therapist near me
Welcome to the Taproot Therapy Collective Blog, your deep-dive space into trauma-informed therapy, depth psychology, and the cultural forces shaping mental health today. Our goal is to be a trusted, authoritative resource for individuals and professionals seeking to understand the complex links between the psyche, the body, and society.
As a YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) resource, we prioritize E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). Every article is authored and clinically reviewed by our team of licensed therapists in Birmingham, Alabama. Our writers share their firsthand clinical experience and deep expertise in fields ranging from Jungian insights and somatic healing to cutting-edge, evidence-based modalities.
Our blog explores the forefront of mental health, including:
While our insights are relevant globally, we are rooted in the Birmingham community. We regularly share resources for therapists and mental health seekers in Alabama. Our writing bridges clinical depth with cultural relevance, designed to help you find articles that resonate and cultivate new possibilities for growth, resilience, and meaningful connection.
Understanding the Psychology Behind Deception and Emotional Manipulation Have you ever wondered if your business partner is a con artist? Perhaps you've noticed a pattern where their stories don't quite add up, where their accomplishments seem to exist only in...
The analysis of the psychology of war reveals that the history of American conflict is a history of the human mind under extreme duress. From the nervous sensibility of the founding fathers to the moral injury of the modern drone operator the way we experience and understand war has evolved but the fundamental trauma remains the same. The work of theorists like Freud Jung Lifton and Shay provides a roadmap for understanding this trauma not as a pathology but as a deeply human response to the inhumanity of war. By integrating these insights into clinical practice and personal reflection we can begin the work of healing the wounds of history and perhaps breaking the cycle of violence that has defined so much of our past.
Explore the lives discoveries and lasting influence of the six giants of behavioral psychology including Pavlov Thorndike Watson Skinner Wolpe and Bandura. Learn how their groundbreaking research on classical conditioning operant conditioning systematic desensitization and social learning theory shaped modern evidence-based psychotherapy and continues to inform clinical practice today.
Explore the life and transformative contributions of Albert Bandura, the Canadian-American psychologist whose Bobo doll experiments and self-efficacy theory revolutionized our understanding of how people learn and change. Discover how his research on observational learning, social cognitive theory, and beliefs about personal capability continues to shape psychotherapy, education, health behavior, and our understanding of human potential.
The history of psychotherapy is filled with discoveries that emerged from unusual circumstances, and few are more striking than the origins of systematic desensitization. During World War II, a young South African physician named Joseph Wolpe was assigned to treat...
Explore the life and revolutionary contributions of B.F. Skinner, the psychologist who developed operant conditioning and transformed our understanding of how consequences shape behavior. Learn how his research on reinforcement schedules, the Skinner box experiments, and behavioral principles laid the foundation for Applied Behavior Analysis, educational technology, and evidence-based behavioral interventions that continue to help millions of people today.
Discover the revolutionary life and controversial legacy of John B. Watson, the American psychologist who founded behaviorism and transformed psychology from a philosophical discipline into an experimental science. Learn about the famous Little Albert experiment, Watson’s radical vision for psychology, and how his work laid the foundations for modern behavior therapy despite profound ethical concerns that continue to shape research standards today.
Explore the lives discoveries and lasting influence of the six giants of behavioral psychology including Pavlov Thorndike Watson Skinner Wolpe and Bandura. Learn how their groundbreaking research on classical conditioning operant conditioning systematic desensitization and social learning theory shaped modern evidence-based psychotherapy and continues to inform clinical practice today.
It is one of the great ironies of scientific history that the father of behavioral psychology never considered himself a psychologist at all. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a physiologist consumed by the mechanical workings of the digestive system. He viewed the body as an...
A deep dive into the life and work of William James the father of American psychology. Explore how his battle with depression led to the theories of free will habit and the stream of consciousness that define therapy today.
An exhaustive exploration of the origins of modern psychotherapy, detailing the conflicts between alienists, neurologists, and early psychologists. Discover the legacy of William James, S. Weir Mitchell, and Adolf Meyer in today’s clinical practice.
The Strategic Self explores the intersection of Karl Friston’s Free Energy Principle and Game Theory to offer a revolutionary understanding of trauma and recovery outlining how the brain’s predictive layers can be realigned for healing.
Joel Blackstock traces the history of madness from medieval demons to modern surveillance and proposes a new path for therapy using Peter Sloterdijk’s concept of Foam. Learn why we must move from swimming to sailing.
