Counselor, Author, and Reflective Eclectic
Anger, fear, sadness, hopelessness, joy, hope, gratitude, back to anger, fear, and sadness, in no particular order and sometimes all together, at once. When your relationship is in trouble, you’re on an emotional roller coaster. Let’s take a step away and look at what emotions are and what, if anything, we can do about them.Continue reading “Emotions: Do You Have a Choice?”
If you thought the Pixar movie, Inside Out, was pretty cool, you should also know that its depiction of the inner life of the mind closely follows most current psychological thinking about the way things work. Most current thinking, that is.Continue reading “Inside Out Inside Out”
I’d like to interrupt whatever else you might be doing, to remind you to check your dashboard; you’ll find there almost all the information you need to keep things running smoothly.
No, I don’t mean the dashboard in your car, although you should be checking that regularly, as well; I mean your body’s dashboard. You can see it when you look within. A lot of problems you might have with yourself can easily be explained by a quick look at your dashboard. Feeling anxious? Feeling depressed? Look at the dashboard; it might tell you why and what you can do about it. Are you cranky and irritable; do you just want to kick someone’s ass? Look at your own dashboard before you blame other people and their behavior. Is your work suffering from some kind of a block; is everything just harder for you now than it was an hour ago? Check the dashboard. Do you believe you need a drink or want scarf down great quantities of food? Yup, you guessed it; check the dashboard before you open the fridge.
Let’s go over all the gauges on the dashboard and you’ll see what I mean.Continue reading “Check your Dashboard”
The other day, someone invited me to sign the Citizen Therapist Manifesto. This is a petition, already signed by thousands of therapists, expressing their alarm at the candidacy of Donald Trump, which they see as a threat to the well-being of their clients. Do you want to know if I signed it? I might just tell you at the end of this post.Continue reading “The Shrink’s Links:The Citizen Therapist Manifesto”
The Gervais Principle, named after Ricky Gervais, the creator of The Office, and coined by Venkatesh Rao, of the not as popular blog, Ribbonfarm, states that at the top of any organization are sociopaths, at the bottom are losers, and in the middle are the clueless.
In case that isn’t self-evident to you, let me explain. Continue reading “The Shrink’s Links: The Gervais Principle”
If you were hurt by someone you love, it’s important to get real about the injury and account for all the damages inflicted: the common money the compulsive gambler spent, the trust the adulterer squandered, the confidence the abusive parent wrecked. It’s equally important to note the damages that were not done, the parts of you that are untouched by your misfortune, and qualities of yours that may even be strengthened.Continue reading “What Can’t Be Hurt”
I hope you have met, at least once in your life, someone who can break it down and tell you how it is; someone who brings out the best in you, with an unerring moral compass, and can give you a good swift kick in the ass when you you need it. Apparently, the Honorable Frank Szymanski, of the Juvenile Court of Detroit, is such a person. Good thing; Detroit needs it.
The question is: Can a good swift kiss in the ass be effectively delivered by book? Judge Szymanski certainly tries in, Identity Design: Design the Identity You Need to Get the Life You Want.Continue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Identity Design”
The wind stopped blowing and the sky looks nice, but, if this is a hurricane, you may be passing through the eye of the storm. The earthquake has struck, but watch for aftershocks. You’ve had a minor stroke, but is a major one coming along? If your loved one did something to hurt you and you have assessed the damage, there is another thing to take into account. Is he still doing it?Continue reading “Has the Hurt Ended?”
Bringing you the best of mental health every week.Day One is a simple way to journal.
It’s easy to quickly enter your thoughts and memories and have them synced and backed up in the cloud.
Day One is well designed and extremely focused to encourage you to write more.
If you were in a car accident and sued the person at fault, you would go to court and describe the accident to establish culpability, of course; but, at some point, the judge would ask you what it cost to fix your car. The judge is asking for a monetary figure so she can fix an amount that would make it better. Any court I ever knew about requires that there be damages if you are trying to sue.
This is not a court and there is no judge, but if you were hurt by someone close to you, and the want to settle the matter, you have to assess the damages. How would you know how to settle it, if you didn’t? Assessing the damages might lead you to conclude that no harm was done. The matter might be easy to conclude, then. If there was some harm, establishing just what it was may help you in deciding how the person can make amends. So, what is the nature of the suffering you have had to endure?Continue reading “Assessing the Damage”
Keith Wilson - Counseling