December 2025

The holidays are many things to each of us, and this time of year can bring up so many feelings and experiences: joy, stress, grief, nostalgia, hope, disappointment. That’s already a lot to carry. But another piece of what makes the holidays hard to navigate is both the expectations placed on us by others and the expectations placed on us by ourselves. It isn’t possible to take away the hard or overwhelming feelings that may come up over the next month, but there are things you can do to manage both internal and external expectations. My hope is that doing so will allow more room for managing hard feelings, but also for experiencing joy and presence in whatever activities you choose to engage in.

You don’t have to do it all every year.

Think through what you’ve done in the past and notice what you feel excited about…and what brings up tension. Tension can look like thoughts (“I don’t want to do this”), feelings (anxiety, sadness, anger) or body sensations (tight chest, clenched jaw, stomach ache).

Are there parts of your plans that make you feel excited or joyful? Can you choose to do those pieces and then choose not to do the pieces that create tension?

Another way to think about it is, are there ways to engage in traditional activities (like going to an aunt’s house) in a way that feels more manageable (only going for a certain amount of time)?

Set gentle boundaries.

Boundaries are often thought of a way to say no to things, which can be true, but they are also a way of navigating relationships in a way that works better for you so that you can maintain the relationship and stay in connection.

Imagine that you’re at a gathering and a family member who you generally disagree with on politics comes up and tries to engage you on one of those fraught topics. You can come in anticipating that and have a plan about what you can say. Even practice the line a few times beforehand. For example, you could say, “I want to have a great day with you, so let’s talk about something else.”

Sometimes, good parents have what they would consider bad thoughts. You may be thinking:

· This is hard for me, and I’m not having a great time

· My family understands me less than I want them to

· You may feel really frustrated with your child for not eating anything other than a roll at dinner or having a meltdown when it’s time to leave a gathering (speaking from personal experience).

These are all normal thoughts to have, and don’t make you mean or a bad parent. However, if you can anticipate that everyone (kids and adults!) will be overstimulated, off their normal routine, and likely tired, it may help you meet these thoughts and feelings with compassion and a shrug rather than giving them more meaning than you need to.

Things to consider:

· You don’t have to do everything every year for it to be a tradition

· You’re allowed to do things differently from your parents or family did

· Kids remember how they felt more than any other detail

· Think about things that are essential and things that you can let go. This will look different for everyone, but it can be so helpful in reducing conflict.

As the year comes to a close, I want to say thank you to all of you for investing your time and resources into helping us create a space where people can come to find strength and grow along their personal journeys. Thank you for sharing our name with people you love as a place people can get access (and get in quickly and with or without insurance coverage) to mental health care and group support programs. Thank you for valuing mental health as a core piece of what makes individuals and communities stronger. Together, we made possible care and support for more than 700 individuals and households in 2025 and just over 10,000+ visits for individual therapy and group participation. What a year!

I want to say thank you to our team who enable and provide direct care to our community members both here in person in Southeastern Michigan and across the state virtually in 41 counties. I get the opportunity to ask our clinicians and our clinical interns from time to time about how things are going. These causal hallway moments help me understand more deeply about the impact our services and programs have on our clients. I hear things like ‘being able to hold space for someone working through loss is such meaningful work’ and ‘my client is on the verge of making a change that she’s so excited about’. It’s incredible to witness the breadth and depth of how our team cares for our clients and how powerful it is to see clients find comfort and work towards goals they set for themselves. This is our goal and purpose - to provide a launching pad for people to heal, to find their voice, and to actualize power to achieve their own goals. 

In the year to come, you’ll see us talk more about ‘the lifecourse approach’ and our framing of our programs and services aligning more directly to this model. Our aim is that through providing holistic support at ‘moments that matter,’ we can reduce the barriers to folks finding emotional support and build up greater programming around economic self-determination. Stay tuned as we engage more deeply in 2026 to build out this work and amplify the impact our programs can have.  

Thank you for valuing and supporting women+ and families and understanding how much it matters at a time when the stresses folks are facing in the world can feel heavy and large - there is such collective strength in supporting each other as we navigate the unknown. Thank you for your part in making it happen. If you’d like to contribute to our annual appeal, click any of the embedded green and purple "donate" buttons.

See you in 2026,

Volunteering at The Women's Center

On December 6th, a few fabulous volunteers assisted us in painting some of our therapy offices. We are so grateful for their support and effort to make our space warmer and more inviting for clients. And a special thank you to the ladies of Corner Shower and Laundry, who brought us some holiday cookies to snack on while we worked.

Save the date for our upcoming Spring Soirée fundraiser!

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The Women’s Center of Southeastern Michigan is a nonprofit that provides therapy and other women-supportive services to help individuals achieve economic and emotional health. 

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