Perhaps it might be true to say that at its core psychotherapy provides an environment for change through the experience of recognizing that there is help out there. That might be the best synonym for psychotherapy: help on the way. Often people who come to therapy come from histories where that was not the case. […]
Old-fashioned Listening
Call me old-fashioned. I just think that someone’s best friend should be another human being (closely followed by a dog; sorry cat lovers). So you can imagine my reaction to an article in the SF Chronicle focusing on an app designed to be someone’s best friend. While many of my clients use apps for meditation, […]
Stand Up Against Hatred
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” President Barack Obama quoting from […]
Amazement
There are many times when I am just amazed by what we do – my clients and me. What we do in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. I think “amazed” is the right word. We affirm that there is a place, amidst this swirling, busy and often chaotic world, to sit (sometimes lay on the psychoanalytic couch) […]
A Call for Action on Health Care Now
I’m writing this quick blog in response to the blazing speed by which the United State Senate is moving to pass health care legislation that will decimate care that our neediest citizens receive and at the same time increase wealth inequity in our country so that the wealthiest become wealthier. There is no more pressing […]
Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
Recently I came across a short article that clearly articulates some of the main differences between psychotherapeutic approaches that I offer. The article from Psychology Today, The Difference Between Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, addresses basic difference between the two approaches and in the process gives a good, albeit broad, summary of both. I’d like to include […]
Climate Change: June 1, 2017 was a Sad Day.
Given the shocking news, but at the same time not unexpected, at least not for this president who continues to be obsessed to undermine any of the advancements of the last president, that the U.S. will pull out of the Paris agreements on climate change, I want to reproduce below excerpts from an article written […]
Climate Change: “One of the Central Psychological Problems of Our Lifetime”
Consider, too, a 2015 Department of Defense report, which framed climate change as a geopolitical “threat multiplier” that will “threaten domestic stability in a number of countries,” and cited a study showing how a five-year drought in Syria contributed to the outbreak of the current conflict there. Nonetheless, denial is coming back in fashion among […]
On Psychoanalysis: The Personal is Still Political
From time to time, I like to blog about psychoanalysis as a way of introducing people to this fascinating and effective means of delving deeper into oneself. While this form of psychotherapy requires more of a commitment of time, energy and resources than other types, it can offer more as well. Although it has changed […]
Climate Change Now
When I blog, I usually write about psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. I like to think about this means by which (usually) two people address the issues that are bothering one of them. I like to think about what is really happening when two people sit down to talk at an appointed regular time in such an […]