A child exhibiting aggressive behavior can be experienced by others as being a bad kid. However, this is not the case. Anger is used by children as a way for them to shield themselves from deeper emotional distress. Aggressive behavior can be an outward symptom of depression, guilt, fear, disappointment, jealousy, frustration, anxiety, sadness, or hurt, among other emotions.
As a therapist I am constantly seeking to help my clients envision a multitude of possibilities when processing troubling life events. As humans we often tend to explain situations in rigid terms of right and wrong, good or bad, or black and white. When something happens to us, we immediately begin to create a story […]
Years ago when working with trauma patients, a colleague told me that she never expected her clients to forgive their perpetrators. I knew what she meant. Some of the things we are forced to experience in this life are so tragic there is no foreseeable way a person could forgive. And yet, people still find […]
