Who am I? It seems like a strange question to still be asking at 48 years old, but here I am. If a stranger asked me who I am, my first response would probably be: "I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a volunteer, a caregiver." While all of those things are true, they're also things I do. They aren't necessarily who I am. So who am I? The longer I sit with that question, the harder it becomes to answer. When I think about myself, the first things that come to mind are rarely p

Group therapy was eye-opening. In my late 30s/early 40s, I attended a three-month daily intensive group therapy program at a local hospital. The program was filled with people like myself who needed help processing trauma, and it focused heavily on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. My group was probably 98% female. What surprised me — and comforted me at the same time — was realizing how many of us carried similar stories. Rape. Sexual assault. Parental abandonment. Parental abus

I see on a regular basis in my local moms’ Facebook group, women of all ages saying they feel like they have no friends and want to build friendships with other moms who share similar interests or have children the same age. Some are young moms. Some are older, like myself. When does this friendship shift happen, and why? Many of us lose touch with our high school friends after graduation. Maybe we keep in contact with a select few for a while. But life happens. Some people g