Category: therapy

Nine Things I’ve Learned

I used to write a lot about trauma and the nature of it largely because I was in the middle of dealing with it.  For me, I would try to get outside of my own traumas and inspect them as if I were looking… Continue Reading “Nine Things I’ve Learned”

Becoming Strong

Today is a momentous day.  I see my mother at noon today for the first time in almost ten years.  At least I think it’s ten years. I have some long-time readers who will know that this is a big deal.  I have many… Continue Reading “Becoming Strong”

Choosing the Healing Path

To bring you up to speed, one of the reasons I started this blog ages ago was to process having a relationship with my mother.  My mother has borderline personality disorder (BPD), but she also has other co-morbid disorders.  When I was growing up,… Continue Reading “Choosing the Healing Path”

Healing Past Trauma in The Present

I have been trying to find an appropriate way to write about a particular “emotional” experience that I have endured for years.  I wouldn’t blog about this were it not for the fact that most survivors of trauma seem to experience something quite similar. … Continue Reading “Healing Past Trauma in The Present”

The Holiday Revisited

My daughters and I did something a bit unusual for us yesterday.  For the first time in my life and henceforth theirs, we did not celebrate Christmas Eve.  When I was married, our family was interfaith in terms of family tradition, and my family… Continue Reading “The Holiday Revisited”

Pushing Back against Malignant Core Beliefs

I want to talk about negative core beliefs and dissonance–and perhaps a way to challenge them effectively.  Bear with me as I get there.  I have written a lot about my last two years in therapy with a neuroscientist.  I didn’t know initially that… Continue Reading “Pushing Back against Malignant Core Beliefs”

A Timely Ending

Jack the New Therapist aka the FNG will be no longer.  It has become a failed collaboration.  That is what my reasonable self says.  My snarky self is pointing at this: Jack has one of the worst Resting Bored Faces I’ve come across.  There are… Continue Reading “A Timely Ending”

Making Changes on Purpose

I saw Jack, my still-feeling-new therapist, on Tuesday, and we had an almost adversarial session.  It didn’t feel therapeutic to me.  I felt as if I were there to challenge his ideas and assumptions of what survivors of trauma look like.  He consistently says,… Continue Reading “Making Changes on Purpose”

That Which Does Make You Stronger

I had an interesting therapy experience yesterday.  Jack is a very different therapist from my previous therapist.  The gap is growing wider forming a gulf that is coming to represent their differences, and I’m missing my former therapist more and more.  Alas, change is… Continue Reading “That Which Does Make You Stronger”

The Prison of Maladaptive Behaviors

I am an independent person by nature.  I was an only child until my mother remarried when I was 11 years-old suddenly making me the youngest of three girls.  My developing personality came to a grinding halt.  I didn’t know my place in my… Continue Reading “The Prison of Maladaptive Behaviors”