Importance of Coping Skills, Part 2: Building Resilience
Resilience (from dictionary.com): 1. Power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc, after being bent, compressed or stretched; elasticity. 2. Ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity or the like; buoyancy; spring back.
My friends’ children, 4 and 5 years of age, are riding their bicycles without training wheels. They went out for a ride with their dad, doing well, but the 4 year old was going faster and she took her feet off the pedals because she was scared and she crashed into her dad. The 5 year old was going ahead of them on their way back home and... Read More
Play therapy is a useful tool to help children express themselves and gain a better understanding of events and experiences through creative action. This approach has been shown to be an effective form of treatment for children who struggle with various mental health issues and have difficulty responding well to other forms of therapy. Counselors who use 
Grief arises as a product of a loss that we have experienced. It is associated with losses that may include health, job, relationship, pet, family, and major events. We may not be able to describe the roller coaster of emotions, yet we do know that we are not ourselves. When we feel out of sorts, sensations surface such as low self-esteem, illness, depression, and confusion, which can manifest into thoughts that our feelings are out of our control. As a result, this full body experience may be difficult to process or verbalize. To mend this sorrow, the expressive arts can create a doorway to the... 
Declining health is a natural process of aging. The majority of individuals over age 65 experience more physical health problems as they enter the golden years than they did earlier in life. Some experience mild, common health problems, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, memory problems, and fatigue, while others struggle with more debilitating 
I believe the answer to that question can be summed up in the wonderful poem that follows, by Emily Perl Kingsley…
Welcome to Holland
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability—to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this….
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip—to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy... 
Married couples communicate in a myriad of ways throughout the world. Different countries have cultural norms that people conform to, and these norms directly influence how individuals in intimate relationships communicate. These norms also affect other behaviors and attitudes that significantly affect 
If you have completed Exercise 1, congratulations to you. Please take a moment to pat yourself on the back. You deserve it, because it must have taken a great deal of courage to write about your family history. Most of my clients shed some tears in our therapy session when they share it with me. Then they feel very relieved.
Most people are not ready to share the letter with their family of origin right away. If you have a therapist available or a sponsor, discuss it with that person. If not, review it with a supportive, nonjudgmental friend. Before sharing this with your family, it is important... 
A man going to court with his family in Texas opens fire outside the courthouse, killing one and wounding three.
On the same day...a man armed with three knives stabs four people in Columbus, Ohio, before being shot by police.
Three days earlier...an American soldier kills 16 civilians in Afghanistan.
Stabbings. Shootings. So much violence. It's sad. Painful. Scary. Most of us point to those who commit the violence and judge them. Sometimes as crazy. Sometimes as bad.
But . . . where does the violence really come from?
Violence comes from our not having had the help to build... 
Children who are enrolled in public schools in low-income communities are at a disadvantage both academically and psychologically. These children experience elevated rates of mental health problems due to their environments, family structures, and financial insecurity. At school, their opportunities are restricted as a result of a less than adequate learning environment, minimal resources, and external factors such as increased 
I treat couples, mainly coming in with sexual disorders, and much of the time I treat individuals also. In many cases, the person who comes in for the treatment is in a relationship, often times a long-term relationship. When a sexual malfunction pops up in a relationship or in the bedroom, it's easy to point the finger and assume the problem or blame lies within the person who exhibits the symptoms. For example, with arousal issues, such as excessive dryness or painful intercourse in females or rapid ejaculation or early termination of erections in males (when medical or organic causes have been... 
When we’re first in love with our partners, the world can feel like a very small place. We only have eyes for one another, and that bond, born of words, actions, gestures, physical touch, and hormones is a marvel of human experience. In that intimate couple experience, we might plan a future together. We imagine creating our own, two-person family, and what challenges, joy, and pleasure that will bring. We begin to share our joy with others, particularly our friends, siblings, and parents. Then the truth sets in: We are both members of an extended family, quite different families, as a matter... 
I recently had the opportunity to share a few articles here on anger and how this affects us. It is my pleasure to now begin writing a bit about anxiety and how this, too, is a major issue for many of us. In fact, anxiety disorders are being seen more and more across the ages. For example, I see more children these days—no kidding—worrying how they will do on school/state-wide testing and other children overwhelmed with their family's separation or divorce. Then there are all of us adults overwhelmed with the economy, job, and housing issues and not feeling a positive sense of control over... 
Magic is a way of living. If one has done one’s best to steer the chariot, and one then notices that a greater other is actually steering it, then magical operation takes place. --C. G. Jung (The Red Book, p. 315)
I always knew that I was two persons. One was the son of my parents…the other was…old…mistrustful, remote from the world of men, but close to nature, the earth, the sun, the moon…all living creatures…and above all close to the night, to dreams, and to whatever “God” worked directly in him. --C. G. Jung (Memories, Dream, and Reflections, pp. 44-45)
What Jung called... 
There is a significantly high dropout rate among veterans who seek treatment for 
