Emotional intimacy and connection can be challenging to find. It’s common to have a loving family, a large group of friends, and a supportive partner and to still feel alone, misunderstood, and disconnected. It’s also common to feel like you don’t have a social support network because you struggle to relate with others. This sense of emotional distance can be the result of depression, trauma, and ...read more
Audio Therapy: “The Only Thing”
Music often touches us deeply – helping us access emotions and longings that lie just below the surface. Certain songs or albums can scratch an emotional itch in a way that few things can, and finding a song that matches what you're feeling is a great way to "lean into" emotions. Carl Jung said that “what you resist will persist” and embracing difficult emotions rather than finding distractions ...read more
What Works in Psychotherapy
A new article on Psychology Today by Jonathan Shedler, Professor of Psychiatry at University of Colorado, takes a critical view of new guidelines by the American Psychological Association for the treatment of trauma. The new guidelines only considered treatments that have been studied using randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCT’s are often thought of as the gold standard in medical research. ...read more
Yoga and Trauma
Most people will experience some form of trauma in their life. Common types of trauma are vehicular accidents, physical or sexual violence, military combat, community violence, or natural disasters. Having acute symptoms such as being extra watchful or having nightmares after these types of situations is common. Often these symptoms will fade away within a few weeks and people recover naturally on ...read more
Yoga and Depression
Depression can make mundane tasks seem daunting. It can drain your vibrancy, your motivation, and your sense of self. Yoga is a tool that you can use to uplift your energy and spirit through dynamic movements and energizing breathing exercises. There is a difference between having temporary depression symptoms related to life events, Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia), and Major ...read more
Yoga and Anxiety
Yoga for Anxiety (Part 1) Yoga is becoming more integrated with Western medicine and is getting more recognition in the scientific community for being an effective therapeutic addition to traditional psychotherapy. Yoga is helpful for alleviating a number of mental health concerns, including anxiety. Traditional talk therapy uses a “Top-Down” approach, which means it relies on you using your ...read more
Facing Failure
“You want to know the difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” ~Unknown There’s no doubt that failing, losing, and being rejected feels terrible. People are generally aiming to meet their goals, to win, to perfect their craft and to feel good. For most of us, failing is an undervalued experience. Failures are opportunities to ...read more
Stopping to Smell the Roses
I have recently noticed a trend in the way friends, family, and colleagues are responding to current troubling events. For many people, there appears to be a conflict in processing, discussing and responding to “big” things while still enjoying, focusing on, and being “small” things. What I mean by “big” things are world events: the violence hapening in our country, war, new diseases and ...read more
Happy Birthday, Dr. Freud
Google celebrated Sigmund Freud’s 160th birthday today with a doodle picturing his face above the surface of the ocean with a dark iceberg below. Freud sometimes used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind. Freud is often casually derided as if his ideas have all been disproven and that, as a society, we have moved on. However, we are so steeped ...read more
Becoming Ourselves
I found this quote on a piece of paper while cleaning up my desk this week. I’m sure I wrote it down at a professional development event or lecture. My note attributed it to Frank Summers, a psychoanalyst in Chicago, though I wasn’t able to remember the context in which I heard it. I often struggle to sum up the goal of psychotherapy and when asked I usually say something about authenticity and ...read more