15Apr

Creativity, Humanity and Self-Judgment

“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself” -Hayao Miyazaki Hayao Miyazaki is a prolific animator from Japan who wrote movies such as Ponyo, Castle in the Sky, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises. His strong opinion is directed at the use of AI in animation. His subordinates pitched him an […]

01Apr

Creating Boundaries to Make Peace—The Personal Side

In the first half of this blog, we talked about boundaries and how our experiences and personalities (including genetics) affect the way we see and set boundaries. We also talked about visualizing the boundaries you want in your life. For example, maybe you want to set the boundary with your boss that you will stay […]

15Mar

Imagery In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy is consistently used in my personal therapeutic approach. It helps teach clients to challenge their thoughts and beliefs. Put them on trial, see if they hold up, are they rational or irrational? Imagery can be used to extend this intervention, to create new images to accompany these thoughts, images that reflect the […]

01Mar

Creating Boundaries to Make Peace—The Practical Side

The book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: a guide to reclaiming yourself, by Nedra Glover Tawwab, has been gaining popularity for several years now. In it, the author talks about how to set boundaries to find peace and gives concrete examples of ways to do so in various life settings—work, family and friendships to name a […]

15Feb

Disordered Eating

When someone engages in disordered eating habits, they may eventually find themselves in therapy to work through their habits. The body the brain and mental health overall suffer from disordered eating. Disordered eating describes patterns of restrictive eating, compulsive eating, irregular or inflexible eating patterns: fasting or binge eating falls in this category. Disordered eating […]

01Feb

Friendship—The Personal Side

Someone challenged me years ago to think about each friendship I have and what role that friendship plays in my life. For example, I may be friends with my neighbor, another counselor in the community and my child’s best friend’s mom. I am friends with each of these people and they each have a different […]

15Jan

Emotional Blackmail

People often fall accidentally and easily into patterns of emotional blackmail, especially when the stakes are high. We have all had a time where we may have felt guilt tripped into a request by a family member or coworker. The request often prioritizes what they want over our own personal wants or needs. Susan Forward […]

01Jan

Friendship—The Practical Side

When I counsel clients about friendship, I ask them to imagine a swimming pool filled with large steps–maybe 4-5 levels total—descending into the water. I tell them that some friends we hang out with on the first step in the pool and others we swim with in the deepest part.

15Dec

Post-Election Coping

Even though the election is over, for many, the anxiety that the election sparked and sustained is not going anywhere. According to the American Psychological Association nearly 70% of Americans reported the presidential election of this year was a source of significant stress in their lives. We see it everywhere we look, still, it is hard to […]

01Dec

Treat Yourself – The Personal Side

Not everything about getting older is bad. In fact, some things get better with age, especially if we work on them. I am going to be incredibly transparent and say that in the past I was not good at treating myself or self-care, as described in the first part of this blog.