The 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing & Trauma Response

I had started teaching class at exactly 9:00 a.m. at the university where I was a faculty member in Oklahoma City.

One minute later, at 9:01 a.m. on April 19, 1995, we all heard it from our classroom six miles away: the explosion that was the Oklahoma City bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

I said aloud to the class, “What was that?”

We paused.

And then I continued to teach.

This was 1995, long before live, up-to-the-minute news streamed across our screens. It was not until later in the day that we learned what had happened.

In the days and weeks that followed, I was fortunate to be one of several people able to offer trauma-based responses to those who had experienced suffering.

Mind you, I was young. I did not yet have the training or perspective to offer the kind of clinical care I would hope to offer now. And yet, there I was, in Oklahoma City, responding.

A Christian church experienced major devastation that day. First Baptist Church, located across the street from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, suffered major damage in the bombing.

A few years later, I was fortunate to purchase this stained-glass lighthouse, created from the debris of the broken stained glass from within the church. I bought it myself at First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

I hold on to it as a reminder of the trauma of that experience, the hope of restoration, and the light that can still shine after rupture.

Life.

 The mystery of life and Mystery in life unfolds in such mysterious ways.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Some people change us

 Some people change us - reframe the entire context of how we see ourselves, the world, our role in it.

Walter Brueggemann shaped my life in profound ways.

He is now deceased.

I only met him on a few occasions - talked to him less than 45 minutes in the entire sum of my 50+ years, spread out over five, six or seven occasions.  And yet, I listened to him lecture many times and more importantly, read many, many of his publications - and then, I've been shaped too by those who have been shaped by his publications and l’œuvre d’une vie.

Brueggemann helped me understand a world that needs the critique of the Prophet - in order to extend and expand justice, equity, and peace.  Brueggemann helped me understand and work to achieve and hope to believe that the vast amount of flourishing which exists in Creation, can be distributed for the Good of/for All.  He helped me think and discern poetry and imagination, hope and critique.

Walter Brueggemann, one of the most widely respected Bible scholars of the past century, died Thursday (June 5) at his home in Michigan. He was 92.

The author of more than 100 books of theology and biblical criticism, Brueggemann was professor emeritus of Old Testament studies at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, until his retirement in 2003.

Toward eupan - and for the sake of the world's Peace & Flourishing - Brueggemann's imprint runs deep in my being - and I hope, extends through my life's work, too.

~ marty

2025 Newness

 I'm not much for New Years Resolutions, as I advocate for many (and myself) that a person can resolve to live a better life and become a better person and navigate hard things any day of the year, when they're ready.

And yet, with the New Year, I'm eager for the potential for newness.

Aware of the reality of Global Climate Change and The Greed of Corporate Capitalism and many other complexities . . . I yet hope for a better world, and will do what I can to foster that for all people, until the world is characterized by the peace and flourishing that is possible for all living beings.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Reborn

It's hard to believe how much I've learned, how much I've grown, how much my life has radiantly blossomed and rejuvenated over the past few years.

It's remarkable, really, that a person my age would still be reflecting, renewing, and richly developing.

Resilient.

Remarkable.

Resplendent.

Reinvented.

Reborn.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

The Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process / Memory Reconsolidation

I’m introducing to past and existing clients something new in my practice of psychotherapy, with the potential for transformational memory shift, impactful emotional new feelings and activating emotional healing. 

Kindly 🌿 be sure to make it to the three specific, total of 18 minute videos shared below. (With yet more shared, too).  I labeled that area with three (3) 🌿🌿🌿 below

Earlier in my career, I completed training in several trauma informed perspectives, for aiding *any* psychological hurt that remains with you to the present moment.  These have included EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - with Francine Shapiro, The Flash Technique (with Philip Manfield), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Sue Johnson and the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT - tapping).  I also earned certification in Oregon to be among the first Oregon Health Authority Licensed Psilocybin Facilitators in America.

Happy with these approaches overall, but dis-satisfied with them, too, I’ve been looking for better ways to guide people in their healing process & transformational life journey.

