Annie Targos Therapy

06/06/2025

Yall! Lauren is an amazing resource in Wichita. She teaches infant massage and all the fun neuroscience behind healthy attachment and development 👶🏼👶🏽👶🏾 She offers telehealth, in person, as well as a FREE moms peer support group twice a month!

Lauren Collins, LMSW, CEIM, CMT creates an environment to promote personal growth and healing. After providing crisis intervention for over two decades she is dedicated to preventative services focusing on maternal mental health and attachment & bonding.

05/15/2025

It’s been a while! I’m still here 😁

I know AI is pretty controversial, but I love this version of therapist me—complete with messy bun, cardigan, and tea.

Wherever you are in life today, know I’m cheering you on ✨

08/28/2023

Worrying is not the same as caring.

Worrying and caring often overlap.

But they are not the same!

By definition, worrying means:
1. Verb: give way to anxiety or unease; allow one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles.
2. Noun: a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems.

Caring means:
1. Noun: the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.
2. Verb: look after and provide for the needs of.

You can love and care deeply without drowning in anxiety and worry.

I get it—this world is crazy, and there are a million things we can worry about! Kids, spouses, extended family, friendships, careers, finances, politics, social climate, and the list goes on. There’s no shortage of things to worry about, and it’s certainly not easy to just “snap out” of worry and anxiety— especially if we have histories of stressful and traumatic experiences! But we also don’t need to normalize worry and anxiety as the “right way” to care about something or use it as a measurement for how much we care.

There IS another option. If we come from a place of caring through curiosity, courage, confidence, clarity, or compassion, we yield better results than when we function out of fear, anxiety, and overwhelm. I promise.

There is no shame intended here. I have found myself drowning anxiety, worry, and overwhelm many a time… and that led to actions and decisions I probably wouldn’t have made if I had come from a healthier headspace.

I certainly haven’t perfected this, but one tool that helps me when I feel the spiral of anxiety and overwhelm is asking myself, “What would I think or do right now if I was feeling more curious, confident, or clear?”

We can love and care very deeply without the constant worry! And it feels great 💛

08/28/2023

This was a good one 🤣 A+ for readability and full of practical advice. What are you reading?

07/08/2023

Onto the next book! What are you reading?

06/20/2023

“It is what it is.”

A close friend recently asked me about quotes that I find motivational. I wouldn’t say that this quote is so much “motivational” for me, but for some reason, it came to mind. It’s one I tell myself often.

“It is what it is” is often used to practice radical acceptance—a distress tolerance skill used to keep pain from turning into suffering. It’s popularly taught in Dialectical Behavior Therapy to help us accept reality, no matter the circumstances.

This doesn’t necessarily mean we APPROVE (nor reject)—we just accept reality, particularly when there is nothing we can do to change the circumstances. It keeps us from swinging the pendulum too far in either direction; we neither roll over and become helpless, nor respond with impulsive or destructive behaviors.

When faced with any circumstance, we have 4 options:
1. If possible, try to solve the problem.
2. Change how you feel about the problem.
3. Accept the situation.
4. Do nothing and stay miserable.

We get to pick 🤗

I like to use The Serenity Prayer as a reminder of all this:

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

💛

06/17/2023

🩵

06/09/2023

Sometimes you gotta lay down the non-fiction and read something for fun 🤗

Did you know that reading non-fiction can help with stress management, better sleep, and improved memory? 🧠

I am so guilty of only reading non-fiction!!! Had to give myself a reminder to read something not psychology-related 😅

What are you reading right now? 📚

05/24/2023

Amazing read. Applicable to everyone!

05/13/2023

💐

03/27/2023

Want to preface this by saying… I wouldn’t categorize my kids as “defiant” 🤣 and I’m not so sure this is the best title for a book. My kids may a little mischievous at times! Okay, a lot mischievous for my youngest 😂 but he’s just 18 months 👶🏼 I’ve read a LOT of parenting books, articles, social media accounts, etc. Some great and some not. I’m reading this at the recommendation of our pediatrician. Only on chapter 2, so I can’t give a full report, but so far I am enjoying the amount of scientific evidence supporting Kazdin’s techniques and that he explains why a lot of common techniques don’t work. And a big emphasis on positive reinforcement! What are you reading?