Relationships

I got home from the Mormon Mental Health Association conference recently and couldn’t stop thinking about one sentence. A woman in the audience raised her hand and described something she called “the mistress of the patriarchy.” My friend sitting next to me and I both got goosebumps at the same time. She was talking about […]

This past weekend, therapists from across Arizona and Utah gathered at the University of Utah for a continuing education conference hosted by the Mormon Mental Health Association. Inner Compass Counseling was proud to be part of the committee that built this conference from the ground up, and one of the sessions has stuck with me […]

Healing is not about abandoning your values. It is about building intimacy without fear, coercion, or self-abandonment.

Most of us learned about the body’s stress responses in one simple phrase: fight, flight, or freeze. But there’s a fourth response — one that rarely gets taught, even though it may be the most common one in people who grew up managing chaos, criticism, or unpredictability at home. It’s called fawning, and it doesn’t […]

And what it means to begin healing She was eight years old when she first looked in the mirror and imagined herself as a bride. Not because she was a romantic child. Because she had been taught — clearly, repeatedly, with posters on the wall and lessons in class — that her highest purpose was […]

He didn’t disappear because he doesn’t care…
He disappeared because he didn’t know how to stay.
For a lot of post-Mormon men, emotional conversations don’t feel like connection…
They feel like something to get right.
And when there’s no clear answer… the nervous system taps out.
That’s not indifference.
That’s overwhelm.

I thought I was a bad person, not a kid who made a mistake I remember a moment from my childhood that, on the surface, does not seem like a big deal.My parents were out of town and I had double-booked myself. I had planned to stay the night ata friend’s house and completely forgot […]

For many women, self-sacrifice becomes muscle memory. This story about Saturday morning pancakes explores how deeply ingrained patterns of putting ourselves last can quietly shape our lives.

People Pleasing in Relationships: How The Fawn Response and Religious Trauma Turn Love Into Obligation Author: Ashley Kirkpatrick LAC “I don’t know what love is without fear attached to it.” That’s what Evan said in our session as he stared at his hands, struggling to explain why he felt so anxious in his relationship. He […]