Blog
How Childhood Relationships Impact You in Adulthood
During a therapy session, I'll ask specific questions about my clients' relationships with caregivers in childhood and their relationships today as an adult - both with those same caregivers and with others. The reason for paying attention to early childhood...
We All Have a Will Smith (and Chris Rock) Inside Us
After hearing and watching the infamous “slap” by Will Smith during the Oscars this year, I had quite a few thoughts rushing to my mind. But, of course, most of those thoughts have already been discussed and written about extensively in the media. But one...
How to Find Hope in Adversity
In last week’s post, I talked about how I build hope during difficult times. In summary, I try to do three things: Put effort into finding hope Spend time with hopeful people Embrace uncertainty In today’s post, I want to explore point #1 - putting...
How I Build Hope in Difficult Times
Just as people worldwide start to return to some normalcy in life, I'm coming across headlines indicating there could be another wave of COVID infections. Added to this are continued news stories about the war in Ukraine. And let's not forget about the...
Why Habits are More Important than Goals
Last week, it felt rewarding to finally announce the release of my book, The Promise Wheel. It took me a while to get the book complete and ready for publication. But now that it’s launched, the feeling of accomplishment is greater than I imagined. I mentioned...
It’s Finally Here!!!
Well, it's finally here and out into the world! My book, The Promise Wheel: Psychology for Growth and a Balanced Life is now available on Amazon!!! As most of you will know, this book has been a long time coming. I started working on this project back in...
How I’m Practicing Acceptance During the Ukraine War
Although my day-to-day thoughts and feelings continue to be strongly influenced by the war in Ukraine, I do find myself getting better at accepting them. The ideas I’m using to help me in this regard come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Acceptance...
How I’m Trying to Stay Grounded During the Ukraine War
Over the last week, it's been impossible for me not to read, watch, or think about the war in Ukraine. And when I do think about the war, it leads to dreadful thoughts and images in my mind and heavy, uncomfortable sensations in my body. But I'm sure the physiological...
How Culture Impacts the Way we Measure Intelligence
February is Black History Month, and for my last post of the month, I wanted to highlight a Black psychologist who made a significant contribution to the field of psychology. Robert Williams II (1930 - 2020) When I was an undergraduate at the University...
Building a Relationship? You Need to Feel This
Last weekend, my five-year-old twins were busy writing out Valentine's Day cards for their classmates. As I watched them write, I smiled as I read the messages on the cards. "You're special to me." "Thanks for being my Valentine's." "A sweet card for a sweet person."...
What to do When You Relapse on Goals
The reality is that no one, or at least no one I’ve ever met, succeeds at reaching their goals the very first time around. Relapse is a Normal Part of Change Whether you’re a world-class athlete, a psychologist, the CEO of a major company, or a rock...
Doing the Hard Work of Change
So, you’ve been thinking about change (Stages 1 and 2). You’ve even created a plan to prepare yourself for what you need to do (Stage 3). But after all the contemplation and planning, what happens next? Action and Maintenance: The ‘Doing’ of Change...
