Almost everyone knows someone who has been in counseling, but that doesn’t mean they’ve talked openly about what the experience was like. If you’ve never had therapy and haven’t been talking to the people in your life who have, you’ve probably got some preconceived ideas about what it will be like, from movies and TV. As a therapist, I’d like… Continue Reading »
Forgiveness, Part 1: Forgiving Others
By Dana Donahue, LCSW Love and forgiveness is not for the fainthearted.—Meher Baba What is forgiveness? The formal definition of forgive is to stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for an offense, flaw, or mistake. We hear this word so often as being the key to living a happy life, but how can we achieve something that we don’t… Continue Reading »
The Opportunity of Discomfort
Thinking we can find lasting pleasure and avoid pain is what keeps us miserable, caught in a hopeless cycle of suffering–Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart All of us on some level wish we could escape emotional pain. While we may not use these exact words, what many of us are saying is: I want to escape from the emotions… Continue Reading »
Getting Unstuck
By Felicity Dineen, LPC Have you ever had the thought, “I feel stuck”? If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky. This is a very familiar and common feeling for a lot of people. Whether it be in a relationship, a job, a city, or any other situation, feeling stuck can happen at any point in one’s life. Many times this feeling… Continue Reading »
Making It Through Your First Breakup
I remember sitting in my office one evening as a young woman told me about her recent breakup. She said, “He is the one who ended things. And I don’t want to be that girl who can’t get over it, but people keep telling me I need to move on. Everyone assumes that our love was shallow, and so the… Continue Reading »
How to Identify Passive-Aggressive Behavior
By Marilee Feldman, LCPC, CADC Most people who come to me for counseling—whether it’s for anxiety, depression, relationship concerns, substance abuse, or stress management—are on some level dealing with a shame issue, a pervasive or occasionally triggered sense of not being good enough. Shame is part of the human condition; we all have it to some one degree or another…. Continue Reading »