Joel Blackstock explores why the modern world feels like a simulation and how psychology’s obsession with logic and objectivity is failing to heal the human soul. Discover why we need to move beyond the robot model of the self.
Discover why the high-profit business model of academic publishing is hurting psychotherapy. Joel Blackstock explores how paywalls, copyright traps, and the neoliberal capture of knowledge are separating clinicians from the science they need to heal patients.
Discover why the bureaucratic “White Coat” of modern psychotherapy is driving patients toward pseudoscience. Joel Blackstock explores the moral injury of clinicians, the failure of the biomedical model to build trust, and how reclaiming narrative can save the profession.
Discover how Magnolia officinalis bark extract offers anxiety relief through GABA modulation similar to Xanax and alcohol, but with hepatoprotective benefits instead of liver damage. Comprehensive guide to honokiol, magnolol, safety, dosing, and clinical applications.
The Ontology of the Other World In the landscape of contemporary psychotherapy, the dream is frequently relegated to the status of a "residue"—a nightly data dump of the brain's metabolic waste, or at best, an encoded puzzle regarding waking life anxieties to be...
A Jungian analysis of Rome’s psychological collapse through Edward Edinger’s ego-archetype framework, exploring how the shattering of the Imperial Ego led to mass retreat into mystery cults, the rise of Christianity, and parallels with our current meaning crisis and cultural fragmentation.
A comprehensive Jungian analysis of how the transformation of cinema into algorithmic content represents a catastrophic cultural stagnation, examining the psychology of the “Ziploc soul,” historical precedents from Rome to the WPA, and the urgent need for a rebellion of viewers against the death of transformative art.
Complete historical and psychological analysis of Birmingham’s Vulcan statue from 1903-present, exploring how the world’s largest cast-iron sculpture mirrors the city’s journey through industrial trauma, commercial exploitation, and authentic restoration, incorporating technical details, cultural impact, and therapeutic significance.
Discover 20 surprising facts about Birmingham, Alabama that most locals have never heard, from George Ward’s lost Sibyl Temple to Mountain Brook’s deliberate design choices, and what each reveals about the psychology of place.
Alabama’s abundant ghost stories reveal a wounded landscape where unprocessed traumas of Indigenous displacement, plantation slavery, industrial exploitation, and racial violence refuse to stay buried. A clinical exploration of why the South haunts itself and what the ghosts are asking of the living.
How a Greek Immigrant's Restaurant Reveals the Hidden Architecture of Human Connection There is a squat brick building on Finley Avenue in Birmingham that has been serving meat and three plates since 1957. Niki's West Cafeteria does not look like a place where history...
What Birmingham's Greatest Architectural Loss Reveals About Self-Sabotage In 1969, Birmingham tore down the most beautiful building it had ever constructed. Terminal Station was a Beaux-Arts masterpiece that had welcomed travelers to the city for sixty years, a...
Alabama’s official state gemstone may not actually exist. The Star Blue Quartz enigma reveals profound truths about motivated reasoning, symbolic attachment, and the psychology of wanting to believe. A therapist explores what this geological mystery teaches us about navigating the gap between hope and reality.
How a Young City's Architectural Ambition Mirrors Our Own Psychological Struggles If you have ever driven through downtown Birmingham and looked up at the historic buildings clustered around 20th Street and 1st Avenue North, you have witnessed something remarkable. In...
Why did Birmingham’s beloved Fish Market serve expensive seafood on paper plates? A Birmingham therapist explores the psychology of confidence, reverse snobbery, and what authentic self-worth really looks like.
For residents of Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, and greater Birmingham, one of the most profound lessons in mental health grows wild in our own backyard. A Flower That Lives for Twenty-Four Hours Each May and June, something extraordinary happens in the...
For residents of Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Homewood, and greater Birmingham, one of our most defining institutions offers an unexpected lesson about becoming who we never planned to be. The Institution That Is Younger Than Your Parents Here is a fact that...
The 1963 Children’s March in Birmingham reveals the psychology of parentification trauma. A Birmingham therapist explores family systems and role reversal healing.
Birmingham’s streetcar system was deliberately destroyed in the 1950s. A Birmingham therapist explores how this shapes isolation in Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills.
The Machine isn’t a conspiracy theory—it’s real, and it shapes Alabama politics and Birmingham professional life. Learn how institutional betrayal creates psychological trauma and how therapy can help you reclaim agency in rigged systems. Birmingham trauma specialist.
Discover the wild history of Birmingham’s Vulcan statue. From the 1904 World’s Fair to holding a pickle jar, explore the journey of the world’s largest cast iron statue.
