Pulsing Poignancy
Crying with One's Patients
Should a therapist cry with their patients?
Loss and Love
I work with a group of advocates who champion the cause of encouraging adoption of transition age youth. They go around the city talking to youth about holding on to the hope for unconditional family love and commitment, and they recruit parents to fulfill those dreams.
They hurt today when one young man in the audience despaired, “fuck family!”
Wonderment post Trauma
, a patient of mine comes out from under the dense fog of childhood trauma
Protecting Children's Worlds
Today, a mother shared memories of being one of those little children who dallied walking to and fro from school, dreaming up fantastic elaborate worlds of little fairies hiding under blades of grass, building cities in piles of sidewalk snow. She was punished by her teachers for being so late, and now she worries that her own child will lose that precious imagination if labeled ADHD and medicated.
On the Gift of Being a Therapist
I spent the day at a conference with panels and panels of renowned experts examining the nature of psychotherapy. These people have devoted their careers to understanding the process through which psychotherapy works. Yet, the discussion was leaving me bored and uninspired.
Dealing with Angry Ghosts in Psychotherapy
Though many therapists are trained to believe that they need to suppress or control feelings of anger, I think it is incredibly important to use them in therapy because they often reveal important patterns in the patient’s life--ghosts of relationships past. When these feelings go unexamined, they can harm the patient because they can slip out in hurtful ways. But, when examined, they can be some of the most healing moments in therapy.
The difference between standard care and trauma-informed care
This post is about how a trauma-informed approach, at least the way I view it, might differ from standard clinical practice.
Quote from "The Importance of Hide-and-Seek"
This is the beginning of an article in the NY Times yesterday by a fellow psychologist, Alison Carper.
Revisiting the Fractal Nature of Relationships and the Therapeutic Process
The Nurturance of Being Known
random inspiration from therapy
Navigating Conversational Currents
How Therapy Works (Sometimes)
What is the true nature of trauma work?
I think the most important skill--one which is very difficult to teach--is the ability, willingness, and courage to stand emotionally naked but steady in front of another human being and bear witness to that which is unbearable. To allow oneself to be fully moved by the devastating horror that trauma represents without being overwhelmed by it.