To be sure, psychotherapy is a relationship. Personal and relational growth and healing takes place within the context of a relationship. Apps for anxiety, PTSD and other emotional struggles can be quite helpful. But they rarely take the place of a relationship, nor does research indicate that they have the same efficacy. It is relationships, […]
Psychotherapy has traditionally been solidly secular, and along the way garnered a reputation for actually being dismissive and scornful of religious belief. Sigmund Freud considered religion to be an illusion, akin to Marx’s opinion of religion as an opiate. Interestingly enough, Freud’s followers are still frequently called his “disciples” as often as they are called […]
It is not unusual to see conflicts between parents and school-age children diminish during the summer. Why? Because there’s no homework. Right away we can see the impact of culture on family dynamics. While the potential academic benefits of homework have been debated for over a century, it is a rare family who does […]
How is it that a car crash can tie up traffic on both sides of the highway? An accident can be completely contained on one side of the highway divider; yet traffic can come to a virtual standstill on the other side. We call it rubbernecking – implying that we may have to work pretty […]
When it comes to the American canon on parenting, separation/individuation is a big deal. It involves the idea that once a child starts walking, the ideal parent’s main focus should be getting out of the way. And it all heats up in adolescence, when it is assumed that a child can only become a competent, […]
The concept of boundaries is an important one in human relationships. Infants don’t know where they end and another person starts. Learning this is part of healthy development. It’s part of the “no” stage for 2 year-olds. By saying no, toddlers are beginning to practice the art of individuation, a tiny step in the direction […]
We can be too optimistic and positive, to where we are simply naïve. While naiveté may seem charming, it can’t accomplish much. It can be a pitfall for the faithful of any religious persuasion. To ignore the reality of evil can lead us to minimize or overlook the suffering of the victims of evil. Nor […]
The American cowboy myth dies hard. While classic cowboy movies have not been produced in a long time, the cowboy persona has a way of re-inventing itself as action heroes or high-tech warriors. Good and evil is still portrayed in a simplistic, one-dimensional way. Violent means always justify ends; in fact our 21st century heroes […]
Spoiler alert: you most definitely can! I learned this when my first child was six months old, and it proved to be one of my most important parenting lessons. When I wasn’t rushing out to work, one of my favorite pastimes was lingering over a morning cup of coffee. After the baby was born, I’d […]
The news cycles have been saturated with those pitching for or against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. What a shame, and what an assault on the balance of power that our founding fathers saw as essential to a vigorous democracy, that it seems to be taken for granted that our highest […]