Discover the hidden connection between Mountain Brook, AL, and the Jemison Center asylum. A Birmingham therapist explores how the Jemison legacy, slavery, and mental health history intersect.
How century-old transit decisions continue to shape where you drive, where you walk, and how you experience your neighborhood If you've ever driven down Broadway Street in Homewood and wondered why it feels oddly wide for a two-lane road, or noticed that certain...
Why Mountain Brook, Alabama has no sidewalks—and how Robert Jemison’s 1920s automobile vision created modern isolation. A Birmingham therapist explores the mental health cost through New Urbanist principles.
Highway 280 wasn’t built to connect Birmingham’s suburbs—it was built to avoid the city entirely. A Birmingham therapist explores the mental health cost of bypass infrastructure and geographic avoidance.
There's a peculiar truth about Birmingham's most famous pastry: the building where it was born no longer exists, yet the roll itself has become more iconic than the four-story Roman temple that housed its creation. As a therapist, I find this fascinating. What makes a...
Paul Tillich’s profound influence on depth psychology and psychotherapy through his concepts of ultimate concern, existential anxiety, and the courage to be. This comprehensive guide examines how this existentialist theologian’s work on meaning, faith, and human existence continues to shape therapeutic practice, pastoral counseling, comparative religion, and philosophy. Includes timeline and analysis of psychotherapists influenced by Tillich including Rollo May, Carl Rogers, and Irvin Yalom.
Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, written nearly 2,000 years ago from Roman military camps, provides foundational insights for modern psychotherapy. Discover the connections between Stoic philosophy and CBT, existential therapy, and depth psychology, and learn why therapists like Irvin Yalom consider this ancient text essential reading for understanding human suffering and resilience. A comprehensive guide for mental health professionals and anyone seeking psychological wisdom from history’s philosopher-emperor.
Explore how William of Ockham’s medieval philosophy—including his famous razor principle—offers profound insights for depth psychology and psychotherapy. This comprehensive article examines Ockham’s relevance to clinical practice, case conceptualization, and therapeutic interpretation while tracing his influence across comparative religion, empiricism, and existential thought. Discover why this fourteenth-century Franciscan friar’s ideas about parsimony, epistemic humility, and the limits of knowledge remain essential for modern therapists, analysts, and anyone seeking to understand the human psyche.
Explore how St. Augustine’s Confessions shaped depth psychology and modern psychotherapy. Discover why Irvin Yalom values this fourth-century thinker and how Augustine’s insights on the divided will, unconscious motivation, and therapeutic confession remain vital for clinicians today.
Explore the profound relevance of St. John of the Cross for depth psychology and psychotherapy. This comprehensive article examines how the sixteenth century mystic’s concept of the dark night of the soul illuminates psychological transformation, drawing connections to Jungian psychology, existential therapy, and transpersonal approaches. Discover why therapists from Irvin Yalom to contemporary clinicians find enduring wisdom in this mystical poet’s understanding of human suffering and transformation.
Explore the extraordinary life of George B. Ward (1867-1940), Birmingham’s visionary mayor who built a Roman temple on Shades Mountain. This comprehensive psychological analysis examines Ward’s trauma-driven obsession with order, his City Beautiful movement, his flirtation with fascism, and the mystery of his burned papers—revealing how one man’s battle between chaos and control shaped a city’s identity.
Why are Asian Lady Beetles swarming your Alabama home? Discover the history of this “insect Kudzu,” why they mistake your house for a Japanese cliff, and how their tragic burnout offers a powerful lesson for your mental health and personal growth.
Discover energy psychotherapy, a revolutionary approach integrating ancient Eastern wisdom with modern neuroscience. Learn about somatic therapies, EFT, brainspotting, Hakomi, and other body-based treatments that address trauma at its physiological roots—offering hope when talk therapy alone isn’t enough.
Discover why somatic and brain-based therapies often outperform talk therapy for trauma and emotional dysregulation. Explore the neurobiology of afferent feedback, the vagus nerve, and how body-to-brain signaling drives persistent emotional states.
Why Healing Requires Confronting What We Most Want to Avoid When I first began my career as a clinical social worker, I worked with individuals who had been chronically homeless and actively psychotic for years—sometimes five, ten, even fifteen years of living on the...
A neurobiological argument for the dominance of afferent feedback in emotional persistence and the therapeutic implications for trauma treatment
Explore Søren Kierkegaard’s profound influence on existential psychotherapy, from his pioneering insights on anxiety and despair to contemporary applications by Irvin Yalom and other therapists. Comprehensive overview of the father of existentialism.