I have recently completed numerous training sessions and came to the work of Bruce Ecker’s summary, in Unlocking the Emotional Brain.  Ecker and others have built on the work of the best neuroscience and pointed out that the reason many “techniques” in healing for any psychological injury are effective is that *sometimes* these other methods follow the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process (TRP), also known as Memory Reconsolidation - known also as the ECPE for Empirically Confirmed Process of Erasure - allows persons to re-experience difficult, distressing events of and hold onto the memory, while erasing the *emotion* of the past hurt from the memory.  In other words, the memory still “exists” AND YET, the emotional pain tied to the memory is “unlocked” and can be neutralized. 

I like to offer an analogy for thinking about this:  When you update an app that is running on your mobile device, the updated app still runs more or not in the same way and yet differently after the update has been run. Through the Memory Reconsolidation process, a person still holds on to a memory from the past, but the updated version of it is drained from a significant amount, if not all, of the emotional aspects of the old version of that story. In the update.

The process can be “completed” as a “technique” in one of several ways - that is why different “techniques” in trauma & psychological injury healing have worked in the past 20 years of psychotherapy!  And yet, the “techniques” are not what heals, it is the brain’s emotional processing that operates within each technique that brings about lasting emotional change from past psychological injury.

My headlong quest into finding help to shift persons from their psychological injury toward wellness has included numerous more recent completed studies and trainings to include:

1. Rapid Resolution Therapy (RRT) with Jon Connelly

2. Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) with  Laney Rosenzweig.

3. Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) with Diana Fosha, PhD.  

4. Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. and the IFS Institute.

5. Four Blinks with Thomas Zimmerman

6. The RECON method for trauma reconsolidation with Courtney Armstrong

7. Rapid Trauma Processing with Dave Ebaugh, LCSW

8. Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT)

9. Somatic Experiencing Training International with Peter Levine

Integrating these “techniques” - I am now working to aid people in Memory Reconsolidation based on Bruce Ecker's synthesis of the brains process within the Therapeutic Reconsolidation Process.

What does this mean “in a real appointment”? 

• The process I’m engaging in to get persons through the TRP / MR (Memory Reconsolidation) only needs you to want to “unlock your emotional” past hurts and to show up in a calm, quiet, and thoughtful setting.

• The appointment requires you to think back to any difficulty distressing memory in the past - and yet you don't have to stay there and won't stay there.  You don't even need to describe the details of the past hurt to me - you only be able to label it or title it for me to remind you to "go back there" for brief moments.

• Having a full-screen monitor (computer, tv is most simple) but it can be done without a monitor.  I prefer eye movement for the process over body movement as some clients get exhausted with the body movement.)  Currently, I’m using a link I’ll send from this bilateral eye movement website: https://www.bilateralstimulation.io/  Without a monitor, we use body based bilateral tapping, cross body tapping, or butterfly tapping. And, blinking.

• The engaging work runs 20-40 minutes using most, but not all of an appointment on most occasions.  If a person is processing a more difficult distressing memory, it might be good to alert me so we can plan for you to have an extra 10-20 minutes into “the next hour” for ensuring we come to a calm, neutral end, if not an optimistic neutral end.

• Most of the session's time is rooted in a grounding, positive emotionally focused event of some positive emotion, good feeling.

• The process does require you to experience the emotional distress of the past difficult memory, in order to fire and wire your brain’s neural memory in order to unlearn and retrain that neural pathway in your brain.  The process does invite a person to think new thoughts and think imaginatively, while being grounded in real experience that "feels right" for each client.

• A client only needs to briefly experience the distress, and we do *not* want to stay there, nor get stuck there, nor remain there long - most of the session works toward grounded good feelings and new ways to think about the old past emotional event as new neural pathways are consolidated with better ways of thinking and emoting.

• A good portion of the session's time is also "imaginal" where you "create a new memory experience" in a way that shows up unique to your life's story.

If you’re interested in more, there are tons of ways I can share more, lots that you can read.  Though, you can also just “trust me” to guide YOUR emotion through the process of remembering your past pain, in order to UNLEARN that emotional event from it’s emotional pain, to a different and less distressing, and more neutral experience.  On the basis of the neutral experience, you can then be postured for new transformational experiences in your emotional well-being, and poised for new growth.

