Sure of what you want to do next and know your future calling? Hats off. Many of us—even into midlife—don’t know exactly what we want to be when we (next) grow up. This beginner’s stage may feel odd or even embarrassing, especially if you’ve been a manager, mentor, or boss.
Read MoreWhile Sigmund Freud got a lot wrong, there’s also much he got right. Freud invented talk therapy and understood its effectiveness in working through emotional trauma. He also understood that there are biological underpinnings to emotional experience, including trauma.
Read MoreAlmost a year ago, a journalist I know made a prediction. An expert in epidemiology who covered the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 90s, he said something that stayed with me. Just as gay men of a certain generation have come to see their lives as before and after the AIDS crisis, he said, all of us would come to see our lives as before and after COVID. I was taken aback by his prediction.
Read MoreA yoga teacher I know is fond of saying that the real yoga is off the mat. What he means is that coming to class each week is great for strength, flexibility, and stress reduction, but that its greatest value is in helping us move with greater ease for the other 167 hours of the week. That idea has stuck with me for a long time. It applies to therapy for depression, too.
Read MoreA couple was having trouble last year, and it looked as though they were headed for a breakup. Then lockdown happened, and I didn’t hear from them for a while. This happens sometimes; couples need to step back and take stock of what has gone on in therapy. A few months later, I heard from them again.
Read More“Anxiety makes depression look like a day at the beach,” a patient told me recently. What he meant was that while fighting depression is all-consuming, anxiety is unbearable because it makes him want to jump right out of his skin. That man spoke for many of us. Managing anxiety is a tall order. It’s also possible. Talk therapy offers sustainable and lasting change by making you aware of what triggers or worsens your anxiety…
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