A comprehensive exploration of psychology topics spanning the breadth of human experience, from fundamental concepts like memory and emotion to specialized areas like forensic psychology and environmental mental health.
Explore the fascinating world of psychology, from depth psychology and symbolism to cognitive, social, and developmental theories. Uncover the mysteries of the human mind and behavior.
Explore Jungian concepts such as archetypes, the collective unconscious, and individuation. Learn how dream analysis and symbolism facilitate self-awareness and personal growth through the insights of Carl Jung.
Explore the significance of dreams in depth psychology, from Freud’s dream interpretation to Jungian archetypes. Learn how dreams provide insights into the unconscious mind, personal growth, and trauma healing.
Uncover the profound language of symbolism and meaning-making in the human psyche. Explore universal archetypes, myths, and metaphors through depth psychology and the symbolic dimensions of trauma.
Journey into the captivating world of classical mythology, focusing on the rich traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. Explore how myths offer profound insights into the human condition and universal themes.
Explores the frontier of evidence-based practice in psychotherapy, taking a fresh look at the scientific foundations of mental health treatment through the integrative lenses of depth psychology and trauma neurology.
Examines the complex landscape of research-informed therapy while critically evaluating the limitations, biases, and cultural considerations that shape how we apply research findings to real-world clinical practice.
Explore existentialism, metaphysics, ethics, and the philosophy of mind. Discover insights from renowned thinkers and engage in thought-provoking discussions.
Explore phenomenological and existential approaches to understanding human experience and psychological healing, focusing on lived experience, authenticity, freedom, and meaning-making.
Examine how post-postmodern frameworks illuminate contemporary mental health challenges including cultural displacement, narrative fragmentation, authenticity struggles, and the oscillation between hope and despair.
Explore the psychological dimensions of cultural paradigms and their impact on identity, meaning-making, and therapeutic practice.
Delve into the intricate relationship between brain function, trauma, and mental health treatment. Discover insights into innovative therapeutic approaches, neuroplasticity, and the role of emotions in healing.
Explore the hidden dimensions of film and TV through the lenses of depth psychology and trauma neurology. Discover how the moving image reflects and shapes the psyche, both individually and collectively.
Explore the profound psychological and symbolic impact of media and culture on our individual and collective psyche. Uncover the hidden meanings and archetypal themes woven into the fabric of our cultural landscape.
Explore Industrial-Organizational Psychology, focusing on workplace performance, employee well-being, leadership development, and organizational culture.
Explore the psychology of design and architecture, from the emotional impact of spaces to human-centered design. Learn how architecture influences mental health, well-being, and behavior.
Explore how colors influence psychological experience, from the neurological mechanisms behind color perception to practical applications in therapeutic environments and creative healing approaches.
Explore the symbolic significance and psychological undercurrents of historical events through the lens of depth psychology, symbolism, and design psychology.
Examine the psychological dynamics behind conspiracy thinking, critical thinking, and the appeal of alternative narratives in contemporary culture.
Embark on a fascinating journey into the deep history of the human psyche, exploring how anthropology and evolutionary psychology shed light on ancient origins of modern minds, behaviors, and cultures.
Discover the transformative power of Christian mysticism and contemplative spirituality, exploring how practices like centering prayer and lectio divina can heal trauma and facilitate encounters with the deep Self.
Explore the intersection of spirituality and depth psychology to uncover the role of spiritual practices in trauma healing, consciousness, and personal transformation.
Discover the universal quest for meaning, transcendence, and healing across spiritual traditions, exploring key practices and insights from world religions through depth psychology and trauma neurology.
Examine the psychological dimensions of mystical experience and spiritual teaching across various traditions and historical periods.
Explore the shadowy psychodynamics of coercive control, from cults to abusive relationships. Learn to recognize red flags of undue influence and support recovery processes.
Trace the evolution of psychotherapy through the lens of depth psychology and symbolism, from Freudian psychoanalysis to contemporary approaches.
Explore the lives and contributions of influential figures who shaped the field of psychology and psychotherapy.
Explore depth psychology, CBT, humanistic therapies, and more. Discover how various therapeutic approaches promote healing and personal growth.
Discover a deeper approach to health and healing by exploring alternative medicine practices and holistic wellbeing through the lenses of depth psychology and trauma neurology.
Comprehensive collection of guided meditations designed to support mental health, emotional regulation, and spiritual well-being.