My daughter delivered the news a week ago that my ex-husband’s cancer has mutated and his prognosis is poor. Jack (as he was named in my book, “My View of the Couch “) was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia fifteen years ago, shortly before my own journey with cancer began. He has been stable at …
Last week I wrote a post about the love of a therapist, reflecting on how my love for my patients shows up. I wrote about the grief I am experiencing as retirement is looming on the horizon because I feel my love of a therapist has not been fully tapped into. I feel the love …
It started simply enough. I received a text message from a client I have seen for many years telling me she had just become a grandmother for the second time. I was so happy for her. So why were rivers of tears running down my cheeks? Because the grief was literally hitting me in the …
Relationships are tricky. And they can reflect so much about our childhood experiences and the stories we weaved about ourselves when we were young. The most painful narratives are those stories that tell us we can not be loved just as we are. Instead we tell ourselves the tale that we must be.. .(fill in …
“A good mom”. This was a phrase I have heard many times in many different situations. The message I always heard was that you can fail at many roles in your life, but you should never, ever fail as a mom. That message is so deep in me, it has seeped into my bones. While …
It is Valentine’s Day, again. It is my all-time favorite holiday of the year. A day without the stress of massive preparations or the heavy expectations that come with other mainstream holidays. Yet a day dedicated to the expression of love. And, my dear readers, you know how I LOVE love. But unfortunately, our culture …
Sometimes life is full of differences, especially between people. I see this often in my clinical practice. During a time when my marriage was in trouble, about a decade ago, I was helping couples heal the wounds of a decaying marriage. One day, a client may be excited to share about a shiny new car …
It was like slowly, gently unwrapping a piece of glass that had been stored away for decades. With tears running down her face, my client shared a secret that had been inside since she was a young child. I have been seeing this client for several years and she has made amazing progress on her …
I really, really hate that moment when I meet someone new and they ask me what I do for a living. While I know it is part of the “getting to know you” dance, it calls on me to disclose that I am a therapist. Some of them appear fascinated with gory details about the …
“If I didn’t know what it hurt like to be broken Then how would I know what it feels like to be whole.” I heard those words on the radio during my commute home from the office tonight. The reflection that followed was multidimensional. I thought about my weekend trip to Dallas, Texas to celebrate …
