Helping A “Perfect Kid” Not Be So Perfect
Amy: One of the best-kept secrets that even families themselves don’t know, is that kids worry about their parents. And why shouldn’t they? After all, kids depend on the folks for […]
The Dangers of A “Call-Out” Culture
Check out this Opinion piece by David Brooks in today’s New York Times. He critiques the impersonal nature of calling someone out on (anti) social media, where people are often […]
A Psychotherapist Offers Help to Louis C.K.
Check out this thoughtful Opinion piece from today’s New York Times. As a fan of the comic/writer Louis C.K., I’ve been rooting for him to use the personal and public […]
What Real Healing Can Look Like
Check out this lovely Opinion piece by Cyndi Jones from The New York Times. She reminds us that healing is never just a purely personal matter. It’s about relationship.
A Long Marriage Is Many Marriages
Anyone who is married for any length of time knows that the relationship undergoes many transformations in the course of living together. Most of these transformations are unconscious, outside awareness, and often felt as subtle–or not so subtle–tensions between the couple. One of the most profound transformations occurs with the birth of the first child, that magic transition from a two-person to a three-person family. The unconscious contract of the relationship, that subtle “agreement” which binds the couple , undergoes one of the most important stress-tests in the life of the couple. Almost nothing tests the elasticity, the creativity, and the commitment of a couple like the act of becoming parents. Here is a case which shows how painful this test can be.
When Teamwork For A Couple Really Works (Don’t Try This At Home)
Comedian/actor Paul Scheer tells the story of how he and his wife, wanting to be “cool parents”, stepped into a bar with their six-week old son. The new parents wanted […]
Dave Comments On “De-Coding Temper Tantrums”
Dave: I have to take a moment to applaud my good friend and muse, Amy Begel, who has a splendid capacity to wrap complex experiences in words. I am a […]
De-Coding A Child’s Temper Tantrums: It’s A Message For The Family
Parenting advice often describes ways to “manage” a child’s temper tantrums. But temper tantrums, or defiant behavior in kids contain important messages for the parents. Often, without meaning to, kids are responding to underlying tensions in the family. They react in the only way they know how: through their behavior. The message: HELP!
A Woman Saves Her Marriage…Without Even Trying
We talk a lot about how couples “create” each other as a result of ongoing, intimate patterns in the course of a relationship.These patterns are mostly unconscious, meaning outside awareness. And it’s interesting how change happens in a marriage. Mostly it’s the result of some indirect shift in the undercurrents of the relationship, either in the course of life, or sometimes with the help of therapy. It can feel mysterious, and hard to grasp. Sometimes, when one person changes, it can make all the difference. Here is such a case:
The New Movement in Mom-Shaming
In this Opinion piece from today’s New York Times, Kim Brooks talks about the new movement in Mom-Shaming. She recounts her own experience of being stalked and recorded for leaving […]
Divorce Is Part Of Every Marriage
All marriages have divorce built into them. Often, though, we end up re-marrying the same person. This is a powerful–and painful –process necessary for growth, both as a couple and as individuals. In this post, Dave talks about some of the dynamics in marriage that help us understand this universal phase in the life of a couple.
The Problem With “The Perfect Couple”: It Could Spell Trouble For The Kids
Tensions in marriage are normal, and unavoidable. They’re part of the price of intimacy. Problems only occur when these underlying tensions are ongoing, and not acknowledged. They are semi-buried. Children are geniuses at feeling these latent tensions; they often help magnify what hasn’t been addressed. In fact, in their own way, they may be trying to help.
Help For A Shut-Down Man
Therapist Avi Klein wrote about the shame many men feel about their emotions, particularly feelings that expose a sense of vulnerability. We see men like that often in therapy with couples. Here’s a case of how one man allowed himself to be un-masked, and how it transformed the couple’s relationship.
Men in Therapy: Dealing With The #MeToo Movement, and Themselves
In his thoughtful Op-Ed from The New York Times, psychotherapist Avi Klein reflects on the men who come to him for therapy. He says many are grappling with “layers of […]
The Trumpsters: How Language Corrupts Thinking
We write often about the impact of language and how it shapes reality, especially in the psychotherapy setting. Here is an excellent Op-Ed by Timothy Egan about the use of […]
What Kept This Man From Killing Himself
In this beautifully written editorial, Iraq War vet Kevin Powers writes about how, returning from the war, he spent more than a year drowning himself in alcohol, hoping to disappear. […]