🌿🌿🌿 Below are the three select videos,for a total of 18 minutes of the resources that I believe most simply point to what this is and how it works. 🌿🌿🌿

Three (3) minute introduction to memory consolidation and reconsolidation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKiV3FNpXhk

Five (5) minute introduction to Transformation Change, MR (Memory Reconsolidation)  & Bruce Ecker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJrfsjT35UE

Ten (10) minute narrative of Bruce Ecker (Coherence Institute) with whom I received certified training and who inspires me as a practitioner, and for the promise and potential of Memory Reconsolidation, an unlocked emotional brain and a transformation potential to move into a new future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Ur5aag0Ow

MANY more links:

PDF Research Paper: memory reconsolidation understood and misunderstood Bruce Ecker Coherence Psychology Institute

https://coherencetherapy.org/files/Ecker_2015_MR-Understood-&-Misunderstood.pdf

PDF Research Paper: Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research: Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production by Bruce Ecker

https://www.coherencetherapy.org/files/Ecker_2018_Clinical_Translation_of_Memory_Reconsolidation_Research.pdf

18 Page Summer: A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation and its psychotherapeutic use as a

core process of profound change by Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic and Laurel Hulley

https://coherencetherapy.org/files/Ecker-etal-NPT2013April-Primer.pdf

APA Psychology Paper: How the science of memory reconsolidation advances the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy.

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-29037-001

Research Gate Paper: UNDERSTANDING MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION - January 2015 -- The Neuropsychotherapist

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281571640_UNDERSTANDING_MEMORY_RECONSOLIDATON

BOOK ABSTRACT:  Unlocking the Emotional Brain Memory Reconsolidation and the Psychotherapy of Transformational Change

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003231431/unlocking-emotional-brain-bruce-ecker-robin-ticic-laurel-hulley

1st Edition Book Link: Unlocking the Emotional Brain (Routledge Mental Health Classic Editions) 1st Edition by Bruce Ecker (Author), Robin Ticic (Author), Laurel Hulley (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Emotional-Brain-Eliminating-Reconsolidation-ebook/dp/B09RND933D?

BOOK:  Newest Edition:  Unlocking the Emotional Brain Paperback – April 22, 2024 by Bruce Ecker (Author), Robin Ticic (Author), Laurel Hulley (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Unlocking-Emotional-Brain-Bruce-Ecker/dp/1032139129/

VIDEO: Memory Reconsolidation and Metaprocessing Emotions | AEDP with Dr. Tori Olds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOuZdLAq_YU

VIDEO: Memory Reconsolidation: How to Rewire Our Brain with Dr. Tori Olds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWfpLtgxDi4

VIDEO:  The 5 steps of memory reconsolidation with Courtney Armstrong

https://youtu.be/yG_t_1jfLQA?si=0cTGV1EjHOyqEDbN

Understanding Memory Reconsolidation in this Version of Flash with Thomas Zimmerman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao_1cyUIDII

VIDEO: The Brain's Process of Profound Change: A Primer on Memory Reconsolidation for Therapists with Bruce Ecker

https://youtu.be/_a2uxTQpqAM?si=ULH6dijK4lydkyms

The Crucial Role Of Repetition When Removing Trauma Using Memory Reconsolidation with Alun Parry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al_QBSaYz_I

BOOK: Rethinking Trauma Treatment: Attachment, Memory Reconsolidation, and Resilience by Courtney Armstrong

https://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Trauma-Treatment-Attachment-Reconsolidation/dp/0393712559

VIDEO: Numerous Videos Bruce Ecker on Memory Reconsolidation

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bruce+ecker+memory+reconsolidation

VIDEO: A chat with Alun Parry about remove trauma response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8WLIR0NTc

VIDEO: The Art and Neuroscience of Transformational Change: Dr Tori Olds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cZZu_yUhS0&t=0s

