How do we know we’re healing? How do we know growth is happening? Healing is a process. It’s not a linear, one and done type of experience… though don’t we all wish!! These are common questions, and often we as humans would like to see a quick fix, something that takes the pain away and makes everything better…. We want to avoid the yucky stuff. And I get it!! No judgement here!! It’s yucky! So often there are times I wish I did have a magic wand or a three step ‘fix it’, and

I have been wanting to write about resistance for some time. It has been on my “List of things to write about” in my iphone Notes app since 2022, and I have other notes with whispers of knowings that go back to 2019. It’s a biggie for me, and I know I need to approach it with reverence. How do I know that? Emotion. Because the first thing I feel, to be honest, is rage. And tenderness. So let me be clear. I am not enraged at resistance. I am enraged about how some branches of

Exploring The Healing Journey and The Mental Health Stigma It may come as a surprise for some that therapists often see their own therapists as well. Therapists provide therapeutic tools for clients, holding a compassionate space for others to land, and help others understand their core beliefs and narratives. So you may be wondering, why can’t a therapist reflect their knowledge and tools unto themselves? Because we also need someone to hold a mirror sometimes. Because we al

“Safety” is one of the most commonly used words in therapy spaces. We talk about creating safe environments, safe relationships, safe conversations, and emotional safety. This concept is often foundational to the process of healing. But what happens when safety is not something a person has consistently known, experienced, or been granted access to? And what happens when the systems surrounding a person continue to feel unsafe? These are questions I find myself returning to

So much grief. I have survived, but it has cost me I have grown, but it has cost me I have done it, but it has cost me What is left? Sometimes I wonder. Was it worth it? Some days I’m not sure. No, it is worth it….. but oh, what it has cost. I grieve that part of me, that identity. That carefree, easy agility, the lighthearted, unscarred, unharmed part of me. And yet… I am proud. SO PROUD There is a fierceness where, before, it lay dormant. There is a strength that roars that

I came back from a trip recently, and the day after my return home I felt sad. I can call it sad now that I have spent some time with it, but I didn’t recognize it as sadness right away, until I had already tried to force my way past it into gratitude. My experience with sadness went like this. I woke up feeling heavy. As I was making my bed I heard this in my mind: I feel icky. I feel like I don’t recognize myself. I don’t really feel like I’m here. Actually, I’m a little n

A Poem Dedicated to the Nurses on Nurses Week For you, the Nurse Who work for little, Who work more to earn more To make ends meet. Time is sacrificed So that loved ones can have more, but not more of you. I see you. For you, the Nurse Who need a break But can't step away. Who need a day, More than a day. A week. A month. Exhaustion follows you. And you do your best anyway. I see you. For you, the Nurse Who bear witness to the first cry, And the last breath. Who witness the j

Regret, Replaying, and the Feeling of Being Stuck Regret is complicated, and the weight it carries can be hard to fully explain. When I think about regret, I think about repetition. The same memory returning. The same “what if” reshaping itself slightly each time. You might find yourself going back to something you said, something you didn’t do, or a decision that changed the direction of your life in ways you didn’t expect. It can feel like your mind is trying to solve somet

Burnout is a layered concept; nuanced and complex, full of collective and individual experiences that contribute to this state within each one of us. Join me as we journey down the rabbit hole of inner child wounds and the beautiful adaptive strategies that we develop, and how these may contribute to experiences of burnout. As always, this is ‘thoughtful nattering’ from your friendly neighborhood therapist…. Inner child wounding is a universal concept; one that each individua

I have been reading Hillary L. McBride’s Holy Hurt: Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing . It has been life-changing for me. It is not light work to bring these parts of my life into consciousness, but it feels like necessary work, and I know I am ready. The journey of my life this far has helped me get to a place where I have enough internal safety now to take a look back into my childhood development, shaped largely by the influence of Catholicism, colo

Ohh I love reading tarot. My journey of learning the cards, their meanings, and how I can apply them in my day to day has become a practice that has helped me understand myself more. I once had a side business for a very short period called, “Tarot Reflections with Allie”, that I no longer practice. Why? Because the spiritual applications that come with tarot are not regulated in the standards of practice as a psychotherapist. But even though I no longer do readings for othe

There is a kind of emotional fatigue that is difficult to name right now. Not just stress. Not just sadness. Not even just anxiety. It feels more complex than that. It’s quiet, and it builds through constant exposure to suffering, through the awareness of instability, through the slow recognition that the systems meant to hold people safely don’t always do so. It comes from living in a world where harm isn’t distant or rare, but visible, repeated, and very often normalized. A

When your get up and go has gotten up and left…. The yield signs of life. Yield signs - signs that force us to slow down, to take our time, to move with caution. I absolutely adore this imagery! As a therapist and a fellow human, I use this concept in my work and my own life. These are the phases of life that force us to slow down, the times where exhaustion/grief/uncertainty has set in. When all we have left is to set it down and rest for a while. This can feel terrifying at

What is it, how we lose it, where it goes, what can happen when it’s gone, and why we need to find and nurture it to heal and live fully. I have been thinking a lot about self-trust lately. Here’s how the thoughts have rippled over the last few weeks: Epstein, Maxwell, and others, and their violence against women and girls. Violence against women and girls in general. My own experience with sexual violence and coersion as a young teenager. Patriarchal, colonial power dynamics

Hey everyone! This is my first blog post for Within The Seasons, and I want to thank you all for being here! My name is Allison Oke, my pronouns are she/her, and I am a therapist with Type 1 Diabetes. I’ve been in the helping profession since I was 23 years old. I started my career as a bedside Registered Nurse, and now I’m also a Psychotherapist with Seasons. How long have I been a type 1 diabetic? 32 years! Much longer than my career in the helping professions, and unfortun

Productivity used to live in numbers. Sometimes it still does. Boxes checked. Timers running. Morning routines that promised a better version of me if I followed them precisely enough. I thought the right arrangement of hours could turn me into someone calm, certain, accomplished. I treated time like a stubborn door. If I pushed hard enough, organized enough, optimized enough, it would open into a life that finally felt like mine. But time is not a door. It is weather. Some

When I sit with someone, conversation is never the first thing that arrives. The body speaks first. I notice shoulders that stay lifted even after a few minutes. Hands that rest near the edge of the chair. A breath that pauses halfway in, as if unsure whether it’s allowed to land. Eyes that map the room before they meet mine. Long before we talk about memories or coping or change, something quieter is happening. The nervous system is asking a more fundamental question: Is it

Hello everyone! Welcome, Welcome, Welcome! This is Karen, your friendly neighborhood Seasons therapist, and this week we are going to kick off our blog post with a little reality and a lot of vulnerability…. To be honest, the first experiences I had at the thought of contributing to a blog were filled with both fear and excitement! Though this is something I have always had interest in, narratives of not being good enough, fears of being seen, AND feelings of excitement at po

I ask myself this question most mornings as I stand in the kitchen, making my coffee to bring out to my office. It is part of my process of preparing my Self, my mind, body and soul, for my work. What is therapy? What is this beautiful thing I get to do with people each day? I am aware that my intentionality as a therapist has a big impact on who I am and how I work, which has a very big impact on how my clients feel in my presence, and whether or not they feel safe with me.