Author: David Pexa

You’re not broken, you’re just stuck. Feeling that way is a draining, frustrating experience, and it’s often hard to tell if it’s just a rough patch or something more. Knowing the actual signs that counseling would help is the first, most powerful step you can take toward getting back on track. This isn’t about weakness; it’s about recognizing when your usual toolkit for handling life isn’t cutting it anymore and you need a new set of tools. Emotional Regulation is Off-Kilter Your emotions are data. They tell you what’s going on inside. When that data feed becomes corrupted with static,…

Walking the tightrope between self-assurance and self-importance is one of life’s most crucial balancing acts. The line is thin, and mistaking one for the other can sabotage your career, your relationships, and your personal growth. This is the constant battle of arrogance vs confidence. True confidence empowers you and those around you, while arrogance is a cheap imitation, a hollow shell built to impress an audience that isn’t really paying attention. Understanding this difference isn’t just a matter of semantics; it’s fundamental to building a life of substance. The Core Difference: Internal Validation vs. External Performance At its heart, the…

A family coach isn’t a therapist and isn’t a parenting expert. The role is more like a translator — someone who helps each person in the family see what the others are actually saying beneath the surface. When the family system isn’t working, a family coach helps you see what’s actually happening — and what to do about it. You’ve been carrying this for a while now. The worry, the confusion, the quiet dread that settles in when your child walks through the door and you can feel the tension change the temperature of the room. You’ve tried things. You’ve…

You are not your problems. This is the radical, life-altering foundation of narrative therapy, a respectful and collaborative approach to counseling and personal growth. Instead of searching for flaws within you, we focus on the stories you live by and the influence that problems have on your life. This guide dives deep into the most effective narrative therapy interventions, providing you with the tools to separate yourself from problem-saturated stories and start authoring a new, preferred reality. At davidpexa.com, we believe that the stories we tell ourselves dictate the lives we live. When those stories are dominated by anxiety, failure,…

You’re searching for an anxious attachment style test free of charge, and you’re in the right place. But let's be honest, you're not just looking for a quiz. You're looking for answers. You want to understand that knot in your stomach when a text goes unanswered, the panic that rises when you feel a partner pulling away, and the relentless need for reassurance that feels both essential and exhausting. This guide won't just give you a label; it will give you a roadmap. We’ll break down what anxious attachment actually means, what a reliable test looks like in 2026, and…

You're out. The relationship, if you can even call it that, is over. But you feel a strange mix of relief and profound emptiness. The constant push-and-pull, the emotional breadcrumbing, and the deep, unsettling loneliness you felt even when you were with him have left a mark. This isn't a normal breakup. This is a recovery. The process of healing after dating an emotionally unavailable man requires you to confront not just the ghost of the relationship, but the parts of yourself that were willing to accept so little for so long. Recognizing the Aftermath: What Emotional Unavailability Does to…

People search for mentor advice from one of two places. They either don’t have a mentor and feel like they should, or they have one and aren’t sure whether it’s working. Both versions of this question come from the same underlying confusion: nobody told you what readiness for mentorship actually looks like. This article is a diagnostic. Not a motivational speech, not a list of platforms, not a pitch for paid mentorship. By the end of it, you should know whether you’re in the right place to engage a mentor productively — or whether the better next move is something…

Most adults stop finding mentors in their twenties. Not because they stop needing them — they need them more — but because the pipeline that produced mentors in school quietly shuts off, and no one tells you it shut off, and no one tells you what to do instead. In school, mentors were structural. You had teachers, advisors, coaches, professors, residency directors. Some of them mentored you whether they meant to or not. The relationship was set up FOR you. Your job was to show up. Then you graduated. Or left the program. Or moved cities. And the structure that…

I know a woman who has read 71 books on creativity. She has highlighted the best lines, transferred them to a notebook, and reread the notebook on flights. She knows everything Twyla Tharp, Julia Cameron, Rick Rubin, and Steven Pressfield have to say about the work. She has not written a chapter in three years. She is not stupid. She is not lazy. She is, by most measures, the smartest person in any room she walks into. And she is — by her own quiet admission, when no one is listening — completely stuck. If you have ever been her,…

Most people hire a parenting coach when they’ve tried everything and nothing’s working. That’s actually the perfect time — because it means you’ve already ruled out the easy answers. If you’ve been searching for a parenting coach, you’re probably wondering what one actually does — and whether it would make a difference. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably tried the other routes. The school counselor who saw your child for twenty minutes and said they seem fine. The therapist who met weekly for three months and helped your child “talk about their feelings” but didn’t change anything at home. Maybe…