Feeling like a different person before your period
Many people feel like someone else in the days before their period. Naomi Wu, PsyD on what that experience means, and how to meet that version of you instead of fearing it.
Undercurrent.
What we are writing now
The series.
Our clinicians write in clusters: one essay that lays out the whole idea, then shorter pieces that go deeper into one part of it. Start at the top of a series and work down, or read any one on its own.
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01
Acceptance and commitment therapy
ACT explained from inside the room: the six processes as they actually show up in a session, one essay at a time.
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02
The cycle and the mind
How the menstrual cycle shapes mood, and where the ordinary premenstrual week ends and something that deserves treatment begins.
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03
Defenses and the unsaid
The moves a mind makes to keep itself comfortable, read closely and without judgement, from a psychodynamic frame.
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04
Psychoanalytic diagnosis
What it means to understand a person by their level of personality organization and character style rather than their symptom list, and why that changes how the work is done.
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05
Culturally responsive care
What it takes for therapy to hold culture, family, and immigration history as part of the clinical picture instead of background detail.
Recently published
Recent essays.
Splitting in psychology: why the mind sees all good or all bad
Splitting is the mind's habit of seeing people, including yourself, as all good or all bad, with no middle. Sean Noe, PhD explains where the defense comes from, what it protects, and how therapy helps it soften.
Understanding psychoanalytic diagnosis: a different way of seeing people
Psychoanalytic diagnosis asks who you are, not just what symptoms you have. Jean Jho, PsyD explains levels of personality organization, character styles, and how the PDM differs from the DSM.
Cognitive Defusion: How to Stop Believing Everything Your Mind Says
Cognitive defusion is the ACT skill of seeing a thought as just a thought. A Carlsbad psychologist explains what fusion costs you, what defusion feels like, and a few ways to practice it.
Culturally Sensitive Therapy: What It Feels Like to Be Understood
Culturally sensitive therapy is more than competence. A licensed psychologist on what cultural attunement actually feels like, and how to find it.
What Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Actually Is, From Inside the Room
Acceptance and commitment therapy, explained from inside the room. A Carlsbad psychologist on what ACT actually is, how the six processes work in real sessions, and who it tends to help.
PMS vs PMDD: how to tell the difference
PMS, PMDD, and premenstrual exacerbation are not the same. Naomi Wu, PsyD explains the differences, the warning signs, and when to seek help.
The menstrual cycle and your emotional life: what the medical model leaves out
Your menstrual cycle can shape your emotional life in real and noticeable ways. Naomi Wu, PsyD on how the cycle affects your emotions, what the medical model leaves out, and when premenstrual distress is worth listening to.
Defense mechanisms, explained in plain language
Defense mechanisms are the mind's automatic ways of protecting itself from feelings that seem too dangerous to feel. Sean Noe, PhD explains splitting, projection, repression, and more in plain language.
Table of contents
Explore by topic.
The archive
Every essay, newest first.
- The Difference Between Letting Go and Giving Up
- Feeling like a different person before your period
- Splitting in psychology: why the mind sees all good or all bad
- Understanding psychoanalytic diagnosis: a different way of seeing people
- Cognitive Defusion: How to Stop Believing Everything Your Mind Says
- Culturally Sensitive Therapy: What It Feels Like to Be Understood
- What Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Actually Is, From Inside the Room
- PMS vs PMDD: how to tell the difference
- The menstrual cycle and your emotional life: what the medical model leaves out
- Defense mechanisms, explained in plain language
- A Faith that Unfolds: A Developmental Perspective of Faith in Adolescence
- Why Trauma Symptoms Can Show Up Years Later in Women
- DBT Skills Are For Everyone: Why This Therapy Isn’t Just for Crisis
- Can AI Replace Therapy? Why a Digital Face Will Never Be Human
- What Words Cannot Hold: A Therapist's Reflections on Emotional Awareness
- What Is a Process Group? Inside Real Talk, Our Adult Interpersonal Process Group
- What Does It Mean When We Say “Relational Psychotherapy”?
- Self-Compassion For When We Screw Up
- Finding Healing and Belonging: Embracing Mental Health for Asian Americans
- Culturally Compassionate Care for Asian American Clients: Insights for Therapists
- Healing from Religious Trauma
- Understanding Transference in Therapy
- Understanding the Shape of Your Grief: Secondary Losses and Mediators of Mourning
- Keys to Understanding the Grief Process: Introduction to Worden’s Four Tasks of Mourning
- To Give Advice or Not To Give Advice: How To Be Present With Our Loved Ones In Their Suffering
- Ways To Support Your Partner With Depression
- Why Is My Anxiety Getting Worse?
The Letter
Quiet, monthly reflections, in your inbox.
One thoughtful letter a month. A new essay, a few lines worth sitting with, and nothing else. Unsubscribe anytime.
We write once a month, never more.
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About Undercurrent.
Undercurrent is the in-house publication of Coastal Therapy Group, a relational psychodynamic group practice with offices in Encinitas, Carlsbad, and Vista. The essays are written by our clinicians, who spend their working hours listening closely to the stories people tell themselves and thinking about what those stories are quietly doing.
Nothing here is a substitute for therapy. If something you read makes you curious about the work of being known, we would be glad to hear from you.