Galia Collaborative

12/18/2025

Take a walk. Read a book. Stetch. Play with kids. Things are working themselves out. >>

We tend to think that we can only fix things or find solutions through conscious control – applying our deep thinking, ruminating, or problem solving.

But our minds are flexing the challenges in all sorts of ways as we sleep, paint, walk, connect.

We don’t have to ‘work’ so hard to make things better. Sometimes stepping away from conscious focus on an issue is what actually moves the needle.

12/17/2025

I wanted to tell you one of my absolute favorite stories: A woman is at a beautiful lakeside retreat center, grateful to finally have time and space for quiet reflection. During some downtime, she takes a canoe out onto the small lake. She rows a hundred feet or so, sets down her paddles, closes her eyes, and breathes in the fresh air, feeling the warmth of the sun on her face.

As she exhales the burdens she’s been carrying, she suddenly hears the loud crack of wood colliding and her boat rocks hard. Her eyes remain closed, but irritation and anger rush in instantly.

Why would someone row so close to her? There’s no way they couldn’t see she was trying to meditate. How careless, rude, or self-absorbed. She finally finds peace and even here someone ruins it. This is just like…

Still narrating internally, she feels another bump and snaps her eyes open, ready to confront the selfish person who disrupted her.

But in front of her floats an empty boat.

She immediately understands what happened: the canoe she untied had been holding this one in place. When she loosened hers, the empty boat drifted free and bumped into her.

As she takes this in, her anger dissolves. She laughs—at the situation and at her reaction.
What’s revealed in that moment is how deeply our reactions are tied to the intentions we assign to events. When she believed another person was responsible, she felt anger and offense. When there was no one to blame, her emotional experience shifted completely.

This story is my adaptation of an old Sufi parable. It illustrates this truth: our experience of anything is shaped by the stories we tell about it. Sometimes those stories align with reality; often they don’t. Either way, they shape how we feel—and how we respond.

We react to a partner not saying hello, a curt cashier, a distracted teacher or coworker, based on what we believe it means. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have feelings or that our reactions are wrong. The woman might still have felt fear when her boat rocked—that wasn’t about intention.

But it can be powerful to notice the stories we’re telling when emotions run strong. So often we do this with only part of the picture—our eyes closed. And when we open them, we might just see an empty boat.

12/15/2025

This year has been long and I'm so glad other people still have funny things to say.

12/14/2025

Jacqueline Harpman’s spare and haunting novel begins with forty women imprisoned underground, their lives stripped of history, freedom, and even touch with the outside world. When they are suddenly released into a desolate landscape, survival becomes only part of the journey—the deeper challenge is how to make sense of existence itself.

Our discussion will open space to consider the novel’s profound themes: isolation and community, memory and identity, and what remains of our humanity when everything else has been taken away. Stark yet deeply poetic, this story promises to spark a rich and searching conversation.

Register to join us at the link in comments. 🪴 📚

12/10/2025

We’re mindfully expanding our team at Galia Collaborative.

If you’re a therapist who thrives in depth-oriented work and is looking for a supportive, well-organized environment to grow your clinical life, you may be a wonderful fit. Our clients come to us for meaningful change, and we’re seeking clinicians who feel energized by holding space for nuance, complexity, and sustained growth.

Galia is designed to be a true clinical home, not just a workplace -- a community where providers can think critically, work thoughtfully, and show up to their clinical work with confidence and care.

If this resonates with you, we’d love to connect.

12/08/2025

“For so many mothers, the early years feel like walking through life with your heart outside your body. You’re learning your child, learning yourself, and trying to navigate a culture that watches and evaluates mothers with unrelenting intensity….

In our work with mothers at Galia, we hear the quiet confessions spoken only when someone finally feels safe: “I worry I’m failing.” “I can’t get it right.” “Other moms seem so much more patient… more prepared… more everything.”

There is a powerful, steadying truth that has supported mothers for decades—one we return to often in therapy, groups, and conversations in moments of overwhelm: Your child does not need a perfect mother. They need a “good enough” one.”

We are exploring what “good enough mothering” means on the Cincinnati Mom Collective blog.

Galia Collaborative shares about understanding what your child needs from you with the power of "good enough" mothering.

12/01/2025

Unsubscribeeeeeeee 👋

11/30/2025

HAPPIEST 5️⃣ YEAR GALIAVERSARY, REBECCA!

To know you is to admire and adore you. You bring a steady, quiet strength - and disarming humor - to our team and to the therapy room

You have helped hundreds of couples and individuals move from some of the most painful and confusing seasons of their lives into clarity and greater peace.

You have taught us as your colleagues so much about staying grounded even in the most challenging of circumstances.

Thank you for all you do, but more-so for who you are. It’s an honor to work alongside you. 🫶

11/24/2025

And spring for the good tape. You're worth it.

11/19/2025

I say this a lot in my own work as a psychologist, but a lot of what therapy ultimately is is developing the ability to BEFRIEND WHAT IS. An important caveat is that this doesn't mean we have to like it or even approve of it. But once we can tolerate it and be with it, we can come home to ourselves and make valued choices about how we want to respond and show up.

If this sounds passive, it's anything but. It's an incredibly active process to grow our capacity in this way, and it's not easy. But it's worth it because when it allows us to be in the relationships, work, and lives that we most desperately want.

11/17/2025

Honestly just seems aggressive right now.

11/15/2025

The holidays feel like a lot. But instead of white knuckling through them—overwhelmed, exhausted, or despairing, connect with support NOW.

Even if you only get to have an appointment or two, trust me when I tell you that you will feel such a significant shift in your sense of hopefulness and agency in your life if you’ve started something.

Honestly, even if you just get an appointment on the books, you’ll feel something shift in you. The parts of you that have been longing for your attention will feel heard and acknowledged. You’ll feel like you can trust yourself to follow through for YOU.

This isn’t to suggest finding and connecting with support is easy. It’s work. But it’s meaningful work and just as important as all that you do for the ones you love.