Quarterlife Center - Counseling for Young Adults

  In both my practice as a therapist and in my relationships with friends and family, I’ve noticed that women are increasingly sharing their feelings of anger. Perhaps we sense that we’re giving more than we’re getting in our partnerships, or maybe we’re paid less than our male counterparts at work, or we disagree with decisions made by those in positions of authority. Regardless of the cause of our rage, anger signals to us that something feels unfair, such as an imbalance in a relationship, a crossing of our boundaries, or an injustice built into our laws. Conventional wisdom holds that men tend to be angrier than women, but in fact  studies have shown  that women experience as much anger as men. The difference is in how we express it.  Women are taught to fear and deny their anger from birth. Gender norms, conveyed through both overt and subtle messages from our families, schools, and society, dictate that women and girls are expected to be loving caretakers and p...

  Over the last few years of this pandemic, we all had a lot of alone time – time for isolation, for contemplation, for introspection. The slow-down allowed for folks to be alone with their thoughts without as many distractions. For some, there was also the added benefit of not being around societal pressures. This opened space for self-exploration to include authenticity to oneself and their experience without those social barriers. It is no surprise to me that in my clinical work I found that more people finally had space to consider and question their gender.  Now, I want to name a few important things before delving deeper: Questioning your gender is not a shameful or bad thing.  Gender has a long history of including more than cisgender/binary narratives. Questioning your gender does not automatically mean that you are not cisgender, rather it means you are intentionally exploring your authentic self. Understanding your identities (professional, sexual, etc) is a lif...