Brandon Gimbel and Courtney Wells explore how relationship conflict often centers on trying to change the other person, rather than shifting one’s own relationship to internal experience.

Brandon Gimbel and Courtney Wells examine how ACT provides a values-based framework that can hold and integrate other trauma treatments like EMDR.

Brandon Gimbel and Courtney Wells discuss why acceptance can feel like surrender, especially for trauma survivors whose coping strategies once ensured survival.

Brandon Gimbel and Courtney Wells discuss how naming internal experiences creates psychological distance, reduces threat, and restores a sense of agency.

Brandon Gimbel and Courtney Wells explore how trauma is best understood by its lasting impact rather than by the severity or category of the event itself.

Brandon Gimbel asks psychoanalyst Alan Levy to clarify what psychoanalysis really involves. Levy describes it as a collaborative process in which two people work together to make sense of a person’s experience, including what happens inside and outside the therapy room.

Brandon Gimbel and psychoanalyst Alan Levy discuss the difference psychoanalytic work and other therapies.

Brandon Gimbel and Alan Levy discuss how psychoanalytic thinking has evolved from an expert-driven model toward a collaborative relationship in which therapist and patient explore experience together.

Brandon Gimbel and Alan Levy explain how unconscious thoughts and feelings shape the therapeutic relationship and how exploring those dynamics helps bring greater awareness to patterns that influence everyday life.

Brandon Gimbel and Alan Levy discuss how curiosity about emotional reactions—such as recurring anger in relationships—can help patients better understand their experiences and develop new ways of navigating their lives.

North Star Behavioral Health's Brandon Gimbel and Tovah Means, LMFT of Watch Hill Therapy discuss dissociation as an unconscious protective response to overwhelming experience.

North Star Behavioral Health's Brandon Gimbel and Tovah Means, LMFT of Watch Hill Therapy explore why children are especially vulnerable to dissociation and how early threat shapes adult coping.

North Star Behavioral Health's Brandon Gimbel and Tovah Means, LMFT of Watch Hill Therapy examine how shame interferes with healing and how trauma-informed understanding can reduce it.

North Star Behavioral Health's Brandon Gimbel and Tovah Means, LMFT of Watch Hill Therapy clarify the clinical difference between dissociation and avoidance—and why confusing them can misguide treatment.

North Star Behavioral Health's Brandon Gimbel and Tovah Means, LMFT of Watch Hill Therapy explain why trauma work requires enough safety to remain engaged without overwhelm.

North Star Behavioral Health's Brandon Gimbel and Tovah Means, LMFT of Watch Hill Therapy discuss how dissociation preserves survival while limiting emotional and developmental capacity over time.

Rabbi Steven Lowenstein describes how clergy often become the first place people turn for help—and how he recognizes when to guide them toward therapy or psychiatry.

Rabbi Lowenstein reflects on prayer as a mindful act—anchored in breath, language, and the shared rhythm of community.

A meditation on breath as both the first and final act of life—and on mindfulness as the space that fills everything in between.

Rabbi Lowenstein shares a timeless teaching about balance: holding both humility and worth in the same pocket.