“We accept the love we think we deserve” – The Perks of Being a Wallflower This post started out as a message to a friend of mine, but it made me think of hundreds of others I’ve known, who, like me, struggle to receive love. Sometimes I think taking good things to heart is like trying […]
Most of us have a limited ability to recognize depression in ourselves and others. We tend to associate depression with being observably sad, lethargic, and as feeling stuck or hopeless. While most of us experience these symptoms at some point in our lives, there are far more subtle symptoms that are easy to misinterpret and/or […]
The best I’ve ever heard it spoken, “Every time I get sober I remember, and every time I remember, I get drunk.” Every few years, the “experts” in dual diagnosis treatment reinvent the wheel based on what research tells us about folks who are seeking recovery from both Substance Use Disorder and mental illness. What tends to be […]
For as sophisticated as we like to believe we are, the truth is people are very simple creatures. Our perspectives are formed primarily by past experiences. We form simple and powerful associations in our childhoods and if these occur consistently, they become fixed in our minds as expectations. Despite the millions of changes that occur […]
Today is national Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) awareness day. The US government estimates that roughly eight percent of Americans will experience PTSD in their lifetime. It’s important to understand that a much higher percentage of people survive and witness traumatic events. Historically we have associated PTSD with war veterans and survivors of sexual assault. […]
If I get to give the world just one thing – it will be more good dads. I enjoy the responsibility of being a role model for boys and young men. I embrace being a role model for girls and young women. In both cases, I am demonstrating: this is the way a good man […]
I hate being a hypocrite. As a therapist and as a coach, I am highly motivated to practice what I preach. Today has been a great day. It’s also been a day in which I bore witness to a lot of suffering and experienced a lot of powerlessness. In today’s video, I’m processing these experiences […]
Most everyone wants to make the world a better place. That’s not hard to do. Simple acts of kindness are all it takes. Current fave FB meme: “Kind is the new cool.” But we live in a world in which hate is thriving. It’s time most of us upped our game. Maybe you’re like I […]
On the door to my office hangs a sign, “98% of my problems would cease to exist if I could stop overthinking and chill the F out.” Over complicating is what we do when we keep coming up with the same answers and hating them. Somewhere between shame and fear is this place where unfamiliar steps seem […]
…I have an unlimited amount of caring about a limited number of things. I took Mark Mason’s advice (The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F@ck) long before he wrote it. While I haven’t mastered it, there is a pretty narrow focus in my life: I care an awful lot about people like me and […]
