Returning to school and taking on the grind of academics, athletics and other pressures may arouse excitement as well as anxieties about how the year will go. You may be imagining how successful will you be, and will you do as well as you hope. Optimism is part of starting [...]
A ten-month old baby has passion and goes after what she wants. She will give it her all to pull herself up to a stand. He will scream loudly for more crackers. She will laugh without hesitation, over and over, at a silly face. A ten-month old baby does not [...]
With the frequency of mass shootings in the country, especially the frequency of those occurring recently, is this our new normal? What are the implications if this is true? Is this our new normal? In some respects this is our new normal. Just as anything that happens with great frequency, [...]
When someone decides to call a psychologist it is usually after many months of internal debate. Something has to tip the scales to reach out to a stranger for help. Something inside the person has to build up to overcome two important ready-made obstacles: the financial investment and the stigma. [...]
It could be almost any work day for me. It happened again today. A patient wants me to fix his or her wife/husband/boss/mother/father/neighbor/co-worker/child. I tell them if I could do that, I would win the Nobel Peace prize and retire a gazillionaire! This phenomenon is so common as to be [...]
“I have a hard time trusting.† “I got burned once; never again!† “I’ve put up a wall so people can’t hurt me.†  “I do all the work in my relationship.† “My husband/wife needs therapy!†These are statements made by someone who is a perfectionist. How do I know? Read the [...]
Tragedy first brings us together. Later it risks pulling us apart. In her NPR piece reporter Alix Spiegel talked to social psychology professor Jeff Greenberg at the University of Arizona about his research on our conscious and unconscious reactions to large-scale trauma. He noted there are immediate and delayed responses to [...]
THEN: sequestration is the action of taking legal possession of assets until a debt has been paid or other claims have been met. NOW: sequestration is the state of our country where millions of Americans are worried about the economic impact of the Federal Government’s failure to manage the budget. [...]
A few times in recent weeks I have heard patients talk about staying in a relationship using this argument: “I’ve already invested so much.†They wonder if they should continue in the relationship because of the emotional energy and time they have put into it. In every case there has [...]