VIDEO: The Psychology of Schemas: Why Our Childhood Can Mess Us Up with Dr. Tori Olds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d629qUO-qkQ

VIDEO: Using Rapid Resolution Therapy for Treating Trauma with Dr. Jon Connelly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW99j_Olyo8

VIDEO: MEMORY RECONSOLIDATION: Key To Transformational Change in Psychotherapy -- Bruce Ecker, LMFT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V_rI2N6Fco&t=0s

VIDEO: What is the Role of Emotion in Memory?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLzFa-aiDmc

VIDEO: What is Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKiV3FNpXhk

VIDEO: Memory Reconsolidation in a Nutshell 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJrfsjT35UE

VIDEO: Memory reconsolidation may be the long-sought mechanism of change in psychotherapy with Bruce Ecker and the Coherence Institute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHnn2Wf4NFI

It's the end of 2023

 2023 is coming to an end.

It's incredible to me the amount of travel, exporation, study, engagement, learning, care and connection that has been part of this year, again! Wow!

It's been fun the past few months to be back in front of 100+ University students in four on-campus courses - and to be building networks of new friends and colleagues in Idaho.

Two books published this year! Woot! That may be it for the next many years!

A few fun opportunities to engage new care for clients are emerging for me in 2024 . . . so we'll see what happens with that - in fields tied to neurofeedback.

I've got more travel planned for 2024 than I know what to do with - and opportunity to engage online work and online teaching from any location! Hooray!

I remain invigorated by my work with persons with Severe & Persistent Mental Illness working for a major National Provider - and - with availability for me to sit-in-on instruction with the Massachusetts Bridgewater State Hospital Postdoctoral Fellowship in Forensic Psychology! Bonus that I get paid to attend the free-to-me-CEU courses!   

For the past three years I partnered in clinical work with a superior, great, caring, diligent, and perspicuous supervisor.  This person has been a solid beacon for me and such an important understanding human.  She's engaged me with clarity in communication, understanding and wise perception. It's sad that the particularities of our working relationship have had to shift, and yet I am deeply, deeply grateful for superior vision from her for my professional development and maturity. What a joy to have attentive, clear, guiding, maturing supervision! A reminder to me that at every age and different stages of life we need mature guides, wise perspective and discerning counsel from others. I hope to be as good for others as this human has been for me - toward a world that is characterized by more peace and more flourishing.

So grateful for new friendships fostered in 2023 and deeply meaningful relationships from 2020, 2021, 2022 and pre-COVID to resonate with vibrant meaning in my weekly life and truly my every-day-life! And, to have met so many great new professional psychotherapy colleagues in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Colorado who provide context and meaning to many issues of my professional development and aid in resourcing my questions!

And, at the end of the 2023, according to Oregon Health Authority records, just 201 persons are licensed by the OHA to be facilitators engaging persons with psilocybin services - and I was among the first 20 in June . . . and still in that group of just 201 now. 

Life's complexity abounds - and yet the opportunities for providing care and expanding in my own calm clarity abounds yet more!

~ marty alan michelson

Life & Mentorship & Gratitude

My life is characterized by so much for which I am grateful.

Tonight I hosted for dinner, a young couple from the University where I'm active as a Professor.

It is such a joy to be with young persons with their vitality, their curiosity, their insight, and their desire to be shaped to shape the world to be better.

This week, the Chair of our College shared with me that a Senior reported to him:  "Dr. Michelson's class is the best one I've taken in my four years here!"  Fun!

The Provost of the University recently tasked me with aiding some colleagues in conflict, using my peace and conflict negotiation practices, fostering clarity where mis(sed)ing communication, mis(sed)ing perceptions and mis(sed)ing understandings exist.

And . . . today, too, as with many days, I engaged a young person in a Suicide Watch and Mental Health Assessment with my contract work in government facilities for some interstate work in Mental Health.

What a life!

What a great, grand, wonderful life - to aid others, to mentor others, and to work toward peace and flourishing for all living beings.

~ marty

Changes, Books, and Shift with Great Colleagues

In the Fall I'll be teaching University courses as I return to my full-time role as Professor.  I'll be back among a host of students and superior faculty colleagues. 

