Mindful Connections Therapy, PLLC

12/27/2025

12/19/2025

I am currently reading Dr. Joanne Cacciatore’s book “Bearing The Unbearable” and finding it to be an excellent book on grief and love.

The holidays can feel like a season that asks too much of a heart that is already carrying so much. Under the lights and music and somewhere underneath all the glitter, lives the quiet truth: this season is not easy for every heart.

While the world strings up decorations, some might be piecing life slowly together, memory by memory, breath by breath. The empty chair at the table, the name that others often refuse to speak, the tradition that feels different now, these are part of the holiday, too.

Outside, trees stand patient in the cold air, holding an absence as the night sky hangs its small lanterns, stars that have watched over every December sorrow and every fragile, ordinary joy.

No one has to be merry on command. No one has to wrap grief in tinsel or turn it into a lesson. It is enough to move through these days
as gently as possible,
to light a candle, to speak a name, to let love and longing
sit side by side at the table.

Somewhere in this season,
between one breath and the next, may there be a moment, however brief, where grieving hearts feel seen by something larger than all the noise:
a star, a wave, a bird on a winter branch, reminding you that love is still here, changed, but never really gone.

As we miss them always…
Dr Jo

12/16/2025

12/16/2025

12/15/2025

12/06/2025

12/03/2025

These are responses that are habitual and have often brought relief, and so are hard to change. I work with clients not to give up their time-tested self protections, but to add more options, to empower greater choice in responding with ways are more helpful, and to begin to heal the pain causing the need for these responses in the first place.

11/30/2025

Parenting can be a little less stressful the more we understand about our kids’ brains and emotional development. A great book for this is “The Whole Brain Child” by Drs. Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson.

Every seven-year-old has an inner world we don’t always see — and big feelings can still feel bigger than their words.
This visual gives voice to what many children wish they could say when they’re overwhelmed, misunderstood, or struggling to regulate.

If you’re supporting a young person who feels things deeply, our Managing Big Feelings Toolkit walks you through brain-based strategies that actually help — link in comments below ⬇️ or via Linktree Shop in Bio.

What’s one sentence from this visual that really landed for you? I’d love to hear — your reflections help others feel less alone.