I went to visit an old friend recently who had “dropped off my radar”; she was not answering her phone and was not replying to her emails. And since I did not live near her anymore, I reluctantly accepted that I would have to wait for her to make contact again. When I did finally [...]
Lately, it has been more challenging for me to feel hopeful about the world in general. There is so much that seems out of my control on the global level, even though my personal life is quite stable. After hearing a CPR program “The Hidden Brain”, my takeaway was that randomness is the dominating force [...]
If you had told me forty years ago that my next career move was to become a psychotherapist, I would have laughed in disbelief. At this stage, I knew I had some emotional stuff to sort through but I had little familiarity with therapy. Where and how I grew up (in a rural town in [...]
Some years ago I slipped on the last patch of ice from winter, and fractured my wrist. I was surprised at how emotionally upsetting that experience was. I observed how my whole body reacted to that one limb being injured. It was not a bad break, no surgery needed, but my mood was pretty low [...]
For the past few days, I have been worried about an elderly friend of mine who lives alone. She was not answering her phone and I suspected that she might have needed help. It turns out that she did have to go to the ER, but luckily she had a friend close by she could [...]
It’s amazing how many clients have told me that they fear they are hopelessly lazy. I actually have met very few people who I would consider intrinsically lazy. It seems time to unpack the stories around this judgment, usually made only by folks themselves! As usual, I like to start with a standard definition; from [...]
Being human is a complicated emotional experience. So not surprisingly, depression can be complicated too. Becoming depressed does not just ‘happen’ in a few weeks, and it can take time to unpack layers of feeling hopeless, helpless, or being in a self-loathing state. Depression comes with anger, blame, deep sadness and other difficult emotions, either [...]
In this February’s edition of Psychology Today, I was captivated by an update on theories of why we dream. As a long- time recorder of my dreams when younger, now as a senior I am just glad that I get some unbroken restful sleep! I don’t tend to remember dreams now, although I know there [...]
Being a great fan of National Public Radio, I often get ideas for Blogs from the excellent journalists who interview fascinating people. The other day on NPR there was a book review for a writer Ross Gay whose newest offering “The Book of Delights” made me ponder on that word that I seldom hear; even [...]
Thanksgiving this year was difficult for my husband and me; my daughter traditionally has all the in-laws to her house, and still planned to, even during the Coronavirus. Although we love our in-laws, we felt that sitting down with at least 15 plus relatives during the Pandemic did not feel safe for us seniors, so [...]
New dates will be released in 2021.
