Blog for
Chris Lauzon - Therapist, LICSW

One of the more common requests I hear as a therapist sounds something like this: "Can you hold me accountable?" At face value, it makes perfect sense. If someone is struggling with motivation, consistency, follow-through, or personal growth, it seems reasonable to want another person to help keep them on track. The challenge is that therapy and accountability coaching are not always the same thing.

Old Mental Muscle once served an important purpose. It helped us navigate difficult family challenges, relationships, environments, expectations, disappointments, life transitions, and fears. It became efficient because it was practiced so often. From both a clinical perspective and a neurological one, these patterns become deeply familiar neural pathways; the brain’s preferred route. The path of least resistance. Imagine this Old Mental Muscle as a massive six-lane highway

Open your spice rack. Notice what’s there. Not just the garlic powder and sea salt, but the jars tied to chapters of your life. The cumin from the relationship where you learned to cook for two. The chili flakes from the season of intensity. The specialty blend you bought because they liked it. Some of those spices are years old. If you unscrew the lid, the aroma is faint. The color is dull. The potency is gone, yet we keep them.

Most individuals are taught that growth should be decisive, consistent, and flawless; if a person is going to change, they should do it “all the way,” if they are going to care for themselves, they should “do it right,” and, if they are going to meet their needs, they should do it “always.” YET, that very mindset often becomes the thing that keeps us stuck. If you’re in a mindset of exploring your needs, especially after stress, loss, burnout, or transition, I want to gently

The shift from summer to fall is beautiful in many ways, but it can also be deceptively draining. The end of summer vacations, less time with friends and family, shorter days, diminishing sunlight (and vitamin D), the start of the school year, the return of colder weather, and the looming weight of major holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas; all arrive at once. Add to that the closing of another calendar year, and suddenly, what once felt abundant and energizing begins to

Picture this: an old crosscut hand saw, lying on its back. The flat spine rests against the table, and the jagged edge, the teeth, points upward at an angle. Imagine tracing your finger along those teeth from one end of the saw to the other. It's not a smooth line. It's not soft or easy. It's jagged. Sharp. Uneven. Yet undeniably, the motion is angled up. This, in many ways, is the visual metaphor of our journey through mental health and well-being.