Archive for April, 2009

Listed by most recent articles first.

• Is Alcohol Spoiling Your Romance?
  When I first talk to people about couples therapy, I usually ask: "Do you drink alcohol? Does your partner?" and if so, "How much?" I also ask whether they use other mind-altering drugs and intoxicants. ...
• Extreme Thinking and Moods Are The Death of Creativity
  You probably have heard that many of the world's most creative people often had some sort of mental illness. While I can see some truth in this viewpoint, I offer a different opinion: In ...
• I Know I Should, But …
  This short article is for people who hesitate to come to therapy. It addresses some of the reasons and their solutions, including: Procrastination "Fear of Fear Itself" Failures of Prior Therapy Discomfort with Inactive Therapists How To Trust Your Comfort ...
• Match.com — Again
  I gave in. I signed up for Match.com again. Awesome new men were not appearing in my life without any effort on my part, so I decided to try online dating again. Online dating ...
• Teaching Kids To Tell the Truth
  "Please tell my husband he's over-reacting." The woman across from me is quietly concerned. I can't tell yet if she is worried about her son or if she's worried how her husband will react to ...
• How To Keep Your Head in a Bad Economy
  When a recession hits and then gains momentum, it’s natural to feel scared, helpless or hopeless, and these feelings can get the better of us. People who feel overwhelmed often try to cope by avoiding ...
• The Transformative Power of Dreams
  Given the power of dreams to reveal ourselves to ourselves, why do relatively few take advantage of this opportunity? Early societies had symbolic and mystical explanations for every life experience, including dreams. In a postmodern, ...
• Another Antidepressant Journey
  Today I have spent a lot of time on the phone with both a nurse and my psychiatrist. Our big topic of the day? How to get me off Celexa. I started ...
• Spring Cleaning for the Soul: Tidying Up Our Personal Closet
  In a recent psychodrama workshop I asked participants to visualize cleaning out their personal closet. One woman opened her imaginary closet door and began rummaging through make-believe clutter. When I asked what she ...
• Living with Bipolar Disorder
  It’s common for individuals who’ve been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder to reject the diagnosis, feeling overwhelmed at the thought of having an illness. Some even wait it out, struggling with several episodes before they ...
• Sylvia Plath’s Legacy
  For someone who has only read her biography and never read any of Sylvia Plath’s actual poetry, I spend an awful lot of time thinking about her. That’s because I suffer from chronic depression ...
• Yoga for Treatment of Anxiety and Depression
  Can yoga help in the treatment of anxiety and depression? Since the 1970s, meditation and other stress-reduction techniques have been studied as possible treatments for depression and anxiety. One such practice, yoga, has received less attention ...
• Getting the Most Out of Psychotherapy
  When clients begin psychotherapy, they often ask what they can do to get the best results. In this article, I answer some of the questions I often hear and offer some tips I hope you'll ...
• Know Thyself: The Role of Awareness in Psychotherapy
  Awareness Is Ever-Present To be aware is to witness. And our witnessing selves are always there when we dream, in daily activities, when feeling emotions, and in states of excitement or distress. We are constantly aware, ...
• Giving Ourselves Permission To Feel Again
  "One's suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields -- even to sadness" -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Imagine Main Street if we didn't rein in our emotions. Rude comments tossed at a passersby who fails to ...
• Why Can’t You Just Cooperate?
  "Why can't you just cooperate?" The dad at the other end of the playground is raising his voice at what I'm guessing is a three- or four-year-old boy. It's the first nice Saturday of spring ...
• Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin
  Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin By Norah Vincent New York: Viking, December 2008 Hardcover, 283 pages $25.95 Immersion journalism, as it’s called, can be kind of fun on a limited basis. In my days ...
• Just Let Go of Perfectionism
  "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men." -George Eliot We are constantly bombarded with perfection. Adonis on the cover of Men's Health and Helen on the cover ...
• Adolescence: The Ping-Pong Stage of Life
  "But everyone else is doing it." I do remember saying it often when I was a teen, although I can’t for the life of me remember about what. More vivid is my mother’s refrain: “If ...