Mental Wellness

Secular ritual is simply the practice of including structured, symbolic, and repetitive actions into your day that help center you and meet your emotional and psychological needs. Many ritual habits are simple.  I like to cuddle with my dog every morning before getting out of bed. 

For two decades, I’ve had the privilege of working with countless individuals—from high-powered executives to dedicated parents—all striving to be more efficient and effective in their lives. And in the present day, there’s a new challenge that keeps surfacing, a silent but significant drain on us to live out our best lives: digital fatigue. You […]

When I started my career as a therapist, one of the first trends I noticed with my clients was how difficult it is for many of them to understand the distinction between a feeling and a thought. Feeling and cognition have become synonymous for many of us, leading to a pattern of conflating emotions and […]

I have never been a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. From a young age, I understood the reality that there are the plans we make, and then there the events that life sends us that derail those plans. My approach to building a direction for my life has been more about picking a “vibe” […]

Mental healthcare is a fundamental right, not a luxury. As a private practice owner, I’ve dedicated my career to breaking down the financial barriers that too often prevent individuals from accessing the support they desperately need. It’s a passion that stems from a deep-seated belief: money should never be the obstacle to taking care of […]

Back in my previous life as a college professor, I had to teach a course titled “Fundamentals of Quantitative Data Analysis”. This is a fancy way of saying “statistics”. I was teaching statistics. To social science majors. The first day of class, I was usually met with a crowd of faces displaying the kind of […]

Alright, settle in folks, Jenai Tidwell, LPC-S is about to climb onto her soapbox – a very comfortable, plush soapbox, mind you, because we prioritize comfort in these parts. I’ve been in this mental health game for nearly twenty years. Two whole decades wading through the beautiful, messy, and utterly human landscape of the mind. […]

I have been hearing the word “burnout” a lot in sessions lately. Clients are burnt out at work. They are burnt out by media and digital overload. They are burning out on the constant lack of certainty that seems to be the new normal. They are scared of feeling burnt out by parenting and caregiving. […]

Most of us know that stress is bad for us. We have been told continuously, from childhood on, that controlling stress is an important part of maintaining physical and mental health over the course of a lifetime. This is due to allostatic load, or the cumulative impact of chronic stress on our bodies […]

I think of sleep as the salt of mental health. Without proper seasoning, food tastes bland, and that lack of nuance, texture, and flavor immediately becomes all we notice when it is not there. Without proper sleep, our brains fixate on the lack of resilience, focus, and flexibility that results when we are not properly […]

In 2014, Brigid Shulte introduced the concept of “time confetti” to describe the splintering of our days into smaller and smaller bits of time that we feel compelled to utilize and optimize at all costs. Time confetti impacts our work, our leisure, our relationships, and our own self-care in ways that are both insidious and […]

The new year feels like a blank slate—an opportunity to hit reset, set new goals, and refocus. But let’s be honest: January often comes with a mix of excitement and pressure. Resolutions can feel overwhelming, lingering challenges from the previous year may still weigh on you, and the stress of navigating life transitions can make […]

When working with clients who have experienced trauma, one of the first questions I ask is whether they have been screened for PTSD. Most of the time, the answer will be a firm “no”, usually followed by a variation on, “I don’t have flashbacks”, or “I sleep just fine”. If clients decline assessment for PTSD, […]

Hello, gents! Let’s dive into a topic that sometimes gets brushed under the rug but deserves a spotlight—your health! We all have had moments to we put ourselves on the back burner to care for others. Because this is what we have been taught to do from an early age. Sometimes, we don’t know exactly […]

Spring cleaning – it’s a tradition as old as time (well, almost!). But beyond the satisfaction of sparkling windows and dust-free shelves, decluttering your physical space can have a profound impact on your mental well-being. Here at Fowler and Tidwell Counseling, we see firsthand the link between a cluttered environment and feelings of stress, anxiety, […]