When I was growing up, my dad had a book on his bookshelf called Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Although I didn't practice meditation back then, those moments were my first introduction to the idea of mindfulness.

Learn more about why Kathleen became a psychotherapist and what her vision and mission is.

The other day a friend of mine who is going through a separation and divorce said, “I’m through the anger stage and now I’m just sad.” Without a beat I exclaimed, “Congratulations!”. It might seem a bit insensitive but not if you understood my viewpoint of anger.

My husband and I decided to separate with the intention to divorce 25 days and 6 hours ago. To say that I have been in the depths of pain would be an understatement. The first few days felt like I had been punched in the stomach.

When life throws us curveballs, and we find ourselves navigating through tough times, it's natural for our emotions to be tested. We all have default emotional states that we resort to during challenging periods.