My 95 year-old mother died recently, terribly disappointed that I didn’t die first. As she was pushing 90, she almost ran me over. I’d heard the hiss of brakes as I got out of the car in front of the post office. There she was, behind the wheel of her custom-made Cadillac – so close, […]
I’ll know that things have really changed when I regularly see white women pushing black babies in strollers. I’ll know things have changed when a white person is accused of playing the “race card” when he or she mentions something related to race. I’ll know things have changed when they stop locking up young black […]
If you take a moment to really think about it, the diversity of our world, and its living things, is captivating. On the other hand, there are times when consistency is important. I read about a legislator in West Virginia who is an outspoken critic of civil rights for LGBT people. He is quoted calling […]
Our firstborn spoke early. By eighteen months, she was insinuating herself into conversations with “let’s talk about life” or “how are we all getting along?” One evening she was lying on the rug, uncharacteristically playing with a doll. It was the sort of doll where the eyes shut when you lay it down, but she […]
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 […]