Articles
Sometimes understanding what you're experiencing is the first step
Lori's articles offer thoughtful, practical reading on many of the concerns women and female students bring into counseling.
Browse by topic below. If something feels especially familiar, you can also read how Lori approaches that area in counseling.
Women & Female Students
Everyday pressures women and female students carry: overwhelm, boundaries, people pleasing, identity, school stress and big decisions.
How do I know if I need counseling?
The quiet signs that it may be time to talk with someone, and why you do not have to be in crisis to start.
What to expect at your first counseling appointment
What the first hour actually looks like, what you will be asked, and what you do not have to have figured out beforehand.
When you feel responsible for everyone
Where over-responsibility comes from, what it costs, and how to set it down without abandoning people.
Eating Disorders & Body Image
When food, eating or your body has started taking up more room in your thoughts than you want it to.
When eating has become more than a diet
Quiet signs that food, eating or your body has started taking up more room in your thoughts than you want it to.
What does a healthy relationship with food look like?
A gentle description of what peace with food can look like when rules and guilt have run things for a long time.
Body image on the hard days
Practical, non-shaming ways through a day when your body feels unbearable to you.
Anxiety & Depression
When worry, sadness, panic, low energy or overthinking start shaping how your days go.
Anxiety that shows up at night
Why worry gets louder once the house goes quiet, and what actually helps when your mind will not settle.
Is this anxiety or just stress?
How everyday stress differs from anxiety that has settled in, and when it may be worth talking with someone.
What a panic attack feels like, and what helps in the moment
Common panic symptoms, why they feel so physical, and grounding steps that help while one is happening.
Grief & Life Transitions
For losses and changes that leave life looking different than it used to.
Grief that does not follow the stages
Why grief rarely moves in a tidy order, and what helps when it comes back on a day you thought you were fine.
Grief after losing a parent
Why this loss reaches into identity, family roles and everyday life, and what tends to help.
Grief that has no funeral
For losses that carry no ritual: infertility, estrangement, a diagnosis, a dream that ended.
Christian Counseling
What it means, and what it never means, to let your Christian faith be part of counseling.
What Christian counseling is and is not
What it means to bring faith into counseling, and what it never means, so you know before you call.
Is it okay to see a counselor as a Christian?
For women who wonder whether needing counseling means their faith is not working.
Christian counseling and regular counseling, what is the difference?
What actually differs, what stays the same, and why professional standards do not change either way.
Self-Worth & Confidence
For comparison, self-doubt, perfectionism and feeling like you're never quite enough.
Why do I never feel like I am enough?
Where the never enough feeling usually comes from, and what actually loosens it.
Perfectionism that looks like high standards
The difference between caring about your work and being unable to let anything be imperfect.
Comparison and social media
Why scrolling can undo a good day, and practical changes that reduce the sting without pretending to quit.
Looking for the practical details?
The frequently asked questions page covers cost, insurance, scheduling and what a first appointment is like.
Reaching out can be the first step.
You don't need to know exactly what to say, or have anything figured out, before you contact Lori.
Or email rasmussencounselingandsd@gmail.com