…because thriving is the goal
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
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”
After almost a year of grad school perhaps one might expect to feel like this: Sometimes, however, I swear the doctors are looking at me like this ::cough::Dr. Hong::cough:: I suppose it goes with the territory. Humility and feeling completely inadequate are better traits… Continue Reading “The Significance of Being Seen”
I’ll be honest. I miss my old Therapist. Jack the FNG (“friendly” New Guy) is so different. He’s a much younger PhD. He feels like a grad student. Yeah. That young. He’s growing a beard now. He’s really tall. Fit. And very subdued. In… Continue Reading “The FNG Asks about Sex”
Two weeks ago, I said goodbye to my therapist of two and half years. I didn’t know he was leaving until three weeks before his final week. He just dropped it on me during session: “So, I will be leaving. I will no longer… Continue Reading “Therapy in Pictures”
I walked into my therapist’s office in March 2015 with a mind to figure out what was wrong with my marriage and, thereby, me. I told him that I knew something was happening to me that was probably not good, but, seeing that I… Continue Reading “How to Grow Up Again”