In the past few days, with a colleague, we published a book.  What a delight to have worked on a great project with a great friend (who now lives in Thailand) who I've known from my childhood! The book started in 2022, our friendship began in 1973!

In the past month, my other 2023 book was published. How great that several colleagues and friends informed what emerged in my 2021-2022 project!

I've recently quit working for an exceptional company in Portland, OR.  My boss proved to be a great leader who demonstrated wisdom, insight in compassion, clinical acumen, and leadership vision, and supervision, for how she led and provided direction to me, and to all of us on her team.

I've cut back nearly all of my Mental Health Professional hours and will only be medically on-call working for another great company, where the Health Services Administrator over our Medical Facility has become a great friend, in addition to her keen oversight and directing me in my roles there.

I've always loved reading, writing, learning with others, completing great work with others, being shaped by great supervisors, engaged with great leaders, impacted by super colleagues.

What a life!  How great to live it in the company of others!

Be the best You.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

― Ernest Hemingway

It's Who You Know - The Privilege of Good Humans

It's amazing how much easier life can be when you work with good people.

This past 9 months  . . . it took me several months to get a *responsive* professional to help me with layout and design on my most recently published book

I finally found a great partner to collaborate with and within weeks - my 1st Book for 2023 was published!

This same expert was then able to immediately began work on my 2nd book. Book #2 is much more complex in layout features, as it is a workbook with textbooks and numerous font changes. And yet, working with a competent professional, Book #2 should be published within a few weeks!  

Boom! With a good person - and with good people - good work can be done.

When you know good people to work with, work is easier.

Life is better!

I've been fortunate in three decades of professional life to collaborate with and connect with many great people, to work under good bosses and a few superior leaders.  I've learned from everyone of them.  

What a delight to be meeting, networking with, building friendships with, and developing professional relationships of depth with so many people in diverse settings in the past few years especially!

I am privileged to know good people!

I'm a better human for knowing them.

Oregon Health Authority - Licensed Psilocybin Facilitator

 Of 335 million Americans.

Only 19 are Legally Licensed to facilitate Psilocybin for health and wellness in a U.S. State under the Health Authority.

I am one of those 19 (as of June 2023).

Licensed under the Oregon Health Authority, I hope to begin work with a major pharmaceutical corporation's full psychiatric and psychological clinical research project, for which I have made application, in the next weeks.

Oregon State Public Official

 Another year for Civic Responsibility in Oregon.

Many, many good things.

My life is characterized by many good things, new opportunities, emerging friendship, new awareness, learning and growth.

May I ever be humble to learn and may I always be open to care for others.

May I remain curious, and healthy, and whole. 

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Path finding for life

Finding your path in life. 

1. Cease comparing yourself to others and instead do what is best for you. 
2. Acknowledge your emotions and take necessary steps to address them. 
3. Be kind to yourself and avoid negative self-talk. 
4. Remember that they are not alone . . . and to check on your loved ones. 
5. Seek help when required . . . in learning new things and in all forms of health (existential, medical, physical, spiritual & mental).
6. Engage self-discovery and knowing yourself better.  And pursue the life you value.
7. Understand your limitations to work within your own learning abilities and stretch goals that do not radically disrupt your safety or comfort.

I am.

Who I am is always me, while who I am is yet emerging. 

Who I am now is shaped by who I was, while I'm yet still becoming. 

Who I am now is made up of who I have always been, while it is not yet fully who I will be. 

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

And so it begins 2023

 May this year be, for all, characterized by more peace and flourishing.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

2022

 2022 is almost a wrap.

What a year it's been for growth, kindness, development, learning, empathy, exploration, compassion, challenge, maturation, love, friendship and for developing meaningful relationships. Superb.

My hope for all living beings persists -  Lives of Peace and Flourishing!

Life. Is. Full.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Life.

 Who I was is not who I am is not who I am becoming.

