Dr. Alina Writes...

Memorial Day- Is the Story You are Living Worthy of the Price Paid for Freedom?

Freedom is more precious than safety, than security, than life itself. It is why we give our life for freedom. My colleagues and I just spent some time in Ukraine working with social workers, health professionals, first responders and anyone interested in resilience in the time...

May 27, 2024

Beautiful Minds Project Academy for Trauma Studies and Disaster Response.. Join Us!

A Letter from the Director, Ya'll, it has been a year! Actually it has been a "several" years of one disaster...

October 30, 2023

Developing Through Relationships

In our overwhelmingly "prizing of individuality" world, I think we have isolated ourselves too much and the price is nothing less than our actual selves. Our brains are made of many different parts that have unique functions on their own all the while being linked to other parts...

January 23, 2023

Show up for You - Anxiety is Speaking: Learn to Face the Truth

Our brains and bodies are amazing. I think the more we learn about the bodies we inhabit, the more respect and honor we can grow, the more "Brain Envy," in the words of Dr. Daniel Amen, that we can gain for ourselves. (And this will help us with both connection to ourselves and...

January 20, 2023

The Year of Connection: Welcome to 2023

As the new year sets itself before us, the traditional question of "what are your goals for this year?" can be an engaging conversation starter or it can evoke a sense of anxiety, especially against the backdrop of the last several years. I began my meetings with patients and...

January 2, 2023

Like a Refugee: From a civil war in Cameroon to the invasion in Ukraine to the home inside the human heart

At the end of February, the day I boarded my flight to Yaoundé, Cameroon, a country that has been in an active civil war for the last four years, my native country Ukraine was invaded by Russia. It was an interesting emotional disposition that I found myself in. My family moved...

April 10, 2022

Let Vision Guide You

Imagine what you want. Imagine it vividly. Your relationship. Your identity. Your business, work, or profession. Imagine it in detail. Paint the canvas of your imagination in watercolors. Use all your senses to create a living, moving picture in your mind. See, hear, smell,...

April 2, 2020

Remote EMDR Therapy

Take a deep breath, bring your pet, and experience transformation in your life Going to a physical office is not always an option. The dentist, physician, pharmacy can become a chore because of scheduling or traffic. But modern technology allows therapy to reach further and help...

February 20, 2020

It's a Journey

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu As a Ukrainian refugee pursuing higher education in the United States, the English language did not make the process simple for me. In college and now my PhD, I had to learn to write as an academic in order to...

January 14, 2020

Heroes and Villains

When my parents first decided to come to America, they balked. Frozen by rumors of failure and cynicism. Vladimir and Dina were first presented with an opportunity to move to the United States in 1990. Yet, the fear of the unknown, of a wrong decision, the fear of struggle...

November 8, 2019

Hope

A few short years after communism collapsed, in the cold autumn of 1995, a young Ukrainian couple embarked, in uncertainty. To uproot their lives, and the lives of their six children, out of the fallen Soviet bloc to a new nation. Vladimir and Dina saw their new home as full of...

October 22, 2019

We’ve Grown into The Lone Star State!

Having transitioned into online therapy full-time, Beautiful Minds will now be serving Texas residents! Our main hope for the pivot away from brick and mortar and into telemedicine was to open our accessibility to those beyond commuting range of our main offices. Our therapy...

August 5, 2019

Beautiful Minds Counseling, Coaching, and Consulting PLLC, a TeleMental Health Service

Hello! Beautiful Minds, Beautiful Lives PLLC is making some improvements. We are changing our legal name to Beautiful Minds Counseling, Coaching, and Consulting PLLC to represent the totality of services now offered. And, starting in July 2019, we are fully transitioning into a...

May 24, 2019

Rhythm and Healing: When Art and Science Collide in a Beautiful Symphony

August 2, 2017

Psychological Trauma and You

"Heal the pain of yesterday so you can experience the joy of tomorrow." I have been hearing a common theme among peers, clients and voices across the community; a misunderstanding of trauma and what it actually is. I've had several situations in which clients would ask for...

July 9, 2017

Motivating Myself: Think to Plan, Feel to Act

Its Saturday, the plan is to get something done, be more productive , and feel accomplished with this one day we get to "catch up" …. Especially when I want to make Sunday a day of relaxation and rest. Much of the time this willingness seems to fade and, well, I spend the day...

August 13, 2016

Living is Problem Solving is Growing

"Those things that hurt, instruct." -Benjamin Franklin A common theme I notice as a counselor is the notion of surprise regarding hardship and problems in daily mundane living. The "Why me? What did I do to deserve this?" reactions to pain and problems suggest a belief that life...

August 13, 2016

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different...

August 11, 2016

Dear reader,

Part of changing and growing into the person you value is making sure you have a healthy mental diet. Just like we are encouraged to have healthy diets for physical wellness, it is important to feed your mind with healthy inspiration, knowledge, questioning and mental exercise....

August 10, 2016