therapy Therapy is...NOT a place to assign blame I am seeing a young woman who has recently ended a long-term relationship. She tells me how within weeks of this relationship ending, despite making a promise to herself that she needed time to be single and on own, she found herself in another romantic relationship. She was perplexed by
self-help Featured The Big 5 Let's say you've decided to focus on your mental health. Before you start anything, I recommend you take stock of these five aspects of your life: 1. Sleep 2. Diet and exercise 3. Recreational drugs and alcohol 4. Social Connectedness 5. Personal pursuits/hobbies I call
therapy Picture this. Using Imagery in Psychotherapy When I am with a patient, time and distractions fade out. I listen to the story the patient is telling me, and within that I am listening for the story he is telling himself. I focus on what is being said, how it is being said, while at the same
psychotherapy Looking for a Therapist: A primer on psychotherapy I have come to appreciate some simple truths as I hit mid-life that a former, younger version of myself would have dismissed with a smug smile and a raised eyebrow as if to say, "maybe for you". One of these simple truths is...life is hard. I have
therapy Forget the world crises and Focus on your own. If there is a word for 2023, it would be crisis. Mental health crisis Climate crisis Economic crisis Energy crisis Affordability crisis You get the idea. They have been very unwelcome guests that have intruded on almost all aspects of our lives. And no wonder. Crisis is a word that
borderline personality disorder Featured Identity disturbance as a Symptom in Psychiatry I have been very interested in the concept of identity and its role in mental health ever since I saw "identity disturbance" and "lack of sense of self" as a diagnostic criteria for a mental illness in the Diagnostic Manual for psychiatric disorders. It was not
bipolar Missing Mania A patient tells me that the lithium is working. "It keeps me neutral", she says. "How do you feel about that?" I ask. She tells me that she had a panic attack on her way home from the bus stop and that it lasted for several
therapy Behind the curtain: What I wish my patients knew When a patient tells me, "I am not doing any better. I can't take it anymore." What I would like to say, "I can not fix you right away. I am saddened by this, I may even be sorry. But I am doing my best
OCD Case files: A psychodynamic formulation of a case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Briefly, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental illness characterized by unwanted, intrusive, and repetitive thoughts or images(obsessions) that can have accompanying rituals or other behaviors/acts (compulsions) that a patient feels they must engage in to alleviate the anxiety brought on from the obsessions. You can still have
self-help We are Meant to Bear Difficult Feelings Did you know you can feel upset, for no clear reason, and NOT judge yourself for feeling this way? Despite being a therapist, this was a revelation for me. To be mentally well is often confused with being happy all the time or to have an explanation for all of
