2131 Capitol Ave. Ste 206
Sacramento, CA 95816
US
916-287-3430
hello@thrivetherapyandcounseling.com
Thrive Therapy & Counseling provides high quality mental health therapy to Highly Sensitive People (hsps), LGBTQIA+ folks, and young adults struggling with anxiety, low self-esteem, or trauma.
This blog is written by therapists in midtown Sacramento and focuses on the concerns and struggles of highly sensitive people (HSPs), LGBTQIA+ folks, and adults struggling with depression, anxiety or just trying to figure out what they want for themselves. There's help and hope through counseling and therapy!
Filtering by Category: therapy
You liked them on the call — so why didn’t it work? Here’s what therapeutic fit actually requires, and why most people are searching on the wrong signal.
Read MoreSearching for a therapist can feel like a second job. Here are the questions that actually tell you whether a therapist is the right fit — before you commit.
Read MoreDreading having to explain your whole story to a new therapist? Here's how Thrive's intake process works — and why most clients never have to start over.
Read MoreImagine that you’re at a party or gathering at a friend’s house. As a highly sensitive person, you may have felt some anxiety or dread about going to the party and having to make small talk. Some of the folks in attendance are friends, and you gravitate toward talking to them. But, you notice a couple of people who hang back and don’t seem to know many others. Your empathy kicks in, and you decide to go chat with them to help them feel more welcome. While you’re talking, another person or two joins in the conversation and brings up a political issue you care about deeply. As you passionately discuss the matter, you add in how you cannot understand anyone who thinks otherwise. The person you initially approached quietly says, “I disagree” and wanders away.
Read MoreLearn the difference between insurance therapy and private-pay therapy in Sacramento. Understand costs, flexibility, and how to choose the option that fits your goals.
Read MoreStruggling to find a therapist in Sacramento? Learn how to avoid common therapy-shopping dead ends, reduce overwhelm, and find the right therapist fit faster.
Read MoreWondering what it's like to date a highly sensitive person? Learn the reality—emotional depth, connection, challenges, and how to make the relationship thrive.
Read MoreConflict overwhelms HSPs fast. Learn how to manage arguments, regulate your nervous system, and stay connected without shutting down or spiraling.
Read MoreDiscover why relationships feel harder for highly sensitive people. Learn how nervous system differences, emotional depth, and overstimulation affect connection and what helps.
Read MoreDon't get me wrong, the holidays can be a wonderful time of year. Or at least most of what the holidays are about. But sometimes they can be somewhat overwhelming. I like holiday music, but hearing it everywhere 24/7 for two months is too much for me. I also like holiday parties. But seven family gatherings, five friend parties and three work shebangs in one month can weigh me down.
Read MoreYou’re several months into a new relationship (friend or romantic). You’ve enjoyed your time together, and you feel hopeful things will last. But something’s nagging at you. You find yourself feeling insecure when they don’t reply to your messages soon enough. You’ve noticed they often change or cancel your plans last-minute. You try to push away the anxiety and disappointment, telling yourself, “Don’t mess this up!” But ultimately, a familiar feeling of insecurity has crept in. “Why does this keep happening?” Relationships can be complicated in the best of circumstances, but when we’ve experienced repeated heartache or harm, they can feel like a vicious cycle. How do we make sense of things?
Read MoreOur emotions are kind of like our friends and relatives, not all of them are welcome at our house! We may feel close and welcoming toward our Aunt Joy, but cold and distant toward Uncle Anger – “I barely know him, and…he's KINDA weird!” Unlike our friends and relatives, we don't get to choose if our emotions are part of our lives – they're here to stay, whether we like it or not. When emotions are unwelcome or unfamiliar, we may use defense mechanisms to deal with them. One such defense mechanism is denial. When we use denial to keep certain emotions at a distance, it can have unintended consequences – we may experience repeated feelings of being “stuck”, numb, confused, or even anxious about certain things and we just don't know why. By learning how to recognize and work with denial, we can become more comfortable with distant emotions and increase our awareness, agency, and self-assuredness.
Read MoreThe idea of forgiveness brings up strong feelings for many people, myself included. I struggle to write about it and to talk about it, which makes me think it’s important to try – even if I’m somewhat clumsy. We often shy away from topics that leave us unsettled or frustrated for their heaviness and lack of clarity. But in some ways, I think this can make things worse – robbing us of the opportunity to stretch our internal capacities to bear the messiness of our existence. Perhaps devoting a little bit of time here and there to heavier topics will build our mental and emotional muscles, so to speak.
Read MoreHave you ever gone on a handful of dates with someone, hopeful that the budding relationship would blossom, only to find that weeks later, none of your messages or calls to them are answered? Or has a friend at school suddenly cut off all communication with no explanation, and is now avoiding you in the community? Maybe you have felt such intense disconnection from someone that you can no longer maintain a relationship—yet the thought of reaching out to explain this to them fills you with so much dread that you’re considering just deleting their contact info and sweeping it all under the rug?
Read MoreWith today's packed schedules—parents juggling careers, teens balancing school, activities, and social lives—families often operate like ships passing in the night rather than a connected unit. It can be hard to find a feeling of connection when we’re all so busy with our own stuff.
Read MoreIf you’re human you probably don’t like discomfort. I mean honestly who does? But what if discomfort is where the growth is? What if discomfort is the hill we have to climb on the way to experiencing confidence? Or joy? Motivation? or Connection?
Read MoreThere is enough to contend with being an HSP in a healthy and functioning world, but what do you do when the world feels like it’s unraveling? When it feels like every few minutes there is a news update about a cataclysmic natural disaster, ongoing conflict in war torn countries, reversals in civil rights policy, and increasing division in the world, what pressure do we put on ourselves? Do we expect ourselves to be unimpacted, to separate emotionally, to not react or respond. Being a highly sensitive person means we are highly attuned and keyed into the world around us — so naturally, an HSP would pick up on the intense emotional experience happening in the world right now and have a correlating reaction to it.
Read MoreHave you been feeling worn down, burned out, or exhausted to your very core? Most of us have been there, we’re there right now, or we’ll be there again. As Hemingway wrote, “the world breaks everyone.” Being human means that we’ll know loss and struggle, that there’ll be times when life goes along smoothly and times when it’s all we can do to slowly inch our way forward.
Read MoreEmpathy is a wonderful and essential human trait. It allows us to connect with others, offer support, and foster meaningful relationships. But for those who tend to be over-attuned to others, a common trait in highly sensitive people, empathy can sometimes feel more like a burden than a gift. Over-attunement refers to an excessive focus on other people’s emotions, often at the expense of one’s own needs. This pattern can lead to emotional exhaustion, resentment, and a sense of losing oneself in relationships. So how can we find balance? Let’s explore the roots of over-attunement, its impact, and practical strategies for balancing empathy with self-care.
Read MoreYour willingness to have faith and jump in with both feet can be such a beautiful strength when it comes to starting therapy. However where this trait will sometimes bite us in the butt is when we are further into the therapeutic process. Below are some tips to help keep that beautiful optimism in healthy check, so that you and your therapist can get a more realistic idea of how things are progressing
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