October 20, 2008

When should I consider psychotherapy?

A few tips:

When you consistently find yourself thinking, “Why is this happening to me?”

When your own best efforts to change unwanted personal, behavioral or emotional difficulties seem to fail.

When problems you are trying to address are compounding.

When your struggles begin to affect other parts of your life; such as relationships, work or health.

(Freud’s old dictum: when problems start to interfere with love and work.)

When your relationship to activities changes or becomes obsessive.

When there are disturbances in sleeping, eating or sexual interest, and these changes have no medical explanation.

When your thought patterns have become chronically negative or destructive.

When thoughts of violence toward yourself or others occur.

If friends, family, employers or doctors are suggesting that you seek help.

August 28, 2008

A Chinese poet, centuries ago, wrote that recreating something in words was like being alive twice - so it is with therapy.

July 30, 2008

Attitude Check:

Believing that life will treat you fairly because you are a good person is like expecting a bull not to charge you because you're a vegetarian.

July 10, 2008

Clients often ask me, "What should I do." If we're both lucky, there is a practical solution I can offer that turns out to be helpful.

More often, by the time people become my clients, the obvious solutions have already been tried - and have failed. That’s why they have come to see me. The answers that make intuitive sense may not work. In fact, sometimes the answer that makes intuitive sense fails badly.

Sadly, when an attempted solution fails, the temptation is to try harder at the same solution. Then, unfortunately, we are met with an even more frustrating failure.

There is a place in problem solving for persistence, but, as the old saying goes, "Insanity is trying the same old solution over and over and expecting different results."

Time to think outside the box!