting in the garden with a warm cup of coffee.

None of it is a waste.

Because time spent resting… is time well spent.

We’re not machines.

We’re not meant to hustle 24/7.

We are human beings.

And sometimes, we just need to be.”

— Becky Hemsley

Echoes of Insight

06/16/2025

This is It
and I am It
and You are It
and so is That
and He is It
and She is It
and It is It
and That is That

O it is This
and it is Thus
and it is Them
and it is Us
and it is Now
and Here It is
and Here We are
so This is It

- James Broughton