If you’ve been feeling depressed, anxious, grieving, guilty, or preoccupied with cravings, then you probably tried to reason yourself out of it. You’ve wanted to get your head screwed on right and the clouds cleared from your mind. You believed if you talked to somebody, they could tell you things that might help you feelContinue reading “How Your Body Can Help You Find Peace”
Author Archives: Keith R Wilson
What Is the Meaning of Life?
I have an answer It’s taken humankind thousands of years, but I think I finally have the answer. I know the meaning of life. For many people, questions about the meaning of life get set aside; but, for us therapists, we encounter them every day. Questioning the meaning of life is part of the humanContinue reading “What Is the Meaning of Life?”
Why is it Hard to Talk About Feelings?
You don’t have to be hyper-rational or repressed to have a hard time talking about feelings, you could be emotionally intelligent and still have difficulty. Feelings are hard to talk about. There are simple reasons and deeper, more complex reasons. The simple ones first. Continue reading →
Empathy
And what it’s like to be a bat You could make a meal of a moth, hang upside down and sleep, flap your arms and try to fly, and close your eyes and navigate by sound; but you will never, never really know what it’s like to be a bat. Continue reading →
Metaphorical Feelings
As if understanding feelings wasn’t hard enough, we also have to understand feelings that aren’t really feelings: metaphorical feelings. Continue reading →
Reflections on “In Treatment”: Season 1, Episode 1
Can You Fall in Love with Your Therapist? And what should happen if you do? I heard the critically acclaimed series, In Treatment is coming back this year for a new season, so I thought I’d catch up and see what the excitement is about. It’s an unusual show that’s set entirely in a therapist’sContinue reading “Reflections on “In Treatment”: Season 1, Episode 1”
Why Ask Why?
Sooner or later, if you come to me for therapy, I’ll ask you to put, in a single sentence, your objective in seeing me. I ask this because I want to know how to be successful. I also want you to define your goal. The most common answer I get is something like, “I wantContinue reading “Why Ask Why?”
Frustration
The feeling that detects the impossible. A lot of feelings will draw your attention elsewhere where your attention doesn’t do you any good. The feeling of frustration is this way. When you’re feeling frustrated, your attention is on the object of your frustration when it should be on yourself. Continue reading →
How Stories Can Harm
But they can heal the harm, too If someone pointed a gun to my head and forced me to admit, as a psychotherapist, what my preferred counseling method was, I could not say I was a reflective eclectic. That would get me shot. It’s not really an answer. Instead, I would have to confess thatContinue reading “How Stories Can Harm”
How to Ditch Shame
There’s a way to repair what was damaged. What you’ve got to do is ditch shame. Continue reading →