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!
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Dreading 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 MoreFawning is a survival mode we are more likely to enter when our mind determines the best course of action for safety and well being is to appease the threat instead of confronting (fight), avoiding (flight), or shutting down (freeze). When one is fawning, the self is suppressed often unconsciously (you may disconnect from your own thoughts, feelings, sensations/experiences, opinions, beliefs/moral code) and there is an attempt to keep the peace in order to avoid conflict by aligning more with the desires or will of the threat. From an outsider's perspective an fawning can look like co-dependence, people pleasing, and poor boundaries.
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 MoreIt's lunchtime and you're already exhausted. You say to yourself, “What is the matter with me? I've only had two short meetings so far!” It's not the first time you've felt this way – you often feel exhausted after short interactions with others. Even seemingly pleasant or neutral interactions stay with you long after-the-fact, or you find yourself trying to anticipate what might happen in future interactions. You think of yourself as caring and conscientious, but is there more to it?
Read MoreLiving with an HSP isn’t hard—it's different. Learn how to support a highly sensitive partner and what not to say if you want them to feel safe and understood.
Read MoreConflict overwhelms HSPs fast. Learn how to manage arguments, regulate your nervous system, and stay connected without shutting down or spiraling.
Read MoreBeing an HSP changes how you bond, communicate, and handle conflict. Learn how sensitivity shapes relationship dynamics, and what helps you thrive.
Read MoreDiscover the traits that make a partner truly compatible with a highly sensitive person. Learn what helps HSPs feel safe, calm, connected, and understood.
You’ve been watching your kid struggle for so long. You know how important friendships are throughout life, especially during the teen years. You want to help them make friends in real life (not just online), but they get angry when you bring it up and don’t want to talk to you about it. You get that it’s awkward and they’re embarrassed, but it’s painful to watch. You constantly wonder how you can help.
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 MoreAs therapists, we get it. Teens are naturally drawn to their devices because of how their brain development drives their desire for intensity and immediacy, technology changes so quickly these days that it can feel impossible to keep track, and we don’t even fully know how this screen usage affects our brains because it’s all so new. And, teens aren’t alone. I hear from adults all the time who also struggle with how to take technology breaks because these things are designed to keep our attention.
Read MoreIt’s 10:30 pm and you’re winding down for sleep. You’ve scrolled on your phone for the past 45 minutes or so, and your eyes are starting to get heavy, so you put it down, imagining you’ll drift off soon. Suddenly, you remember that thing you’ve got coming up, or that awkward moment with a coworker earlier this week, and the fact that your partner/child/cat seemed a bit distant the past few days. Your heart races, your breathing becomes shallow, and your eyelids snap open like those roll-up blinds in old cartoons. What if you forget to do something? What if they’re all mad at you? How can I tell? What are the signs? And how can I make sure everything doesn’t fall apart? Anxiety, panic, and insomnia are often linked to an overactive inner planner, predictor, or problem-solver. Read on to learn how we can work with these parts of us to reduce our distress and increase our sense of well-being.
Read MoreI’ve been sick on and off for the past month. It began with a single symptom, as most sicknesses do, and has since progressed into a whirlwind of Doctors’ visits, testing endeavors with conflicting results, an unrelated COVID exposure and period of isolation, a resurgence of the original ailment, and a whole lot of uncertainty. Being ill is unpleasant for anyone, but as a highly sensitive person it can be hard not to feel downright pathetic with the intensity of just how bad things feel - not just physically, but emotionally. If you’re also an HSP and feel especially “fragile” during times of illness, you’re not alone!
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.
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