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Posts by Mary_Beth_Fox

Mary Beth Fox is a licensed professional counselor, speaker, and writer who helps people understand and heal the childhood roots of feeling not good enough. Her work focuses on how this belief shapes anxiety, relationships, and self-doubt. She is the author of the forthcoming book Not Good Enough Stuff: Unearthing Your Roots to Return to Who You Were Meant to Be. Visit theinnerchildtherapist.com, get her free guide, Why You Feel “Not Good Enough, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Mary_Beth_Fox's Website

To the Wounded Parent Who Wants to Do Everything Right

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“The greatest gift you can give your children is your own healing.” ~Dr. Shefali Tsabary

Am I doing too much or not enough?

Am I screwing my child up? Am I being too hard on my child? Am I being too soft? Am I spending enough time with my child? Do I help too much? Should I help more?

Is my son going to be taken advantage of because he talks about his feelings? Is my daughter going to be considered too bossy because she has boundaries? Should I be doing more as a parent? Or less?

These are the …

How Trauma Can Cause Mental Illness (It’s Not Just a Chemical Imbalance)

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“What seems to be clear is that we humans are an accumulation of our traumatic experiences, that each trauma contributes to our biology, and that this biology determines, to some extent, how we respond to further traumatic events as they emerge in our lives.” ~Shaili Jain

The stigma of mental health is decreasing. That’s wonderful, but the way we’re doing it is wrong and damaging. We are ignoring the trauma that is so prevalent and pervasive in our society.

Think about how many times you’ve read something equating mental illness to cancer or some other disease. People say that taking …

Are You Pathologizing Normal Emotions? It’s Not Always a Mental Illness

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“Don’t believe everything you think.” ~Unknown

Society is becoming more accepting of mental illness. That’s great, but there’s a downside that we need to talk about. Not everything is mental illness. We need to stop pathologizing every single thing that we feel.

What I mean by pathologizing everything is jumping to diagnosing yourself after every tough feeling you have. It’s great to be self-aware, but I think we are taking that a little too far, and it’s causing more depression and anxiety.

Yes, I said we are taking self-awareness too far. I stand by that, but I’ll explain the …