Treat Yourself

I love this time of year. The weather is beautiful, and though fall isn’t technically a holiday, fall décor has certainly become a thing. “Porch styling” has taken over what used to be simple displays of hand-carved pumpkins sitting on front porch landings. Now, gourds of every variety and color are placed just so, cascading down steps as if Amazon deliveries had been replaced by the Harvest Moon. Fall has earned its seat at the reasons-we-decorate table.

Thankfully, Halloween hasn’t been buried amongst the gourds—in fact, its presence has been elevated with purple and orange lighting accents, new additions to yard inflatables (think octopus legs), and creative uses of skeleton parts strewn about in hedges or climbing up the walls of houses. It’s all the best kind of creepy fun.

What I have for you here is less of a trick and more of something you can do while eating one of your favorite treats. No surprise, your trusty therapist here is inviting you to a little Halloween-inspired self-reflection exercise. Costumes optional.

H — Hiding

If you were to reveal a fear you’ve been hiding, what would it be, and with whom would you share it?

A — Alignment

Where in your life are your choices out of alignment with what matters most to you?

L — Limits

How long will you allow someone to mistreat you before deciding to let them go?

L — Limbo

Where are you stuck in indecision, and what fear is holding you back from moving forward?

O — Overthinking

What might you be avoiding when you default to overthinking?

W — Wand

If you could wave a magic wand, what would you change about the area of your life that is causing you the most stress?

E — Energy

What in your life currently gives you the most energy, and what depletes it?

E — Expectations

Think of one expectation you have for the holiday season. Have you communicated it?

N — Nurture

If time and money were no object, what would you do to nurture yourself in the next hour?

Samantha LaffoonOctober 27, 2026

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Lovely sentiment, but my body begs to differ. I’ve rolled into a new chronological year with my first injury requiring physical therapy. Turns out, it doesn’t matter if your theme song is Taylor Swift’s “22”—your body doesn’t lie. Thankfully, my issue is more inconvenient than catastrophic. Like many healing processes, the road to recovery is fairly straightforward: ask for help, follow the plan, and be patient. I struggle with the latter.

As a therapist, I’m often encouraging clients to stay the course, trust the process, and remember that healing rarely happens on their timeline. I’m able to say it with conviction because I genuinely believe it’s true - I’ve experienced it as a client myself and I see it play out on the other side of the couch as a clinician. Being a PT patient has reminded me how daunting it is to commit to a process you haven’t experienced long enough to trust. That's true whether you're healing your body or your heart.

Talk Therapy Physical Therapy
“Why would I want to talk about my feelings?” “Why would breathing help my hip?”

“Talking to a stranger is weird.” “You’re telling me this tiny movement is the exercise?”

“How is crying considered a breakthrough?” “How can something this gentle make any difference?”

“I don’t think this is working.” “I don’t think this is working.”

I’ve had plenty of internal conversations sounding something like “If I have to do one more round of breathing into my lower abdomen, I’m going to lose my mind”. It seems unfathomable that micro movements in PT and micro shifts in talk therapy could produce macro-level change. Yet, both processes begin with gentle, intentional steps and all any of us seeking help want to do is get to the finish line. We resist the process, dismiss it as too simple to work, convince ourselves we're somehow the exception, and eventually wonder if it's worth continuing at all.

Sound familiar?

I hear you. And right now, I’m with you. However, in the last few days, something shifted. I’ve had the least amount of discomfort for the longest stretch of time that I’ve had in months. So, I'll keep doing the stretches—still a little skeptical, but humble enough to admit I don't know everything. As much as it surprises me, I do feel a little better. I once heard someone say that change happens slowly and then all at once. We don’t always feel change happening in the moment, but neither do we see a seed become a flower. I’m staying the course. I hope you will, too.

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Treat Yourself

Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in Ohio, Kentucky, and Texas