Welcome to On the Yellow Couch with Dr. Angelica Shiels!
Dr. Shiels is a wife and a mother of three young boys as well as a child and adult therapist. In her free-time, when she isn’t ninja-fighting, catching frogs, or wiping pee from around the toilet, she enjoys spending time on her own couch…. Which she wishes was yellow, but is actually brown and falling apart on account of the three milk-spilling ninjas….
Dr. Shiels really enjoys her job outside of the house, where kids, teens, adults, and couples can sit on a nice leather couch where no Gogurt is ever squeezed. Therapy with Dr. Shiels in available in the Annapolis/Baltimore/DC area.
Find her articles on Psych Central and Lifehack. Find her blog posts on Scary Mommy, Mamapedia, and others.
This essay is part of the “Real Relationships Series” on the yellow couch. This series showcases the sometimes beautiful, sometimes agonizing, and often messy aspects of relationships through real-life stories told by brave men and women. The intent of these essays … Continue reading →
Disclaimer added after I realized how this comes across: If you know me, you know two things about me. 1) That my favorite article ever is the mc sweeny’s “it’s gourd season motherf*ckers” and 2) I lovingly make fun of … Continue reading →
People often come to therapy with a certain kind of debilitating anxiety: The need to please and an overly-developed sense of responsibility for the feelings of others. At best, this anxiety manifests as a sense of panic when others convey … Continue reading →
You guys. You GUYS! Did you HEAR? THERAPY is better for insomnia than PILLS! Duh, therapy is better than a pill. Therapy trains your brain to wind itself down, while a pill ninja-wacks your brain into submission, thereby encouraging your … Continue reading →
Any adult who has had me for a therapist knows I ask one weird question to take the temperature of one’s mental well-being: What do your counter tops look like? Pristine? Probably a low tolerance for disorder and a higher … Continue reading →
Some psychologists are therapists for depressed people; Some are therapists for men; Some are therapists for couples on the rocks. Me? While I see all those groups too, I’m most-of-all a therapist for artists. ****** When my now-husband met me … Continue reading →
I say this all the time. Love schmuv. I am bad at keeping my facial expressions in check, so sometimes in therapy, I instinctually wince when someone in an incompatible relationship says something like “But we LOVE each other.” Then … Continue reading →
Arghhhh. Did you hear about the school that stamped kids’ wrists with a small “needs lunch money” note? Nothing permanent, not a sign that says “loser,” just needs-lunch-money, displayed so the parent saw it. Parents are going nuts. It’s a … Continue reading →
The other night as my husband was getting ready for bed, I heard him mumble at me from the bathroom, “you’re a good wife, but not a good roommate.” By prefacing his criticism with a compliment, he was trying to … Continue reading →
Every day before kindergarten, my mom used to read me a story from a series of children’s books called “Sweet Pickles.” Each book wove a meaningful life lesson into the thrilling life of an anthropomorphized cartoon animal. Ironically, of the … Continue reading →