Blog Posts

Category: Mental Health

summer 2021

Kicking Off Summer 2021

“The summer night is like a perfection of thought.” —Wallace Stevens Welcome, summer! We made it! It has been a tough year and a half. We have survived a pandemic, quarantines, civil unrest, the school year, mask mandates, and all sorts of uncertainty. No one has weathered this storm with more grace, patience, and maturity

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repair attemts

Relationship Repair 101

“Like gardens, relationships need tending to.” ~ Peg Streep You just had a major fight with your significant other. You are moping around the house, avoiding each other, because you both said some pretty hurtful things. Then you go to bed feeling discouraged and lonely, wondering how you can ever bounce back from a blowout

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ambiguous loss

The Losses You Didn’t Know You Were Grieving

“Once people become more comfortable with the ambiguity and the uncertainty, they are freer to imagine and discover new sources of hope.” ~ Pauline Boss  We often talk about loss in connection with death, but there is another type that we all have experienced this last year regardless of whether or not we have lost

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adults and sexual abuse

Dear Adult Survivor of Sexual Abuse, I See & Hear You

“Don’t judge yourself by what others did to you.” ~ C. Kennedy, Ómorphi Did you know that every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted? One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Females 16-19 are four times more likely to be victims, and women

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date rape

It’s Not Your Fault: Date Rape

Every 73 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Females 16-19 are four times more likely to be victims, and women aged 18-24 are three times more likely to experience sexual violence.  April is Sexual Assault Awareness and

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Part Two: Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse

“Many survivors insist they’re not courageous: ‘If I were courageous I would have stopped the abuse.’ ‘If I were courageous, I wouldn’t be scared’… Most of us have it mixed up. You don’t start with courage and then face fear. You become courageous because you face your fear.” ― Laura Davis Blake (name has been

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Part One: Protecting Children from Sexual Abuse

“As much as we’d like to put our kids in a bubble, it’s not possible. Actually sitting down and having that uncomfortable conversation with your kid is going to help prevent things in the long run because they are going to understand that you are a safe person to talk to and you aren’t going

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healing from anxiety of 2020

Healing from the Anxiety of 2020

Compared with 2019, three times more people today are experiencing symptoms of anxiety disorder and four times as many people are experiencing a depressive disorder. About 10% more people started or increased substance use because of COVID-19. And in 2020, twice the number of people reported seriously considering suicide in the past 30 days compared

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homemade valentines day

A Homemade Valentine’s Day

“The whole night I was thinking and dreaming to give you the most beautiful gift and that is my heart.” ― Debasish Mridha Valentine’s Day is tomorrow! One good thing that came from 2020 and COVID was the extra time to spend with people you care about. After all that extra time together, you may

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making space for the things we want

Making Space for the Things You Want

“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?” ~Henry David Thoreau One thing that every single human on this earth has the same amount of is hours in a day. Each and every single one of us has 24 hours in the day to work with.

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new year changed you

New Year, CHANGED You

“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.” ~ Alan Cohen “New Year, New You” is a phrase I often hear around the new year. While I understand the sentiment there, I do not love the underlying idea of completely reinventing ourselves and/or disregarding where we have previously been.

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thank you and goodbye 2020

Dear 2020, Thank You and Goodbye

Dear 2020, Thank you and goodbye. You certainly were an unusual year! It feels a bit like the world was a snow globe, and was thoroughly shaken up. Now that 2021 is starting, we can tell you what we really thought of you.  At the beginning of March, I started participating in a women’s book

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Melissa Cluff, MS, LMFT, CSAT

Melissa Cluff is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in North Texas, providing face-to-face and telehealth therapy options to clients in Texas.