Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

Burnout: How Embers Become Flames

I heard “self-care is important” constantly. So when panic attacks started, I thought I hadn’t tried hard enough to care for my mental health.

But in retrospect, self-care was never going to stave off consequences from operating within a broken system.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

My Kid Just Came Out . . . Now What?

Most parents have an idea about being transgender long before their kid comes out. This post is about how to slow down enough to meet the actual person in front of you.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

The Gifts I Didn’t Expect

A therapist's reflection on over a decade of LGBTQ+ affirming work — what the transgender and queer community has taught her about courage, identity, and what it means to truly be known.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

The Lasso Way

Spoiler heavy blog

I don't watch sports. I never have. So nobody was more surprised than me when Ted Lasso became one of the most therapeutically rich shows I've watched in years. A look at defenses, transformance, and why the hardest choice is sometimes the most right one.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

A Love Letter to Sandtray Therapy

I grew up minimally verbal. Sandtray gives me the opportunity to revisit that wordless world, and to guide those I work with who find themselves there too. Not everything that shifts in a session arrives in words. That's often the first real sign something has moved.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

The Nagging: On Complicated Feelings Toward a Parent

Complicated feelings toward a parent, like love, anger, disgust, longing, don't resolve through logic. As a trauma therapist, I've seen what actually happens when adults stop trying to figure it out and start letting themselves feel it instead.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

Chihiro: A Story of Attachment and Childhood Neglect

On my countless rewatch, I caught something in Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away I hadn’t before. Here I reflect on what had changed in me that allowed me to see this classic film through new eyes, and explore the implications of the film’s main themes through the lens of emotional neglect, parentification and attachment.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

Crafting an Inhabited Life

Learning to draft my own clothing has taught me that the most crucial work is often the hidden construction. Read more to hear about how my sewing realizations have contributed to my philosophy on growth and the nature of change.

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Morgan Szymczak Morgan Szymczak

Warped Peace

In sewing there’s this delicate balance called tension. If it’s too tight, the thread snaps. If it’s too loose, the threads bunch into a “bird’s nest.” When the tension in your life is wrong, it can create a sense of “warped peace.”

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