Frontier States and the Creative Process
Words like “borderline” and “schizoid” have at times gotten bad rap for their associations to things like instability, identity confusion, fear of commitment, and giving mixed messages to or avoiding those we love. Yet in-between modes such as these […]
Sometimes we lose track of how much we can improve the communication in our relationships if we learn to really listen; to listen to understand without thinking about how we’re going to defend ourselves, fix a problem, or make the other person’s feelings go away. Listening sounds so simple, but […]
The tension between what we know and what we don’t know about our partners can make it hard to appreciate just how easily misunderstandings can happen.
Technology only adds to the difficulty; we get so much information with the constant texting, emailing, social media sharing etc…that we […]
Reading Between the Lines in Couples Therapy- When Actions Say What Words Cannot
For the therapist who believes that there’s “more than meets the eye” when it comes to the common complaints that couples come in with, it can be a real challenge to figure […]
Can there be too much of a “good thing” when it comes to parenting?
Although most people come to therapy either because they feel some sort of distress or else are at a loss about how to manage a specific life situation or set of feelings, […]
Coping with Grief
There are many types of losses that we all face, some major- like a death or relationship breakup- and some less so- like a missed opportunity or saying no to something we want to do. How we cope with disappointments, not getting […]
Speaking Up in Relationships
One of the challenges for people who don’t speak up for themselves is that everyone seems to like them that way. Whether it’s a co-worker, spouse, child, or friend- […]
Negotiating Boundaries in Relationships
While most people can appreciate the importance of marking at least some individual boundaries within relationships, knowing how and where to “draw the line” is not always quite that simple. As a matter of […]
Effects of Trauma on Relationships
One of the most difficult challenges in recovering from traumatic experiences, is teaching our “survival brains” to differentiate “real” emergencies or danger cues in the present from “pseudo-traumas”- experiences that look like past traumas but […]
During the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many people have been forced to engage with people in their lives who are not good for them in ways that are much more meaningful. If you live with a manipulator, the already stressful […]