~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

What Your Professors Wish You Knew About College-Level Coursework

What Your Professors Wish You Knew About College-Level Coursework

We want to have a positive relationship with you

The vast majority of us really like students.  We want our students to feel safe and engaged in our classrooms -- to benefit from the experience as much as possible.  We also think that interacting with you benefits us in all kinds of ways! In other words, we imagine a symbiotic relationship in which all parties can be better off by the time the course ends.

Responsibility for your success has shifted squarely to you

It can be a jolting experience to suddenly be treated like an adult.  On the one hand, it's great! You get to set your own schedule, choose your own activities, and probably live apart from mom and dad for the first time.  On the other hand, it means that the safety net is also gone.  Your parents aren't going to come into your room to drag your butt out of bed for class.  Your parents aren't going to be there to repeatedly ask you whether or not your homework is done yet.  And perhaps the biggest jolt of all: no one is is going to blame your professors if you fail, like they might have blamed your high school teachers.  

Professors will go to great lengths to help our students succeed.  I will always work with struggling students who are putting in the effort.  But college professors aren't going to coddle you like you might have experienced in high school.  

You and your classmates will get out of your courses what you put into them

Many students fail to grasp that a successful college course is a cooperative project between the professor and the students.  Yes, we are the ones that choose the readings, design the assignments, give the lectures, etc, but if you aren't doing the readings, participating in class discussion, engaging with the lectures, then the class is going to quickly become a drag for professor and students alike! 

Our job is to help you become a successful college student, not confirm that you were a successful high school student

 Students don't always get this.  They think that because they were good high school thinkers and writers they should have immediate and high-level success in my courses.  After all, they've studied history and written papers before.  However, I am teaching them college-level skills.  And that may take some effort to master -- definitely some humility.  They can get there, for sure, but they don't arrive at college already "there." 

You must be proactive in seeking help

I see my students in seated courses less than three hours a week.  I don't see my online students ever.  This means that it may take me a lot longer than my high school colleagues to realize that a student is struggling.  This problem is exacerbated by the fact that college courses tend to have less assignments, meaning performance "red flags" can take even longer to pop up.  

All this means that students must be proactive in seeking help.  If you feel yourself struggling in the course, reach out to your professor.  Professors will go the "extra mile" for a student who is truly trying and truly dedicated to putting in the hard work to improve.

Most class periods will require some sort of preparation beforehand

Almost all college courses will require you to complete readings before class so that the class can build on what you read.  Lectures, class activities, etc, don't just repeat the information in your assigned readings.  In addition, you won't be given time in class to complete most assignments.  You'll be expected to carve out time outside of class for those, too.  

Attendance is more than being a warm body

When students who bomb exams come to see me in my office, I always ask to see their notes.  9/10 students don't have any, or at least have very minimal notes.  You must have an effective notetaking system in college.  You cannot retain all the information given in college classes by sitting in your seat, arms crossed, trying to soak it all in.  If you don't have a good system, check out this notetaking system from Dartmouth.

Professors totally notice who is staring into space or texting on their "cleverly hidden" phone during class.  

You really are responsible for all the information in the syllabus.

When it comes to attendance policy, academic integrity policy -- all the ins and outs of your courses, really -- you are 100% responsible for knowing the information given to you in the syllabus.  Pleading after the fact that "I didn't know we could only miss so many classes" or "I didn't know that would be considered cheating" isn't going to get you anywhere.

Grades are not a reflection of effort, intelligence, or potential

It is possible to work hard and still do poorly if you are not demonstrating the skills and/or knowledge that an assignment requires. Grades measure your current level of mastery.  Honestly, that's it.  Struggling on an assignment or two does not mean you can’t “do college” or are “never going to get it.”  It just means that you are still learning how to master something.  Many students who struggle on the first assignment or two still go on to have tremendous success in my courses ... if they are willing to apply my feedback, come by office hours, submit drafts beforehand, take advantage of university tutoring services, etc.

We don't know the due dates in your other classes

That might sound like "duh"-level information, but it's really important to think through the ramifications here.  It means that your professors aren't working together to make sure that assignments are spread out evenly across the semester.  You'll end up with some weeks that you have nothing due ... and then some weeks where you might have 3-4 tests and/or papers!