Lady Docs Corner Cafe Blog

To be human means to experience loss. With loss comes feelings of grief, as loss and love go hand and hand. We mourn what we once cared about. As the holidays come upon us, feelings of loss can be confusing during what is typically thought of as a happy time of year. The framework of the holidays can be seen as a parallel to loss: the timing in the winter, when the foliage ...

  The holiday season can be a time for gratitude, peace, love, and joy. It can also be a time of stress, pressure, intense trigger responses, depression, and anxiety. For those who are going through or have experienced trauma, the latter is more likely. Survivors of domestic abuse, sexual violence or harassment, incest, stalking, and bullying often dread the holiday season ...

As a marriage and family therapist, I was asked to speak at a recent Lady Docs gathering about family interactions that play a prominent role during this holiday season.  Feel free to journal as the group did last week as we explore family relationships. As therapists, we treat people as part of a family system and we focus on personal transformation as the agent of change ...

This morning, my husband and I and several friends met at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. for our third 5K run/walk for National Race to End Women’s Cancer, to support the Foundation for Women’s Cancer.  Gynecologic cancers include Ovarian, Cervical, Endometrial/Uterine, Vulva and Vaginal Cancer.  According to the American Cancer Society statistics, there were 110,070 ...

There are always things that need to be done.  But, sometimes peace and quiet in nature is just what the doctor ordered.   Our [LINK: /article/-is-the-key-to-healthy-aging/#sthash.FJGY8uoq.dpbs] last exercise post was about the benefits of exercise - 150 minutes of mild to moderate exercise each week.  Prior posts touted the importance of walking for [LINK: /article/exercises-for-osteopenia-and-osteoporosis-prevention--part-3/#sthash.iAlESQOj.dpbs] osteoporosis ...

It seems that every cause has a day, week or month to bring awareness and that we can be inundated with these messages. With that in mind, this post is about an issue that most people don’t talk much about or know how to respond to: pregnancy and infant loss. October signifies the awareness of these kinds of losses with October 15th being the “Day of Light” where at ...

This blog probably will be among the longest ones you have seen from me.  I often warn my women friends whenever I write a long email, to tell them what I think about the week, from political news to social issues to all the “interesting” events happening to me that week.  I advise them to empty their bladder, make a cup of coffee or tea and some snacks, and sit somewhere ...

In the past, Lady Docs has volunteered as a group at DC Central Kitchen. Yesterday, I’m proud to say, we had the most volunteers they remember seeing there. During the week, graduates of their Culinary Job Training Program, who are now paid employees, prepare the food. On the weekends, generous donors, like Dr. Chitra Rajagopal, sponsor the day, and can then bring in 35 volunteers ...

Psychiatry, like retail, has busy seasons. Unlike retail, psychiatry’s hectic periods occur secondary to fluctuations in seasonal light exposure, rather than during major holidays. For years, I treated patients for worsening, or new onset depression, around Halloween, October 31.  Some of this was Seasonal Affective Disorder, some simply the effects of diminishing light ...

Although my book was published almost exactly one year ago, I’ve been surprisingly reluctant to publicize it since. The overlap of writing the book with my postpartum months after the birth of my second child amazes me. Ethan was born in June, I finished writing in December, and the book was in print by the following March. I used to tell people, “Well, I’m already up ...