Publications

Does your heart start racing before a meeting? Do you mentally rehearse every sentence before speaking? Do you replay past conversations over and over, wondering whether you said something awkward? If these situations feel familiar, you may be experiencing social anxiety — a condition that is far more common, and often far more intense, than simple shyness. Social anxiety is the fear of being seen and judged by others. The fear of being criticized, embarrassed, or rejected. I

A romantic breakup is not simply the end of a relationship. It can also touch older wounds, awaken deep fears, and challenge our sense of emotional security. This is why some breakups can feel particularly painful, even when we rationally know that the relationship was no longer fulfilling. A Breakup Is Also a Form of Grief After a separation, we are not only losing a person. We are also grieving: A shared life project Daily routines and habits A vision of the future A part o

You may have noticed that certain situations trigger an almost irresistible need for reassurance. Perhaps you regularly ask your partner if they still love you. You reread your messages several times before sending them. You need others to confirm that you have done the right thing or that everything will turn out fine. This need for reassurance is deeply human. However, when it becomes pervasive, it can create significant distress and contribute to ongoing anxiety. Why Do We

You apologize often, even when something isn't really your fault. You replay conversations in your head, wondering whether you said the right thing. You feel a vague sense of discomfort whenever you take time for yourself. You have the impression that you're never quite enough — as a parent, partner, friend, or colleague. That feeling that seems to follow you everywhere is guilt. And for many people, it has become so familiar that they no longer know what life feels like with

You go grocery shopping, you manage pediatric appointments, you remember classmates’ birthdays, you plan school outings in advance, you think about vitamins, the dentist, the winter coat that will need replacing. All of this — while also handling your work, your relationships, and the rest of your life. This weight has a name: parental mental load. What is it? Parental mental load refers to the full set of invisible cognitive tasks involved in organizing family life. It is no

There are days when nothing feels right. You wake up without energy or motivation, move through the hours without really being present, and have little desire to do much of anything. A question gradually begins to surface: Am I depressed, or will this pass? It's a legitimate question—and often a difficult one to answer on your own. The line between a temporary low period and depression is not always easy to recognize from the inside. Here are a few ideas that may help. A Roug

You picked up your phone without consciously deciding to do so. You closed one app, opened another, then went back to the first. Twenty minutes have passed. You're not entirely sure what you've just looked at. This scenario may sound familiar. Perhaps it happens several times a day. And perhaps part of you wishes it were different. Screen addiction is a relatively recent topic and is still debated within clinical classifications. However, the distress it can cause is very rea

"Ive lost confidence in myself". This is a sentence that often comes up in therapy sessions. As if confidence had once existed fully — and simply needed to be found again somewhere beneath the ruins of disappointment, failure, or a relationship that caused harm. But what we call “self-confidence” is rarely something we once possessed completely. It is something that gets built. Slowly, layer by layer. And it can be rebuilt, even when we believe we have lost it for good. Self-

There are moments in life when everything seems to stop. The loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a major life transition, or even the collapse of a future we had imagined for ourselves. These experiences can leave behind a silence and emptiness that words often fail to describe. Grief is not limited to funerals or mourning rituals. It is a deeply human process — one that is often long, unpredictable, and misunderstood. Why Is Grief So Difficult to Go Through? Beca

You avoid mirrors — or you can't stop looking at yourself with a harsh, critical eye. You dress to hide rather than to express yourself. You struggle to receive a compliment about your appearance, or simply to feel at ease in your own body. Our relationship with our body is one of the most intimate and emotionally charged aspects of our inner lives. And for many people, it is also one of the most painful. The body as a mirror of our history Our relationship with our body does

Family is supposed to be a safe haven. A place where you feel understood, accepted, secure. And yet — for many people, it's precisely where the deepest wounds were received. And sometimes still are. Family conflicts are among the most difficult forms of suffering to navigate. Because they touch the most foundational bonds. And because they're so often accompanied by a guilt that complicates everything. Why family conflicts are so particular In a friendship or a professional r

Anger is frightening. Sometimes to ourselves. Often in the eyes of others. We reach for more acceptable words instead: "I'm a bit stressed," "I was tired," "I'm not an angry person." We swallow it, turn it against ourselves, hide it behind politeness or silence. And yet, anger is an emotion in its own right. It is neither good nor bad. It is saying something — and it deserves to be heard. What is anger for? Anger is a response. It arises when something feels unjust, threateni

You redo what you just did. You read it over one more time. You don't send it because it's not quite right yet. Or you give up before you even start, so paralysed are you by the fear of not being good enough. Perfectionism is not a quality in disguise. It is often a silent form of suffering — and it deserves to be looked at honestly. Perfectionism is not the same as excellence There is a common confusion between perfectionism and rigour. Rigour is the desire to do things well

"I know what I need to do — but I'm not doing it." You have a to-do list. You know exactly what should be accomplished today. And yet the hours go by, you find yourself doing something else, and by evening you go to bed with that familiar feeling: a mix of shame, frustration with yourself, and the promise that tomorrow will be different. Procrastination is often described as a time management or motivation problem. But what I observe is that it almost always conceals somethin

Insomnia is not a matter of discipline or good lifestyle habits. It can affect people who are very organized, very reasonable, who “do everything right.” What happens at night is often a reflection of what is happening during the day — or of what one hasn’t had the time, or the opportunity, to process. What insomnia may be signaling There are several forms of insomnia: difficulty falling asleep, repeated awakenings during the night, or waking very early and being unable to fa

You say yes when you mean no. You apologise before you've even done anything wrong. You sense what others need before they've asked — and you rearrange yourself to meet it. You're reliably available, endlessly accommodating. And somewhere along the way, you've stopped knowing what you actually want. This is people-pleasing. And it's exhausting in a very particular way — because from the outside, it often looks like kindness. When being "easy" becomes a survival strategy Peopl

There's this anxiety that surges when someone takes too long to reply to a message. This tendency to over-invest in relationships out of fear they might end. This feeling of unbearable emptiness when someone pulls away. The fear of abandonment is one of the most widespread emotional wounds — and one of the most misunderstood. The fear of abandonment is not just the fear of being left The fear of abandonment isn't simply about dreading the end of a relationship. It's a more fu

You've just been promoted, praised, recognized — and yet, a small voice whispers that it's all a mistake. That others will eventually figure it out. That you didn't really deserve any of it. If this feels familiar, you're not alone: this is what's known as impostor syndrome. What is impostor syndrome? The term was introduced in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes to describe a paradoxical phenomenon: people who are objectively competent and accomplished, yet

Some breakups take a few weeks to get over. Others last months — waking you in the middle of the night, seeping into every corner of your life. Breakups that feel disproportionate, even to yourself. Why do some separations cause so much damage? The answer doesn't lie in the length of the relationship, or in the "logic" of what happened. It often runs much deeper. A breakup is never just a breakup When a relationship ends, it isn't only a person you lose. It's a version of you

You sleep eight hours and wake up tired. You take a long weekend and come back depleted. You cancel plans because you simply do not have the energy, and then feel guilty about it, which takes up the little energy you had left. If this is familiar, you are not alone — and this is not simply about sleep. The kind of tired that rest cannot fix There is a specific type of exhaustion that has nothing to do with how much you sleep. It is the exhaustion that comes from living at odd