Year: 2011
Summer nights and skinny-dipping. Ah, the risk, the romance! To be sure, most of us have no trouble remembering all the fun stuff that colored the beginning stages of our relationships. We seem to find ourselves seduced into the waters of commitment, but, as time passes, all sorts of challenges lurk beneath those initial beckoning […]
READ ARTICLEOne of the challenges of mature relationships is balancing healthy closeness with healthy separateness. You may feel the sting of needing to grow in this area if you find yourself wanting a boys night out but are afraid to ask. Or, you might be off in the car together on Saturday morning doing errands and […]
READ ARTICLEIn this day and age it is common knowledge that the origin of many of our rough edges and soft spots go back to our past with parents and other significant caregivers. Good therapy acknowledges this, but also believes that there are endless opportunities to heal and grow past these emotional and developmental injuries. How hurts […]
READ ARTICLEBefore I became a therapist, for 22 years I taught English to high school students. During that time, I had the opportunity to get close to lots of wonderful students; some of them were pretty wobbly souls (remember the insecurity of those days?). I also got close to some wonderfully strengthening poems. Here is one of my […]
READ ARTICLEIn this month’s Georgetowner column I address the very human act of judging another person’s relationship choices. We all think we know best, but it’s a rare event when that kind of verdict is both neutral and welcome. Read the full article here.
READ ARTICLEToday’s Washington Post Magazine features a column by Gene Weingarten that – despite not actually naming it – addresses Sensory Processing Disorder, a topic I wrote about for Counseling Today in March. He describes his own “tactile heebie-jeebies” around the process of bed-making, saying it makes him feel like his palms are “being sandpapered,” and […]
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I recently read an article in which the author wrote, “I don’t know what makes a good marriage.” It was an advice piece on marriage. That we come out of primary, secondary, and post-secondary education with no instruction in how to succeed at marriage is strange, isn’t it? Is this negligence, or is it that […]
READ ARTICLEI love food blogs and recently reflected on the availability of good food and recipe resources that abound on the internet. Food brings people together. Food restores broken connections. Food soothes, and comforts, and repairs. Food helps people celebrate and remember and rejoice. Good food can actually lift the spirits and heal the body, mind […]
READ ARTICLERight now I’m on deadline for a Counseling Today article about therapist moms and dads – how they balance work and family, and still find time for continuing education, supervision, and – gasp – the relationships that made them parents in the first place. In my interviews with counselors across the country I’ve heard so […]
READ ARTICLE“You are so critical and hyper!” “You are so withdrawn and unsupportive!” We all tend to be experts on what is wrong with our partners. Certainly, this level of awareness is an important starting point when considering our troubled relationships. Yet, such criticisms are not conducive to healthy connecting. Most of us carry baggage from […]
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