April 10, 2012
Happy Valentine’s Day
Will this Valentine’s Day be a happy one for you? It seems to me that holiday pressure keeps mounting and I’m not sure why. Perhaps as American families become more fractured through divorce and increased geographic distance intimate family celebrations and ritual become less common and cultural ones are filling that gap. A generation ago [...]
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April 8, 2012
Teenagers and Sex. What’s Love Got to Do With It?
I work with teenagers as a psychologist. I have my ear to the ground and hear their most intimate secrets. I listen to the struggles of both young men and women. When therapy works, it is a safe place where even the most intimate fears and behaviors can be disclosed. Sex is one of the [...]
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March 24, 2012
Afraid in the Garden of Good and Evil-When People You Love Hurt You
I was struck by an article written by columnist David Brooks in the March 19th New York Times, “When the Good do Bad.” This is a theme I often come across in my work as a psychologist. Brooks was writing about Sergeant Bales, the man accused of murdering 17 people in Afghanistan. Brooks writes of [...]
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March 13, 2012
What’s Happening to our Soldiers
Terrible news came from Afghanistan today about an American soldier slaughtering civilians. This is a tragedy for the victims, a tragedy for this soldier and his family and an event that will have an impact on the Sergeant’s unit, his commanders and the American military and public. Stories continue to come out of the military [...]
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February 28, 2012
Insanely Beautiful
Stop it! I can’t take any more!! I think this is all going in the wrong direction. What happened to Women’s Liberation that was supposed to free us from constraints and stereotypes? What happened to the good old days of women going without bras and shaving our legs? For a very brief time a significant [...]
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February 11, 2012
Happy Valentine’s Day
Will this Valentine’s Day be a happy one for you? It seems to me that holiday pressure keeps mounting and I’m not sure why. Perhaps as American families become more fractured through divorce and increased geographic distance intimate family celebrations and ritual become less common and cultural ones are filling that gap. A generation ago [...]
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January 15, 2012
Perfectionism or What’s Wrong with Being Too Good?
One of the most challenging issues I confront in people who seek my help is perfectionism. These are people with very high standards who continually work to meet their goals-admirable qualities most would agree. When it is extreme, however, the relentless pursuit of achievement can lead to a great deal of misery for the individual [...]
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January 6, 2012
New Year, New Emotions
How about challenging yourself in the New Year to learn how to manage difficult emotions better? Are there really any other developments that could make this a better year for you? The big three are anxiety, depression and anger. All three can be very healthy and appropriate but when they are excessive or [...]
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December 24, 2011
Anger and Depression
Depression is a greatly misunderstood condition that affects millions of people. A better understanding of depression can help people to recognize and take action as early as possible. The longer someone suffers from depression the more entrenched the condition can become, making treatment and recovery more difficult. The most common picture most people have of [...]
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