When most people think of therapy, they picture talking through stress at work, processing childhood memories, or learning how to stop arguing about who does the dishes. But there is a massive, deeply important part of the human experience that often gets left out of traditional therapy conversations: our sexual selves.

There is an unspoken rule in our culture that when you are expecting a baby or holding a newborn, you are supposed to be glowing, grateful, and completely in love with every single second of it. But behind closed doors, the reality of entering parenthood is often a dizzying mix of profound love and absolute exhaustion, identity loss, and intense emotional shifts.

For decades, the public perception of Autism Spectrum Disorder was heavily shaped by a very specific stereotype: a young boy, intensely focused on train schedules, who struggles to make eye contact. But autism doesn't have a single presentation.

I recently started re-reading Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, and it reminded me just how much I love Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). I first discovered this book at an ACT workshop a few years ago, where the presenter led us through a simple exercise that perfectly demonstrates how deeply we are affected by both real and perceived stimuli.